The Menagerie

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Keith Campbell

This month sees the first home grown adventure from Stormbringer Software: Menagerie. Written for the 48k Spectrum using PAW, it casts you as a vampire, and the game opens just after a successful encounter with a victim. In flight from the police, you stumble into a bunch of aliens, and pass out as they point a hand-held device at you. You wake up to find yourself a rare species in an alien menagerie. As alien blood is not compatible with your metabolism, your only hope is to find the lost Bloodstone of Baal, and squeeze it. This is a humorous adventure, with a few graphics and some refreshingly amusing replies to the player. "Examine handbag", for example, elicits the reply "A quite spacious handbag that formerly belonged to a middle aged woman with blood group O Rhesus Negative." And after removing your clothes to provide enough objects to plot a maze, every response contains the phrase "I spy with my little eye a Bat's Boney Bare Bod." I can do nothing but warmly recommend this slightly irreverent adventure. It costs £2.49 and it's available from Ian Brown, [redacted], to whom cheques should be made payable.