The popular Ultima fantasy series has gone underground. No, you don't have to lurk around the bus station to buy the latest version. Adventurers continue to roam the highways and villages of Britannia in Ultima VII--The Black Gate (reviewed here in January). But would-be wizards and coffee-break sword fighters get an opportunity to explore the subterranean depths with Underworld II--Labyrinth of Worlds.

The plot? Okay, you've saved Britania eight times already, but suddenly a huge black-rock gem encases the castle of Lord British, and the hapless dead-beats who live there need you to beat back the bad guys one more time. You find yourself exploring dark corridors, gathering spell-casting runes and magic potions, wielding medieval weaponry and armor, and enjoying stylized conversations with seers, sorceresses, and sidekicks. The scope of this adventure is astonishing. Each of the eight facets of the black-rock gem opens onto a different plane of reality: prison towers, ice caverns, distant cities, exotic worlds, and alien dimensions.

Underworld II employs a distinctly different graphical approach, too. Instead of the familiar spy-eye viewing angle where you float just over someone's head, you see Underworld from the hero's or heroine's point of view.

A well-designed, mouse-based interface lets you move through the dungeons as smoothly as if you were walking. Simply swing your cursor to the side to change directions, or raise it toward the top of the screen to run faster. And you can throw away that graph paper, courtesy of an auto-map that records your explorations automatically. Combat is equally intuitive. Aim your weapon with the mouse, hold down the right button to gather power, and release the button to thrust or parry.

On-screen icons allow you pick to up and manipulate objects, although these controls are awkward to use.

If you're looking for a radical reinvention of swords and sorcery fantasy, better look elswhere: Labyrinth of Worlds is basically a retread of Dungeons and Dragons. But its size and splendor make for a rewarding adventure.

Egg-Zackly Right

At first Contraption Zack looks simple: It's your first day as a repairman at Gadgetco, but already you're in a world of trouble. There are major malfunctions everywhere, and your fellow workmen have "borrowed" your tools. Your job: Show 'em who's boss!

Zack is built around an elaborate six-level, 60-room maze, but getting through it requires much more than just drawing a map. The heart of Contraption Zack is a series of logical puzzles. None of the puzzles requires special equipment, but their very simplicity is what makes them so maddening--and so irresistible. You know there's a way to get through the doorway to the next room. If the blue button lowers the blue cones but raises the yellow cones, maybe you can pass the yellow cones first and then...The modular design is also appealing: Once you've beaten one puzzle, you can save the game and go to the next when you're ready.

Graphics are relatively crude--much like an arcade game--and the interface is a bit clunky. Cursor keys move Zack, but sometimes a horizontal key moves him diagonally--and vice versa. Not all the malfunctions are in Zack's puzzle world: The <Esc> key is supposed to display the main menu, but in my experience it didn't always work. Still, an elegance to the game's underlying design makes up for flaws in its controls. Contraption Zack is highly appealing, particularly for short coffee breaks.

Straight Into the Trees

It must be the year for golf; quite a few PC golf simulations are reaching the stores. In addition to Fuji Golf (part of Microsoft's Entertainment Pack 3, reviewed last month), there's David Leadbetter's Greens from MicroProse and Links 386 Pro from Access.

Greens is supposed to help you improve your game with play-by-play advice from big-time golf instructor Lead-better, who says crptic things such as, "Remember--never up, never in" when you miss a putt. He also reminds you of the importance of proper stance, tee height, club selection, ball spin, and so on. To swing, you click your mouse three times--once to start your backswing, once to start your downswing, and once to choose the instant of contact with the ball. While I find it hard to believe that anything you do with a mouse and your PC will have the slightest effect on what you do with a golf club on the fairway, I don't imagine this simulation will do your game any harm.

Once you manage to hit the ball, you're rewarded with an incredible array of realtime visuals that follow it as it flies toward the green--or, in my case, straight into the trees. The "camera" angles are marvelous. This part of Greens is major fun. You can choose to play against one or more computer-generated opponents, on one of six courses, and in 11 different kinds of games. You can even play against another human being via modem, assuming that you both have copies of the software.

Links 386 Pro from Access shares some important features with Greens: You click your mouse to hit the ball, for example. But in most ways it takes a different approach. No on-screen pro gives you advice, and there's less attention to theoretical niceties of form. But the biggest distinction is graphical. Links shows you the golf course--including trees, grass, sky, and buildings--at virtually photographic resolution. Moreover, you can display four views at a time, including a high-angle overhead shot from which you can zoom in.

The downside to all of this photo-realism is that it's slow. Links 386 Pro can take as long as 30 seconds to repaint the screen after every shot. Nevertheless, when you tee off on Links' gorgeous super-VGA rendering of Hawaii's Mauna Kea course (sold separately), you may decide that its breath-taking beauty more than makes up for the slow-motion graphics. Anyway, golfers aren't supposed to be in a hurry.

* Contraption Zack $39.96; Mindscape; 800/845-8698

* David Leadbetter's Greens $59.95; MicroProse Software; 410/771-1151

* Links 386 Pro $69.96, Mauna Kea Championship Course $29.95; Access Software Inc.; 800/800-4880

* Underworld II-Labyrinth of Worlds $79.95; Origin; 800/245-4525