BEYOND EL DORADO - Zenobi Software RRP œ2.99 (Spectrum text adventure, emulated on PC, ST or Amiga) A review of the game on the PC by David Froude At the start of the game you receive a letter from an old tribal chief who has heard of your aptitude in solving adventures. He has written to ask for your help in finding an heirloom which will unlock the door to a vast treasure room which will bring great wealth to his impoverished people. With such a letter how can you refuse. The old chief must have got it wrong as far as I am concerned as I usually need some help in solving the some of the puzzles I encounter in adventure games. Still perhaps he is writing to one you more experienced adventurers out there. The adventure is written by Laurence Creighton and requires a Spectrum emulator for it to run on the PC. The 280 emulator is supplied on the disk so the game comes as a complete package. The emulator is a Shareware version with a number of features disabled but this causes no problems with running the adventure. A quick start file is included on the disk and if you are unfamiliar with the 280 emulator it is well worth scanning these instructions which will give some basic information on running the emulator, including loading the game, saving and restoring. The game can be copied across onto a hard disk and I found that it works equally well from both floppy and hard disk. I ran the game using Windows95, clicking on the Z80 icon, and it ran perfectly. I used the snapshot to save and restore the game during my review. This works OK but to use the "tape" option save and restore to disk you will need to be a registered user of the Z80 emulator. The game is text only but it contains all the old nostalgia of the 80's Spectrum games. Game play is by typing in most of the normal commands we are all familiar with such as north, south, east, west in, out, examine and so on. You commence at a crossroads and have a choice of four directions which after a number of moves lead you to ..... and ..... where there are items to pick up to help in solving the problems encountered during the gameplay. As a text only game it's essential you enter the correct words in the correct sequence. Typing "help" will provide help for "those who cannot think for themselves" and this help sheet is available after the 100th move. Further help is available later in the game if you need it. The location descriptions are brief but adequate to identify where you are and any significant features, objects and directions of movement. Descriptions of objects are sufficient and change whenever an object is modified. I am quite happy with the short descriptions for I like to get on with the game and solve the puzzles. It's a long time since I have played an adventure for the spectrum but the response on the PC is very fast but again this may depend upon the PC processor. To sum up, if you still have a place in your heart for the Sinclair Spectrum, like text games, puzzles and a verbal challenge you should enjoy this game. Contact Zenobi at 26 Spotland Tops, Cutgate, Rochdale, Lancs OL12 7NX - o -