Magical moments in a cult adventure

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Travel into an alternative reality with Dave Eriksson

Following last month's suggestion for cheap software, this month's offering at only £12 (from the right mail order house) is Mindshadow by Activision.
You have been betrayed and left to die on a desert island. To complicate matters you are suffering form amnesia. Not only must you escape but also piece together the clues to your identity. The action then moves to a piratical ship, to England and finally to Luxembourg.

The function keys are used to provide 10 commands: Save and Load game position, repeat last command, help, drop, get all, look at the, talk to the, quicksave and quickload. The last two, save/load the game position to/from ram are useful if you are about to attempt anything risky.

Graphics are colourful and clear. Commonly used commands and a compass are shown in a window to the right and are actioned by clicking the mouse on them. The arrow keys control movement, and commands may also be entered via the keyboard in the normal fashion.

Most commands are given ina simple verb/noun format, but the parser recognises a limited range of more complex inputs when the need is called for. Help comes from the Condor, a somewhat enigmatic bird which will only help you three times but can come in pretty useful.

There are no red herrings, everything you find has a use but not all useful objects are described in the text, so look at the pictures carefully.
Locations are divided into sections, you are not able to move on to the next section until you have solved the current one. This does not mean that items found early will not be needed later.

First you must solve all the puzzles in the four sections of the game. Then you must think of six facts you have discovered to trigger off memories who you are.

Mindshadow is not too difficult and is to be recommended for the newcomer. The clues are there - you have to find them.