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Guy Manly's been accused of a crime that he probably did commit, so either he pays his dues to society by indulging in a spot of porridge - or he steals a small, heavily-armed spaceship and takes his chances living the life a brigand on the Barbary spaceways. What would you do if you were Guy Manly? Well, it just so happens that you are, and the decision's been made for you - so strap yourself in and set a course for NEST51.

NEST51 is a mammoth space station run by a dangerous criminal organisation known as The Council. The station's deep space location and excellent facilities make it an ideal base for criminal activities, and The Council's fostering of new young pirating talent makes this an obvious starting location for your new career. The Council's services don't come cheap however, they charge a small percentage (well, 95% of your takings actually) for use of the space station and initial investment capital.

A budding pirate can choose from two types of mission, with a number of levels available for each. One of these involves flying over a small planet, using its innocent aircraft for target practice - the other, more lucrative, task is to enter the open space lanes in search of bounty-laden spacetrucks.

Whatever you choose, the mission can first be practised from the comfort of one of seven 'simulators' which are modelled on the game itself, but are played out using vector graphics. Simulators allow the pilot to familiarise himself with the ship's controls without encountering any real danger - however, this also means that no money can be made in this section. Most simulators are free, but a couple (including the Asteroids clone, Disasteroids) eat into your meagre resources.

When a pilot feels confident with his flying abilities, the next step is to enter real space in search of an elusive spacetruck. A large spacemap is explored by moving through a series of toll gates, and following a grid map towards the target. Toll gates can only be utilised if enough attack craft are dispatched along the way and the relevant points total is earned. Later grid maps include icons representing other pirates in the vicinity which must also be destroyed with extreme prejudice. There's no room for sentimentality when the stakes are this high.

When a spacetruck has eventually been captured and returned to NEST51, a cash prize is awarded in relation to its size. After The Council has taken its chunk, the remaining cash is yours to spend on better shields, faster power units and more destructive weapons. In this fashion, the whole galaxy can eventually be explored, and every spacetruck (from the smallest 'minnow' to the mammoth 'whale') plundered.

When you consider the depth of play contained here, Outlaw would be forgiven if the cosmetics were a little weak, but this is far from the case. The graphic style may not be to everyone's taste, but it's beautifully executed and I doubt if anyone will fail to be impressed by the hyperspace sequence in particular.

Zippo games is the team responsible for this production, and Outlaw could hardly have asked for a more professional result. Starting with the impressive and user-friendly options screen, every tiny detail of this package is well considered and beautifully executed. The ability to save up to five separate games allows the task to be finished gradually, with the slowly increasing difficulty rate making the challenge lasting and compulsive.