THE PRISONER
Spoof Software
Memory: 48K
Price: £5.50 inc p&p

Survivors of the 60s will remember the excitement generated by the first showing of The Prisoner.

The recent rerun of the series has recruited new worshippers for an already popular cult and it's no surprise that there is now a computer adventure based on the show.

The game is set in the strange village where the inhabitants are known only by their numbers. Naturally enough you take on the role of Number 6 and former spy. Should you try to escape by building a boat? All the materials are there. Should you try to fathom the dark secret behind the village?

Enigmas sprout like mushrooms and you may find it difficult to grasp some of them if you have never seen the films. Some knowledge of the chaotic plot will certainly be to your advantage.

The program is written with the Quill but uses some graphics for the locations and this brightens the presentation considerably. Response time is fast but there seemed to be far too many 'I can'ts' in the replies and an unnecessarily limited vocabulary - a bottle of whisky could not be reached by entering 'get bottle', only by using 'whisky'. It is available from Spoof, at 58 Railway Road, Urmston, Manchester M31 1XT.

Many of the smaller software companies cannot afford large advertisements and tend to go relatively unnoticed. That doesn't mean that their Adventure games are necessarily inferior, as I discovered when I played The Prisoner, from Spoof Software.

The Prisoner is based the television series of the same name and many of the locations in it will be instantly recognisable to followers of the programmes.

The character you assume is No. 6, surely the most famous number ever! You wake up in a village - really a high security prison for ex-secret-service personnel, to ensure they don't spill the beans! From your room, you progress outside where you see many weird things - a statue, a rock boat and a taxi to nowhere!

The first real problem is to overcome your hunger which develops to fatality after 30 moves. Not a brilliantly original trap, but its saving grace is a nearby restaurant where, during the course of a meal, you may come across the Book of the Village. Reading this transports you to some very original problems based on various episodes in the series. On the way to your goal, you are confronted with such things as exploding cricket balls and poisoned ale.

The Prisoner has been written using the Quill plus the new Illustrator. The graphics produced with the Illustrator are just simple line drawings which do not add to the game and, like most Adventures with graphics, a larger vocabulary would have been preferable! On the other hand, good use is made of colour and sound and a new character set has been created.

I can recommend this as a well thought out and well written game. I hope to see more from Spoof soon!

The Prisoner is for the 48K Spectrum priced £5.50, including postage and packing, and in case you have difficulty in locating Spoof they are at 58 Railway Road, Urmston, Manchester M31 1XT.