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Having unwrapped my bundle of tapes and glancing through, I thought that I would start off with the best of the bunch. Combat Lynx by Durell for the 48K Spectrum, comes in a smart plastic case, which is more like a video cassette case than a software box, with a battle picture on the front, which should attract the punters.

I was more attracted to the note on the back of the case. £100 Reward, it said, if my copy of the game did not have a blue plastic cassette body with the word "DURELL" embossed on it. Well folks, I haven't moved so far in my life, but alas, my tape was no forgery and no £100. I think that this is a brilliant idea to beat software piracy, which is bringing some firms down under and I seriously hope that many other companies will follow suit.

Combat Lynx is described as an air-to-ground battle simulation game and is written in pure, 100% machine code. The manual reads "...probably the most comprehensive 'real time battle simulation ever written. Does this remind you of a lager advert?)

The idea of the game is to protect your bases from being attacked by the enemy and also to stop yourself being blown-up in mid-air.

At the beginning of the game the user has the option to re-define the keys and save or load score and key definitions. The skill level then needs to be selected between one and four, with four being the hardest and with more bases to look after. *Your* base 0 has luckily got an endless supply of fuel, weapons the magical touch of revitalising injured troops.

Enemy vehicles will slowly attack all your bases, unless stopped by allied vehicles or you in your chopper. As all your supplies are at base 0, the enemy will eventually arrive there and completely wipe it out in one fell swoop, leaving you totally disarmed as weapon supplies and injured persons cannot be recuperated.

You control the helicopter, which, at the start of the game, is hovering above base 0 and by gently tapping the down key, you land at base 0 and are presented with a set of screens in order to select weapons and troops. Passing through the screens, personnel may be picked up, injured personnel dropped and various weapons collected. There are six types of weapons at your disposal, each having different technicalities. The more weapons and personnel that are carried, the more fuel that is automatically dropped as there is a maximum weight allowed on board.

There are mines, which can be strategically placed around your bases to prevent a land attack on them; there are heat-seeking missiles, wire-guided missiles and three unguided missiles.

The intelligence map is a map of the battlefield with the lower ground in a different colour to the higher ground and all the bases and vehicles, both allied and enemy, are represented by symbols. It is advised that you do not blow up the allied vehicles as you will definitely need all the help that you can get!

At any time the co-ordinates of all bases can be found out, thus by using the map the general direction may be formed. The map is examined by using the cursor keys with North always pointing upwards.

As well as all this, there is also a message screen. This is the informer of when your bases are under attack and also when they have been totally wiped out, as well as any other appropriate messages. Fuel, speed, temperature guages and a compass are all present in order for you, the helicopter pilot, to survive and win this war.

The helicopter, seen from behind, is easily controlled although a flicking of the flight screen occurs when you turn more than 45 degrees in order to put you at the rear of the helicopter again. This can put you off at first, but in no way does it hinder your game as there isn't any delay in restoring the flight image. The weapons are fired first of all selecting the desired system, pressing the weapon's sight key, lining up the black cross and finally pressing the fire button. This process can be too long if the enemy is in sight, by the time this weaponary process has been affected, the enemy has disappeared. This is why I found the heat-seeking and wire-guided missiles most useful, as there is no real need to activate and line up the weapons sight.

An excellent game, which kept me (moderately) aware till the early hours of the morning, that can be enjoyed by all. You are placed in the centre of a real-time battle simulation and are your own boss at to how you may win the battle.

The game is not for the very young or the elderly, but even if you come in the middle of the above range, I am sure that you will find this simulation no easy task. The icing on the cake I suppose was the sound, which can be turned off and on, and is as close as any micro can get to a realistic helicopter noise.

So, all in all, a brilliant graphics, outstanding simulation. An excellent game.