Memory: 48K
Price: £6.95

In Mysterious Fairground from Buffer Micro the five treasures are concealed inside the stalls and rides of a fairground. Some of the rides are inhabited by extremely unpleasant characters and progression is a tough business, involving some ingenuity on the player's part.

Keyboard entry is the standard verb/noun combination, as always with Quill derivatives, and locations are labelled at the top of the screen. A little help is available which you will definitely need at certain points. There is very little interaction with other characters, that being difficult on the interpreter used. For those who prefer the type of adventure where speech and combat sequences are included that is a definite limitation.

Mysterious Fairground, although giving a rather bleak, empty feeling at times, is no easy nut to crack and compares favourably to other ready-to-wear text games. If the setting appeals to you it will undoubtedly get those brain cells straining.

48K Spectrum
£6.95
Buffer Micros

A Quill-generated adventure, this one has an intriguing setting. As you can gather from the title, the adventure takes place inside a strange fun fair where your objective is to recover five hidden items of treasure.

You start inside the fairground, a locked gate dashing any thought of a quick exit. A cursory trip around the nearest locations reveals a garden - I wonder if those bean plants can be watered? - a hall of mirrors, a rifle range and a ghost train.

The ghost train gives you your first major problem. Inside this ride, you experience a sense of the unnatural so shouldn't be surprised to find something unpleasant lurking there.