THE SPY WITH THE GOLDEN CHIP

Now James Bond has managed to find his way on to the 48K Spectrum in an adventure game called Shaken but not Stirred. The game is in two parts. In the first part a nuclear missile is abducted and the player, James Bond, must find and disarm it.

The first section of the game is a chase round the world, where Bond is threatened by spies, attacked by muggers and invited into taxis for secret meetings. At various points clues, in the form of anagrams, are given to the player to indicate where Dr Death's hideout is located. Once you have found that you can load part two of the game and visit Dr Death's island.

You must explore the island and attempt to discover the secret entrance to Dr Death's underwater hide-away. If you find it you will find yourself in a three-dimensional maze. You must find the control room and de-activate the deadly weapon.

To add to your troubles in the maze, a villain called Paws will stalk you and try to kill you. If you manage to find the control room and de-activate the missile, you must rush to London for your favourite drink, a Vodka Martini.

The game is a fast-moving, machine code adventure but stage one can be slightly monotonous as it is all too easy to be killed. There are also random elements in the game which hamper the planning of strategy.

Shaken but not Stirred is available from Richard Shepherd Software, 22 Green Leys, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 7EZ. It costs £6.50.

The 48K Spectrum rather than the cinema is the venue for the latest James Bond epic. In Richard Shepherd Software's 'Shaken but not stirred' you play the part of 007 sent on a dangerous mission to disarm a nuclear missile, which has been stolen by the dastardly Dr. Death. Having been briefed by M and after selecting your weapons from the range that Q has to offer, you set out on your adventure.

In the first stage, you must travel the world and try to stay alive long enough to gather sufficient clues to identify the island on which Dr. Death has his base. Muggers, midgets and priests are out to get you, and you will also have to cope with offers of mysterious meetings, unidentified packages and suspicious bowls of fruit. As long as you don't do it too often, you can return to London to replenish your strength and restock your personal armoury.

If you manage to find the island, you go on to the second stage in which you have to discover the entrance to Dr. Death's underwater lair. The locations on the island are logically connected (although different for each game) so you can build up a map. The sea, beach, woods and plantation all hold their own special terrors which attack without warning as you move around. If you run out of weapons with which to beat off the attentions of sharks, wolves and scorpions, then you will have to resort to brute force, which leads to a rapid reduction in strength. There is no going back to London so it is important to try and discover the secret stock of benzedrine which restores your strength. I don't remember James Bond ever taking drugs (apart from the occasional Mickey Finn!) and I'm not sure it's the sort of idea that should be incorporated in a game.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

I never managed to find the lair, but if I had I would have been confronted with a 10 by 10 room maze, displayed three dimensionally on the screen. Somewhere in it is the control room with the warhead, and also Paws, the steel fisted baddie who is too strong to fight against, and so must be avoided at all costs. Movement is by using the cursor controls, and you can also get a map of the maze, but this is displayed for just 10 seconds and can only be used three times. If you find the control room, you then face a mastermind-type puzzle to crack the secret code which defuses the bomb. And if you manage that then I think you deserve a vodka martini - shaken not stirred, of course!

This is the best program I've seen from Richard Shepherd, and there is certainly plenty of it. The game can be SAVEd, but once restored cannot be SAVEd again. I think it's a shame that all the graphics are left for the last section, which is very hard to reach. Little use is made of sound and rather too much use is made of the RND function for me to be hooked.

'Shaken but not stirred' is priced £5.50 and is available from Richard Shepherd Software, Freepost, Maidenhead, Berks, SL6 5BY.

At last a realistic 007 adventure! The mode of play is quite different from most Adventure games, successfully recreating the world of James Bond on a computer.

You are 007, of course, and M takes you to Q to choose your weapons.

You then repeatedly select destinations from a list of cities around the world and the micro takes you there.

On arrival you may be offered a ride by a mysterious taxi, or given clues in the form of one letter of an anagram to enable you to solve where a missing jet with a nuclear bomb has disappeared to.

Meanwhile, you must save London from a threat of destruction by Dr. Death.

An original presentation. from Richard Shepherd Software of Maidenhead, with authentic 'feel' of a James Bond novel. It costs £6.50.