KINGDOM O' MAGIC Played on a PC by Peter Clark This is really three games in one as there are three quests that you can undertake. The first is the "Good Old Traditional Quest" the second is the "Magnificent 7-11 Quest" and the third is the "Bizarre and Slightly Twisted Quest." Each quest can be undertaken by either of two characters, a dragon like creature called Thidny or a Lara Croft lookalike called Sha-Ron. I haven't finished the game yet but have started the "Good Old Traditional Quest" with Sha-Ron. You start the game in the town of Flake Town where you find among other things, an inn, a disco, a wig maker, a hairdresser and a shop that hires costumes. You will also find an old granny in a rocking chair looking after a child in a bird cage. Throughout the game other characters wander about and you soon learn which ones are helpful and which are just a plain nuisance. The game is played on a night / day basis and some places can only be successfully visited at one time. To give you some idea of the humour in the game, the night sky falls down the back of the screen as night falls and the night sky is broken by a large ball on a chain as day breaks! I found the first part of the game quite easy and it served to lead you into the game which gradually got more difficult as time went on. The hairdresser is a complete Julian Clarey takeoff which had me in stitches and the poser in the disco, from whom you have to get the gold medallion, is good for a few laughs also. The innkeeper has to be spoken to carefully unless you want to get a punch in the mouth for your troubles. This kind of action will result in your strength level being decreased and, when you reach zero, you die. You can return to full strength by sleeping for a night in one of the inns but this will cost you money so you will have to replenish your stock of gold coins by either finding them or taking them from other characters. There are also many spells that you can either find or take from others. Out in the lake there is a water mill where a mad baker has been put for doing strange things with his baking mixture. He is referred to in the game as Doe-nut. I have managed to get the ferryman to take me there but always get killed in the bakery! I have explored quite a bit of the game but there are still many locations that I have found it impossible to enter for a variety of reasons; mainly finishing up dead as a result of upsetting another character. There is a king and queen living up a tree. The king is looking for some ice for his drink but, as yet, I have been unable to help him. There is a Gorgon in a cave where I have yet to find a way of escaping death. It is impossible to list all of the locations in this review as there are so many. The box tells me that there 105. A few of the more corny ones that I have found are, "The Bearing Downs", "Rivendull", "The Kalibre Pass", "Moronica", "Dimwit Dale" and Rhite-Gard" At various times during the game you hear the voice of a narrator and sometimes the display switches over to his office. He is extremely sarcastic with his remarks and if you try to pick up something that you shouldn't you will most likely get some sarcastic comment as to why you shouldn't take it. On the Bakers Island I examined a wooden post and the resulting discourse on the life of the tree from being an acorn to being chopped down and made into a post took several minutes. It served no useful purpose either! There is a long way for me to go in the game and I am barely scratching the surface of the puzzles within it but, with three quests to perform, it is well worth a try especially if you have a slightly twisted sense of humour. Watch out for the spiders! The game is published by Sci and I have seen it at very reasonable prices in local shops. It needs very little technology for it to run in VGA with 256 colours. Only 10Mb memory, 2X speed CDROM and it will run under Dos 5.0 or higher. It is SoundBlaster compatible and uses a mouse. The instructions say that it is your own choice of finger! - o -