PROVE THAT YOUR machine can be a GEM and imitate the icon driven operating system on the Atari ST.

The package uses icon conventions similar to GEM with a few exceptions. For instance, the icon used to boot a program looks like a gout-swollen foot. Once booted, the package which is supplied on ROM, displays the main icon menu.

At the centre of the screen resides the empty workspace window, above which is displayed the real time clock and the date. The screen is used mainly for displaying device directories in icon form. The picture of a cartridge labelled EX, with QUILL displayed under it, means that the cartridge in the present drive contains an executable machine code file called QUILL. If the icon portrays a disc the file would be held on disc.

Below the main window are device specifiers, defaulted at drive one. You can load and save using microdrive, disc, or RAM disc. Drive numbers can be changed by placing the arrow-shaped action cursor on one of the large arrows surrounding the device number. The left arrow decreases the number while the right arrow increases it. To execute the cursor action just click - push - the space bar twice.

By clicking twice on a device icon a file directory can be obtained, and by repeating the operation on one of the file icons in the directory a file can be loaded and run. It is a simple process, much easier than having to type in LRUN MDV1 BOOT. Files can also be deleted from any device using the dustbin icon in the device driver display. Simply select a file from the directory window and then select the dustbin. You are asked whether the operation is okay or whether you want to cancel before the file is scrubbed from the current device.

Below the device driver icons is a bar which displays system and file commands. Those provide a system status report, rename files, list a file in ASCII format and gain information on a file. Commands have also been included to set up the clock and date, and define types of printer. An option is also included to set system response rates - such as clicking time.

The most useless function of ICE is the calculator, which Eidersoft probably included just because GEM has one. It includes a single key memory and a percentage button which are operated using the arrow cursor.

Also included in the package is the aptly named Choice, which will multitask up to four packages, including the Psion business suite. To produce the multi-tasking effect, select it from the menu at which point a new menu showing tasks from one to four will appear. Select the task you want to define and you will be asked how much data space it will need. Usually about 30K is enough, though even with that small memory requirement the four programs in the Psion suite would require additional memory.

Choice can also set up RAM discs, areas in memory formatted and accessed in the same manner as a disc. Once you have run the Install program, provided with Choice, you must go back to ICE and format as many discs as you require, depending once again upon the amount of memory you have available.

ICE operates best with at least half a megabyte of RAM and disc drives. Its multi-tasking features are its major attraction, although the operating system is so easy to use that it can be recommended to anyone with a QL.

TYPING OUT long lines of SuperBasic over and over again, or writing the same address at the top of a series of different letters is a chore with which QL users may well be familiar.

Although there are a number of products designed to help business users with a variety of areas where Psion software starts to leak at the seams, most are rather too specific in application for general use.

Keydefine is a raw system which allows you to write virtually anything from a complete program to a Quilled letter and access it from a single keystroke. Apart from standard boot and copy routines, it includes three programs for holding the key definitions, and a master routine, Define.

Define simply asks for the name of the _key file to be altered, and then the key on which the data is to be stored. Quill_key enables you to set margins, store standard addresses or indeed any block of text, and have it printed to the screen wherever you require it.

Basic_key allows you to define keystrokes for use within SuperBasic and those could include complete programs with line numbers, although you would then have to be careful as to which numbers you used.

Finally, there's asm_key, which is designed for use with an assembler/editor so that you can insert preset routines again at the touch of a key.

All the functions are accessed by holding down Caps Shift and pressing the appropriate key, which could be anything from F1-F5, A-Z or 0-9. Included with each of the three main programs is a set of predefined routines for some of the available keys. Those vary from the trivial - EDIT or PEEK - to rather more useful routines such as window definition or a KEYSCAN routine for the assembly language version. All routines are protected from NEW.

You can put up to 2K of material on each key, although you may find yourself squeezed for memory if you're still using Quill 1.03. But the usefulness of the program really depends on the user - if you do write a lot of letters on Quill, or have pet routines you're always using in programs, then you'll get your money's worth from Keydefine.

GO ROVING in Kerovnia, a magical world which is going through a period of social upheaval.

King Erik, the ruler of the land, is beginning to lose his grip on his subjects and can no longer rely on their solid support during times of trouble. The king has not been the same since his wife was assassinated and two factions have been keen to implicate the dwarfs in the affair. The dwarfs controlled the drinks market in Kerovnia, but now the Farthingdon Real Ale Company and the Romni gnomes are fighting for control.

When you arrive in the land, with a sleepy headache and kitted out in pyjamas, a general election is on the horizon and the king is in a very crotchety mood. Not only must you find the solution to the problem posed in the adventure but you must also track down the problem.

You start on an uninspiring path which passes through a rank forest and grassy plain. In the distance you can see the foothills and beyond, a host of snow-capped mountains.

It is easy to find many of the important locations in the adventure but another matter to enter them. The Golden Palace, for instance, is guarded by two violent looking fellows. You can talk to them in a manner similar to that of The Hobbit, from Melbourne House.

You are at the palace to present a letter from Kronos the magician to King Erik. Unfortunately, those guards will not take you to him unless you give them something. You can talk to them until you are blue in the face and they will answer, using an Eliza routine within the program, but you will need those objects.

Objects and money play an important part in the game. Honest John is the man to talk to if you want to equip yourself for adventure. He can supply silver armour, spring water and distilled whiskey but you will have to pay with fergs. If you don't have any money he will tick you off and stomp into the distance.

In a hut, on a hill, you will find another unhelpful character who has a problem with time and reality - or is it you who is confused? You can eat the rice in the bowl at his feet but if you try to get at his cupboards he will kick you.

The Pawn is a text-only adventure, but what text! The descriptions can be set to be as long or short as you want them and once you are into the game it is like reading an interactive novel. Although I have not yet caught up with the object of my quest, I am sure I will be playing the game long after this review has reached you.

Although it is not particularly innovative, The Pawn has the feel and depth of those infamous Infocom adventures which have, for so long, held the attentions of every disc-owning Commode 64 lover. Long live King Erik and The Pawn.

THE SLOGAN 'as used by professionals' conjures images of a package which will work wonders but the maxim does not hold true for the Psion Q Draw.

The package is apparently based on a utility used by Psion artists to design screens for QL Chess and Match Point. Looking at its capabilities they would have been better off using GraphiQL, from Talent, or even Sketchpad from Sigma Research. It is capable of pixel plot and line drawing - using rubber banding - but does not include circle, arc or ellipse facilities which most other QL and Spectrum packages contain.

It is, however, possible to define a shape, such as a circle, and store it, on microdrive or disc, as part of a library of such designs. Shape drawing mode is entered using F4 and then drawing the outline of the shape using a cursor.

When the outline has been defmed, a number of options are open to you including colour fill, moving the shape to another part of the screen, replicating the shape, and dropping a shadow from it.

Once defined, shapes can be incorporated into screen displays which in most cases is faster than having to draw each shape by hand each time you need it. Inclusion of an arc command would, however, have been useful.

Q Draw does not have the power and versatility of GraphiQL and is less useful than Spectrum packages such as The Artist, from The Edge, or Art Studio, from Firebird. No company can be expected to have a winner with every new launch but with a bit more attention to detail Q Draw could have been on its way to Classicdom.