Producer: New Generation, 16K
£4.95

Perhaps the most beautiful looking game yet for the Spectrum. Escape pits you against a 3D maze seen from slightly above so the horizontal pathways are obscured by the hedges. Somewhere in there is the key to the exit. As you enter a monster shoots in and homes in on you inexorably. Get the key and he speeds up. Get out and you're back with a maze and two monsters. Five levels and a 'no win' situation. It's depressing! One of the most panicky games we've seen. Joystick: Kempsoft II. Recommended.

Producer: New Generation, 16K
£4.95

Perhaps the most beautiful looking game yet for the Spectrum. Escape pits you against a 3D maze seen from slightly above so the horizontal pathways are obscured by the hedges. Somewhere in there is the key to the exit. As you enter a monster shoots in and homes in on you inexorably. Get the key and he speeds up. Get out and you're back with a maze and two monsters. Five levels and a 'no win' situation. It's depressing! One of the most panicky games we've seen. Joystick: Kempsoft II. Recommended.

Producer: New Generation, 16K
£4.95

Perhaps the most beautiful looking game yet for the Spectrum. Escape pits you against a 3D maze seen from slightly above so the horizontal pathways are obscured by the hedges. Somewhere in there is the key to the exit. As you enter a monster shoots in and homes in on you inexorably. Get the key and he speeds up. Get out and you're back with a maze and two monsters. Five levels and a 'no win' situation. It's depressing! One of the most panicky games we've seen. Joystick: Kempsoft II. Recommended.

Memory Required: 16K
Price: £4.95

Escape from New Generation Software is a variation on the maze theme which involves escaping from dinosaurs. The dinosaurs - brontosauri, pterodactyls and such like - pursue the player's character with considerable animation through the maze which is shown in bird's-eye view.

At the time when the software market for the ZX 81 was really beginning to take off, one of the tapes which gained the most critical acclaim (and is still a best seller) was the 3-D Monster Maze from J.K Greye software. It may be a different company this year but the author is the same. Escape, from New Generation Software, is based upon the aforementioned Monster Maze, but this time the required hardware is a ZX Spectrum (16K).

Once again, there is a monster involved; once again, the player is trying to escape from the monster; once again, there is just one way out. This, however, is where the similarity with the former game ends.

When the tape has loaded the instructions appear on the screen along with a preliminary warning about the dangers which the player is about to face. The computer then asks you to select a level of difficulty from the scale one to five. Upon pressing a number the game starts.

Lo and behold, you are presented with a slightly angular aerial view of the maze with a high resolution version of your good self in the bottom right-hand corner, raring to be manoeuvered away by the usual cursor direction keys. In the top left-hand corner is the maze exit. All you've got to do is get from the bottom right-hand corner to the top left. Simple, isn't it?

You're right - it isn't that simple. To get out of the exit you need the axe which is hidden somewhere within the maze. And then, of course, there is the added danger of the tyrannosaurus rex who can be aided, according to whether or not you attempt difficulty levels two to five, by either one, two, three or four of his beastly companions who include a flying pterodactyl in their ugly band.

This is not, as it may sound, a jump on the Pacman' bandwagon but rather an original and absorbing game which can become extremely difficult and frustrating.

Escape, priced at £5.95, is available from New Generation Software, Freepost, Oldland Common, Bristol BS15 6BR.

The first of the 3D maze games. The player runs around a maze trying to pick up an axe in order to escape while being pursued by up to five dinosaurs. Level five of the game is the most difficult as a pterodactyl is brought to life and flaps alarmingly around the pathways in search of its quarry.

Escape was one of the first Spectrum games to be produced but still retains its excellence two years later. It is a legend among Spectrum owners who remember that far back and is still a favourite with author Malcolm Evans.

Position 25/50

AMAZING ESCAPES IN 3D

You are trapped in a maze which looks slightly like Hampton Court maze. There are several hungry monsters on the prowl waiting for you to give them a quick snack to satisfy their meaner instincts. If you bump into one of the creatures from the prehistoric age while running around the maze your life will not be worth two flint axeheads. That is how a new game for the 16K Spectrum, Escape, begins.

The most amazing thing about the game is the graphics. The screen shows a three-dimensional overview of a maze. You must control the little man at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen with the cursor control keys. The purpose is to wander around the maze to find and pick up an axe. Once you have found the axe you can break down the door of the maze and escape. To do that you must also keep out of the jaws of the monsters.

The maze is generated randomly at the beginning of each game.

The game was written by the author of the J K Greye 3D Monster Maze and is one of the best and most original games we have seen for the Spectrum so far.

Escape is available from New Generation Software, 16 Brendon Close, Oldland Common, Bristol, BS15 6QE.