FrotzS5 is one of the most unusual games I've ever come across. Another PalmTime production, FrotzS5 is used for playing text-based games such as Infocom's Zork (which has been made freely available).

Before beginning a game, you have the option to change the 'resolution' of the game in characters and toggle the bold mode on and off. The instructions on screen suggest that you are able to turn a toolbar on and off, although this doesn't seem to be available on the Revo - maybe it would be best not to show this text to Revo users?

Games do not come with FrotzS5, but must be downloaded separately. This means that you can have the games you want installed, and so is probably a good idea, provided that you remember to download one or more! Games aren't exactly tiny - Zork I weighed in at about 91KB - but aren't too large either. It is impossible to create your own games unless you happen to know the Infocom file format which FrotzS5 reads, as the files appear as garbage if viewed in a text viewer like RMRText.

The actual games are played exactly like the originals, so you would type 'look at house' to look at a house. The commands are generally intuitive, but saving and loading games can be a problem - typing 'save' works fine, and pops up a dialog box in which to choose a name and location for your game, but at least in Zork I, which I tried, 'load' does not work. You must type 'restore' to do this, and finding it out required quite some experimentation.

For some obscure reason, the help file is in text format and is stored in C:\System\Apps\FrotzS5\. There is no link to it from the application itself, which I found counterintuitive and thus the help file is unlikely to be read by many users. It ought really to be in a normal help file, and at the very least be linked to from the main program.

Although I hate to keep finding fault with freeware software, the one last problem I had with FrotzS5 was the fact that the program does not close when asked to if a game is running, but pops up a dialog box asking if you really would like to close, in case you haven't saved. This, unfortunately, is necessary, but a little frustrating occasionally. An 'autosave on close' option might be one solution?

FrotzS5 is one of the most novel games available on the Psion, but I feel that this version has a few small but irritating problems. However, as my advice goes for all freeware, because there's no cost involved there's no harm in giving it a go!