"Tally-Ho chaps! Bandits at three o'clock, bombs away!". Well - perhaps not, and anyway, a handlebar moustache would only get tangled up in the joystick cable.

The idea in Bomber Mission is to take off in your fighter-bomber, fly to a pre-selected enemy location and wreak havoc and destruction by dropping your pre-selected payload on them. Be warned though, this isn't a flight simulator. There's no runway display.

First, you must choose a target and the appropriate weapon to destroy it from a list. At this point, you are shown the performance margins of your aircraft, offered a tour of the cockpit, and told how much time you have to take off before you are attacked. On some occasions though, this time was much too short and I prematurely bit the dust.

Anyway, if you manage to reach 120 knots and get airborne, it's a matter of staying on the correct heading, which isn't easy.

Just as you're getting confident, you are 'attacked' by enemy fighters (inverted letter Ts). You can aim at them - just wait for them to cross your gun sights. Beware though, the T's can shoot back. Suffer too many hits and you can start reaching for your ripcord!

Assuming you manage to bomb your target and land back at base (which just involves reaching zero altitude with your undercarriage down) you are debriefed and praised or otherwise on the success of your mission.

There weren't many graphics at all, just the rudimentary cockpit made up from standard Vic characters. The rest of the game, except the enemy fighters, was purely textual readouts.

The sound wasn't bad. The hum of the engine was realistic, as was the firing of the guns. The explosions, though, weren't much better than the one in the Vic manual. Some may enjoy it, but I thought it a bit tedious.

Nice idea this, pity it isn't quite carried off. I found the instructions were quite complicated and in some cases a bit misleading. For instance, they do not mention that to take off you have to keep bashing the 'F5' key to build up enough speed! Another complaint is that you don't *see* the target (this is something else that isn't mentioned). I'm not asking for an ordinance survey map, just for something that requires more skill than just pressing a button and hoping for the best.

Yet another bad point is that the seemingly random time limit for taking off is sometimes far too short. Probably the best feature is the sound which is good but not intrusive.

This is a much more exciting flight simulation than most - there's a good measure of annihilation to keep your interest. But the only graphics are the cockpit window and the occasional passing enemy fighter. Sound is a little obtrusive and noisy. And instructions and controls are too simple. I've yet to discover the difference between the different weapons offered.