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The lengths to which some companies go in advertising their product, in terms of magazine space, makes you think they have something really special to offer. A full page colour advertisement of this type prompted me to buy Ground Force Zero from Titan Programs. However, the game simply reaffirms my belief in the old adage "You can't judge a book by its cover", or, in this case, "Don't be influenced in purchasing programs by the advertising campaign behind it".

Ground Force Zero is written totally in Basic, and suffers all the accompanying problems of programming in this language. On loading you are greeted with the Dambusters theme music and a Second World War bi-plane chugging across the screen with a prompt asking you to select 1-10 levels of difficulty. Then, at the bottom of the screen, skyscrapers of varying height are being constructed and when the bottom of the screen is fully occupied by buildings, your plane begins chugging along the top of the screen once again. As it goes off one side of the screen, it reappears at the other but this time it is one line lower. Using simply the 'B' key, you must drop bombs on the buildings knocking them down to the ground before your decreasing height causes you to collide with one.

Being written in Basic, the graphics are crude and jerky and the monotony of having only a single key to press brings boredom almost immediately.

In my opinion it is the sort of game you feel you could have whipped up yourself and then put it on some tape and stored away, never to be used again. It would appeal to the very, very young in testing their judgement for the right moment at which to drop their bomb. But, in today's market, where to stay afloat in the software industry demands high standards, I am surprised that Titan Programs have not been renamed Titanic.

At £5 a throw, this program is ludicrously priced, but it did teach me a lesson. From now on, I'll find out what I'm getting before I part with any money!