"Mervyn the Sorcerer's apprentice is trapped in a Dark Dungeon - and has inadvertently changed himself into a frog! Help Mervyn defeat the warlocks and turn him back into a human.
    At the beginning of the game you are transported to one of the rooms in the top level of the dungeon. Your aim is to explore each room in turn and defeat each warlock that you encounter. Each room lights up as you enter it. Some rooms also have mysterious symbols embedded on the floor, called Floor Glyphs, which are used to either weave magic spells, destroy enemies in the room, reveal a plan of the level or transport you to new level.
    When you locate a warlock, leap on top of him and you will lock him in ritual combat where you have to unscramble the letters making up the word R-A-N-A-R-A-M-A before the time runs out."
    Well, that's the general gist of the game, and conveniently copied straight out the instructions too. Of course, things are far more complicated than that. Take that screenshot below, for example [Or... don't, as the case is - NickH]. It probably looks a bit Gauntletish to you, but only the parts of the maze, or indeed screen, that you have actually visited are displayed so it's extremely easy to get lost, especially as seemingly dead ends may well not be so. There are spells too, which you need to increase during the game to progress further.
    The thing's a pretty cunning mixture between a shoot-'em-up, maze game and logic game, so I would imagine would keep you hooked for quite a long time as it is so complex, even though it's not initially too addictive, and does look a bit out of date in this day and age. However, there hasn't really been anything like it since, so despite the fact that it's coming up to its 4th birthday, I'd still recommend it very highly. Oh, and many happy returns if it's your 4th birthday too.

Ratings given by other magazines

9/10      9/10    Crash Review ---

Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database

YS Cross-references
		Rana Rama/Hewson	YS12	NEWS
		Rana Rama/Hewson	YS14	FUT
		Rana Rama/Hewson	YS16	9
		Rana Rama (in 10 Great Games III)	YS37	6
		Rana Rama (in Heatwave)	YS44	87
		Rana Rama (in The 50 Best Speccy Games Ever!)	YS94	No.39
Some info from Sinclair Infoseek+SPOT*ON