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Gunship, the attack-helicopter flight simulator, is rapidly and deservedly turning into a bestseller for Microprose in this country. How they managed to pack so much into a 64K program seems to be a mystery even to themselves, but after seeing this, any firm putting out a single-scenario wargame should be ashamed of itself.

The AH-64A Apache attack helicopter has, after various teething troubles, now come into service with the frontline and reserve forces of the US Army. Unlike the helicopters used in Vietnam, it is armoured and is designed specifically as a tank-killer, carrying Hellfire laser-guided missiles, unguided rocket pods and a 30mm chain-gun, plus Sidewinder missiles (the game as those used by Harriers in the Falklands) for air defence. Its heart is the TADS (Target Acquisition and Designation System) built round the guidance system in the gunner crewman's helmet while the pilot flies in the aircraft. You may remember a civilian version of the Apache from the film and television series Blue Thunder. Each helicopter flies at up to 220 miles an hour, weighs about nine tons fully laden, and costs a little under 8.5 million dollars.

Microprose set out with the object of making their simulation as realistic as possible, and a real helicopter is not easy to fly. There are two main controls, a cyclic stick - represented in Gunship by a normal joystick, which controls pitch and roll, and a collective lever which controls the amount of lift generated by the rotor blades. To fly forwards in a helicopter you gain height and then point the nose downwards, rather than pulling the stick back to take off as with a conventional aircraft. This takes time to learn, and Gunship begins with a training scenario in the United States, in which while your own weapons fire live ammunition and the returning enemy fire is blank. From this the pilot is advised to graduate, slowly, through missions of increasing difficulty against enemy with gradually improving training and weaponry.

The scenarios read like a handbook of American's worldwide commitment. First, a chance to re-fight Vietnam with a return to South-East Asia, then air support for American ground troops committed in Central America, then part of the Rapid Deployment Force against Soviet-style equipment in the Near East, and finally World War Three in Germany against the Warsaw Pact. On each occasion the player can opt for a normal mission, a mission which requires him to volunteer, or a "suicide" mission with a low change of surviving. Missions can be day or night, in any kind of weather conditions, and the Apache can be set to fly "realistically" or be a little more kind to the pilot. After seeing the mission the pilot chooses his own weapons load, and his own path to the target.

The object is not just a survive one mission. The pilot starts as a sergeant and can earn promotion all the way up to colonel by consistent good flying. He can also be awarded medals for a particularly good performance on one specific mission. The US Army gives helicopter pilots their first medal for completing flight training without killing themselves - but after that it gets harder! If the pilot decides that a mission is just too difficult he can pass it by using the "sick call" option, but this will affect his future promotion prospects. With so many variations to select, it is almost impossible to fly the same mission twice.

Gunship is such a simple excellent game that any complaints seem like carping, but I have a few. The helicopter flies far more sluggishly than is normal for a simulator, which Microprose believe to be realistic, but which needs a little adjustment for the player. In particular, the collective, which is really the key control in flying a helicopter simulator - by a second joystick acting as a throttle. The program may also be taking the claims for the real Apache too much at their face value - the machine has suffered from endless technical problems, and malfunctions may be far more common than Gunship suggests. But this does little to detract from a very fine game.

These are people now who believe that the attack helicopter is the weapon of the future, eventually to replace the tank altogether. The US Army says that, should it ever some to war, it expects the Apache to kill fourteen tanks for each helicopter lost. Gunship is about as close as you will ever get to finding out if that is true. It comes with my highest recommendation.