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Twelve months ago, Vektor Grafix, the programmers behind the 8-bit Star Wars conversions, started work on programming routines which would display filled 3D objects faster and more accurately than ever before on a home micro. The culmination of their word comes with the release of Bomber, a flight simulation which features the best three-dimensional aircraft graphics I've ever seen.

Unlike the Microprose simulations, Bomber doesn't put you over Libya or Vietnam, and is instead set over an area of about 1,000 square miles of the USA, encompassing North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. The location isn't really that important to the game, as combat isn't intended to simulate what goes on in any particular war zone.

As with most flight simulations, after loading you're confronted with a host of options screens. Select one of eight stored pilots from the roster, pick an aircraft (there are seven planes of various nationalities, all beautifully depicted on this particular screen), then you can choose your mission.

By selecting the simulation option, rookie pilots can gain flight experience without having to undertake a mission. You can start from the runway, over nearby Rapid City, on final approach or from various other positions. Then you can just fly around, bombing the dinosaur park in Rapid City, buzzing farms and roadside gas stations, and just generally taking in the spectacular views, both internal and external.

Once you've had your fill of frivolous flying, select one of the ren graded-difficulty, multi-stage operations to test your skill. As well as having the usual SAM-smashing, tank-busting, runway-strafing, dogfighting missions, the 16-bit versions of Bomber include a mission designer, which lets you define target positions, the locations of airborne refuelling tankers (the refuelling sequence is well worth seeing, incidentally) and other waypoints, then save them to disk for you or a friend to fly.

The flight controls on each of the seven planes are basically the same, but each has a different cockpit display, accurately reproduced from the real thing. If you've played any other recent flight sims you should be familiar with the layout and working of the gauges and displays. Compared with other Atari ST and Amiga flight sims, the cockpits seem relatively bare, but you don't miss anything when you're actually in the air. In fact, this even has the favourable effect of there being less to distract the pilot, so flying is much more fun.

Apart from having stunningly detailed and realistic aircraft and scenery graphics (each plane is made up of at least 120 polygons), Bomber is great fun just to take a plane up and fly over to Devil's Tower (scene of Close Encounters' climax), drop a Durandal on a gas station occupied by terrorists, and swing back to base for a Bud in the Officers' Mess.

Myself, I prefer F-15 Strike Eagle II's depth and speed, but a novice flier looking for an easily-approachable, fun sort of flight sim would do well to check this one out (as long as they've got a fast VGA PC, of course).

Stunningly realistic graphics and hours of uncomplicated flying make Bomber a real flight to remember.