Enigma Variations
£10.99

Good grief! A real, honest to goodness, commercial text/graphics adventure! Hurrah! Who needs those fancy film and arcade licences, eh? Not when you've got Enid Blyton on your side, chaps. Oh, and the Famous Five, of course.

Five on a Treasure Island is an engaging adventure that includes some intriguing character handling, using a system called Worldscape. The game begins when Julian, Anne and Dick travel to Uncle Quentin and Aunt Fanny's house (what was Enid thinking of when she created these characters?!). This is the very first Five adventure so they've yet to meet George, the tomboy girl, and her dog, Timmy. From there they worm their way onto treasure island, full of stereotyped villains and secret caves.

The game world is dynamic which means events move on while you wait. I'm not a big fan of this type of wandering character system; it doesn't present realism - just an impression of a game full of aimless manic zombies.

You can TELL and SAY things to characters as well as ASKing them ABOUT things. Characters have their own special facets so you can ask a character to perform an action you might not be capable of.

You can also BECOME any of the Famous Five (except the dog). Each character has their own advantages: Julian is strong while George is the best swimmer. You can even split the Five up to explore several directions at once and this is essential to solve some of the problems.

The parser is up to modern standards with linked sentences using AND, THEN and commas. Prepositions can be used to alter the meaning of verbs, and group commands such as ALL and EVERYTHING are included.

During play, the screen is divided into two sections. The upper portion of the screen contains all descriptions, messages and graphics, which pop up for selected locations. They're very well drawn and appear instantly on-screen - pretty good going for graphics of this complexity. The lower section is the text input area.

Highlights and criticisms fall upon the parser. When you can't examine something, the word EXAM is automatically displaced, ready for you to EXAMine something else - very thoughtful and user-friendly. But the parser doesn't understand some basic words included in the location descriptions although memory restrictions may be a factor here.

Criticisms apart, this is a well produced game with lots of imaginative production techniques. Let's hope there are some more Famous Five games on the way, eh?

Enigma
£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: Linda Barker

What a life! Imagine spending all summer quaffing ginger beer and bathing in clear blue seas. After lunch there's time to visit some scary dungeons, search for treasure and outwit a few baddies. And then it's home for an absolutely massive spread of cream and scones! Well, now you can do more than just imagine it, folks - you can actually become it (so to speak), with Enigma Variation's Five On A Treasure Island. Hurrah!

Everybody should know who the Famous Five are but just in case you've had a deprived childhood let's recap. Basically, they're 4 children (and a dog called Timmy!) known throughout the world for their brave exploits and cunning plans. Treasure Island's their first adventure, in which Julian, Anne and Dick are packed off to their relations (while their parents skive oft to Scotland), and team up with their scowling tomboy cousin, George.

EEK! AN ADVENTURE GAME!

Now, for most of us, a good holiday is one where we do absolutely nothing except sleep, drink and eat. But the Famous Five aren't like other people, because they can't go anywhere without finding themselves in the thick of a mysterious adventure!

What the game involves is you getting mixed up in strange doings on Kirrin island. Basically, you have to find a treasure map and, erm, follow the instructions- piece of cake. Except it isn't. Especially if you've got about as much idea about adventures as I've got about the breeding habits of the cabbage aphid (ie, not an awful lot, matey!). It was a bit lucky then that Mike Gerrard just happened to have written a Beginners Guide To Adventures for us this month (see p60), which I ploughed through with enormouse zest (although it probably did absolutely zilch for my gameplaying!)

Anyway, you start the game as Julian but you can swop characters as and when. This means you can send all of them off on separate missions and then get them to meet up later. All have distinct characteristics which make them suitable for different tasks (but don't worry if you haven't read the books - just Examine someone and you'll get the lowdown on them. Actually, it's a good idea to use Examine on everyone, to find out if they can tell you anything or do something for you - like make a scrummy chocolate cake!).

Most adventure games are quite dull in the graphics department but here they've perked things up a bit by including some pretty pictures. (Not that it makes an enormous difference but it's nice all the same!) The screen is split into 2 parts - the larger top part tells you where you are, which direction you can follow etc, and the bottom bit is where you type in your commands.

WHO AM I?

As I said, I'd never played an adventure game before so I was expecting something really dull. And unless you're a seasoned player, then, of course, Treasure Island is going to take you ages to get through. But I had a great time! I didn't move from the Speccy for hours! (Except to go to the loo, hem hem.)

The main reason why it works so well for a beginner is that it's easy to grasp and there are lots of helpful touches (plus it's fun!). If you get confused about who you are just type in WHO and you'll find out. And if you're not clear about what you're allowed to do, type in V and you're given a list of verbs.

Five On A Treasure Island makes you want to find out what's round the next corner. It could be an ingot, a locked dungeon or even an ice-cream van. Gee, these kids really know how to have fun - and I'm jolly well off for another go!

Label: Enigma Variations
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £10.99 Tape, £n/a Disk
Reviewer: Alan Dykes

Hurrah for cucumber sandwiches and ginger beer! It's Julian, Dick, and Anne, George and Timmy the dog, better known to millions as the Famous Five - in their first adventure. Hurrah again! Now could someone please get Timmy off my leg?

Having been brought up on a diet of The Secret Seven and The Famous Five, books and on T.V., I was absolutely delighted to see this role playing game arriving on the Ikea telephone table that Steve and I share as a desk. It takes a long time to load this game, as it is only available on tape, but, for most, it's probably worth the wait.

Five On A Treasure Island represents the first ever adventure that the famous five had as a team. The game starts out with Julian, Dick and Anne sitting on a tram on the way to the seaside village of Kirrin where their Uncle Quentin, Aunt Fanny and Cousin Georgina live. Good old Fanny (What!) will meet you at the station and the plot thickens from there on. Many questions need to be answered, why is Uncle Quentin so moody, why does Georgina, thenceforth known as George), want to be a boy, why does she keep scowling at Dick and what is so Mysterious about Kirrin Island.

Your opening character is Julian, the eldest, and allegedly the most sensible, but you can interchange between the main four characters, (though not Timmy, I was disappointed to note). The game-play is very interactive, consisting of a typed conversation between you and your Spectrum, which controls what happens. The computer recognises thirteen special commands, 33 accepted verbs, and a wide range of sentence structures. It also recognises words abbreviated to the first four letters, which considerably speeds things up. Be warned though - this control method can prove cumbersome at times! There are also valuable save options available.

The characters can interact with any others they meet and can pick up, use, examine, or abuse almost any object which they stumble upon, in other words the scope for frolics, fun and exploration is almost unlimited. Graphics are restricted to colourful views of significant places, eg the cottage, island etc., otherwise the screen is all dialogue. The size of this game cannot be underestimated so don't expect to finish it in a mere one or two sittings unless you're name happens to be Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes.

Five On A Treasure island is a logical step in the continuing popularity of these famous adventure tales. It won't suit everyone because it doesn't have dragons or ninjas, and even Timmy the dog doesn't even bite people or attack their wellies, however, for those who want a challenging change or anyone who has read or is reading the books, it's just the business. Hurrah again chaps and let's go to Fanny's for a slap-up feed!

ANDREA: Jolly good show old stick, apart from sometimes frustrating keyboard conversations with the program, Five On A Treasure island will make a nice addition to your RPG collection, and will probably keep your Dad happy too.