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It's the 35th Century and space pirates and marauders have almost brought the Parvin Frontier to the brink of starvation. Supplies must get through to the settlers and entrepreneurs who are exploiting the rich mining deposits in this wild space frontier.

As the captain of a starfrieghter belonging to the Psi-5 Trading Company you must make sure supplies get through.

First, you have to choose your course, cargo and payment for the job. The higher the price for the job, the more danger and difficulty you'll face.

Next, you have to get a crew of five together. They are a weapons expert, chief engineer, repair expert, nagivation officer and scanner. The crew can be selected from 30 different applicants, each with his, her or its own identity.

The faces of the six candidates for each department are displayed on the screen. You can check each one's name, age, qualifications, background and experience. But make a wise choice. Each crew member will react differently under pressure.

As Captain, you sit at the starfreighter's console. The ship's view of space - either fore or aft - is displayed in a window at the top left-hand corner of the screen. Another window at the top right displays the various crew members and their departments.

The bottom half of the screen is taken up with a vast amount of information about the ship and messages from crew members are flashed up on screen.

As the starfreighter sets out on its hazardous journey, it's not long before hostile ships are launching an attack.

Not only must you monitor all the controls but also keep in constant contact with all departments, issue orders, react to crises and above all keep calm, even when your crew are panicking.

Psi-5 Trading Company sounds a little bit like Elite. Both are space shoot-'em-ups, involving trading and have elements of an adventure game.

But graphically they are quite different. However, both are fiendishly difficult to play and vastly entertaining.