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FLY WITH the Red Arrows and keep your stomach intact as you perform the amazing Manhattan Loop, the Pyramid Roll and the famous fly past.

The game is a flight simulator with a difference. You are accompanied in the air by your team mates, and you must perform aerobatics to the best of your ability in order to score points.

Don't look so worried. You are not left to your own devices in the air. A training routine has been included within the program which displays your instructions as you make a fly past. Failure to heed instructions usually results in a crash.

The instruction routine does not, however, help with the 16 different key combinations which you need to control your Hawk aircraft. Out of desperation I just used the thrust and roll keys which seem to achieve good scores, and only the occasional crash.

Graphics may not be the game's strong point but the simulation is accurate to the degree of seeing the aircraft of your team mates fly past.

The flight instruction and aid docs not end with the instruction routine. Your team leader will give you instructions if you are going off course. The amount of instruction given to you during flights may seem unrealistic, but open communication must be available between pilots so that wing tips do not touch and you don't drive your aircraft into the ground. Your team mates will look after your safety just as you watch theirs.

Red Arrows turns the dull area of flight simulation into fast and furious fun. Database Software has also arranged a competition in which you could win a weekend to visit the real Red Arrows.

John Gilbert

Publisher: Database Publications Price: £8.95 Memory: 48K Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, programmable

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