Producer: Artic, 48K
£6.95
Author: Simon Wadsworth

Adventure 'E' is the latest from Artic and its title card explains this text only adventure very well - a large mansion, a ship and a mountainous island in the distance. Looks easy until you start. The object is to find 13 secret objects, find a safe place to store them in and do this through tons of locations. Finding a key can be hard enough, but the key you need near the start of this game is hidden in a very obvious place - so obvious you would never think of looking there until you sneezed after sniffing the - no I musn't give any secrets away. Absorbing!

Producer: Artic, 48K
£6.95
Author: Simon Wadsworth

Adventure 'E' is the latest from Artic and its title card explains this text only adventure very well - a large mansion, a ship and a mountainous island in the distance. Looks easy until you start. The object is to find 13 secret objects, find a safe place to store them in and do this through tons of locations. Finding a key can be hard enough, but the key you need near the start of this game is hidden in a very obvious place - so obvious you would never think of looking there until you sneezed after sniffing the - no I musn't give any secrets away. Absorbing!

Producer: Artic, 48K
£6.95
Author: Simon Wadsworth

Adventure 'E' is the latest from Artic and its title card explains this text only adventure very well - a large mansion, a ship and a mountainous island in the distance. Looks easy until you start. The object is to find 13 secret objects, find a safe place to store them in and do this through tons of locations. Finding a key can be hard enough, but the key you need near the start of this game is hidden in a very obvious place - so obvious you would never think of looking there until you sneezed after sniffing the - no I musn't give any secrets away. Absorbing!

The Golden Apple is the fifth of Artic Computing's adventure games and the first to include colour and sound. The program begins with a colourful picture of the main locations of the adventure, a mansion house, a ship and a mountainous island.

The plot is simple - you are on quest to find The Golden Apple and on the way you must find thirteen treasures and a safe place in which to deposit them. This is not the kind of adventure where you are killed in every second location and meet strange monsters round every comer. Rather, it is a test of skill, insight and ingenuity. You will find yourself seeking water to fill a watering can to water seeds or fishing for salmon (assuming you find the net) and be left puzzling over the unpleasant crocodile.

The program understands over one hundred and fifty words and although a fairly standard textual adventure, it contains three new features for Artic. By requesting instructions you are given a page of useful hints including some of the key words and advice on which abbreviated entries are acceptable. Requesting help produces the message "What and spoil your fun!" followed by Artic's address and the promise of a crib sheet if you really get stuck. Asking for your score not only produces an update on the treasure position but gives you a rating out of one hundred and tells you the number of turns you've had so far. The latter might seem a nice but irrelevant touch but it isn't as I soon discovered.

The whole point of adventure games is to explore new worlds and use your wits to survive, finding uses for the various objects you see lying around. This is a high quality adventure game which more than fulfills this aim. It is for the experienced adventurer only, if you are an adventure game enthusiast it is certainly one worth considering adding to your collection. It is for the 48K Spectrum at £6.95 and the ZX81 at £5.95. Like all Artic adventures so far, The Golden Apple is completely machine code and includes a save routine. Two hints: beware of sunset and don't be tempted by the nice soft bed!

The Artic Adventures A to D have a wide following among Spectrum and ZX owners, possibly because they were among the first in the field for the Spectrum. It was with interest that I took the plunge into Golden Apple, next in the Artic series.

Golden Apple is quite different from the Ship of Doom, Espionage Island format. To start with, it is displayed as coloured text on a black background - giving it a different look from the black on yellow of the others.

Secondly, it is treasure-orientated rather than mission-orientated, except that to complete the game you must find the Apple.

Something about the game struck me as familiar. The instructions mention that the computer will be your puppet, and that you must collect and store 13 treasures.

When I reached a place telling me to drop treasures and type SCORE, I did, and was rewarded with the reply "You have stored 1 treasure. On a scale of 0 to 100 that rates 8". Now where have I seen that before?

A coincidence, no doubt. After all, if an infinite number of Adventure programmers write an infinite number of adventure games...!

The game had a fast response, and a number of single key commands made moving around simple and quick.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be no identifiable theme to the game. The treasures I did find seemed to give themselves up fairly easily, and for no apparent reason.

Who would suspect that a Silver Bar was lurking in a log, and would reveal itself when the log was chopped? And would you really expect to find an axe up a free?

No - any similarity in wording to other Adventures is not reflected in brilliance of plot.

My verdict? Well written and worded, and pleasant to play, although lacking in artistry. Not necessarily quick to complete, but easy to get in to, and therefore perhaps a useful and rewarding Adventure for the novice.

Golden Apple
From Artic Computing for the 48K Spectrum @ £6.95 and 16K ZX81 @ £5.95