Behind Closed Doors 5

Released some 23 years after the long-running series's prior game for the ZX Spectrum, this hypertext story-game sees the player, in the enormous patched trousers of the Rochdale Balrog (a nicer sort of chap than Tolkien fans usually suspect) attending to household chores in and around his domicile, shared with Mrs. Balrog, including a backyard and, naturally, a "smallest room of the house." Those irascible Boggits Fuddo & Slam are at it again, however, playing their usual juvenile pranks on the retiring fellow who wants nothing more than a Sunday morning in peace to fill out the crossword puzzle in his copy of the daily Goblin Gazzette, and if they don't muck up his plans, rest assured the Balrog will find some way to paint himself into a corner.

Clicking on link hotspots either reveals further textual detail on varied subjects, further such subjects to explore, travels to new locations or (when indented and bulleted) attempts to further the plot and solve a handful of puzzles. (If these attempts are unsuccessful, every passage, trailing down the screen, fittingly, like a bog roll, remains accessible to "rewind" to, should players care to venture the road not taken.)