The scenario involves you - a Rotor pilot trying to work your way up the ranks

When you start up you have three options - manoeuvre simulation, combat simulation and missions. To get on to the missions you must score a certain number of points on the simulations. Once promoted to the higher ranks, you get passwords to enter at particular levels.

It's definitely worthwhile reading the documentation about the controls - you can use the mouse but it isn't easy - and exactly how to get out of the caves. I escaped about five times before I discovered what was happening.

Selecting missions from the start-up screen results in a request for a password which is entered using the awkward arcade method of rotating through the letters then clicking for the one required - I don't know why since all micros have perfectly decent keyboards. While you gain points and have to reach a certain level before being promoted - it is you who decides whether or not to be promoted - you don't have to be if you don't want to.

Moving on to the game, you are teleported into the caverns - all rendered in bright colours with lots of variety in the sprites.

The display occupies about two-thirds of the screen, which provides the equivalent vertical resolution to an Amiga. I'm afraid this is something we'll have to get used to when it comes to multi-format games.

Your ship iscircular and starts pointing upwards. Thrust is only possible from the rear so to move left andright you turn the ship and perform an engine burn.

Your gun only fires forwards so to shoot down you have to rotate and then gravity starts to become a problem. It's a delicate matter of rotating, shooting, and turning back to thrust before you hit ground.

Does this sound familiar? Well, the game is just like Thrust for the 8 bit BBC Micro, but thankfully you don't have to drag heavy lumps around on tractor beams. Instead canisters are lying around which when shot open to reveal one of three objects:

First are the power plants which you have to pick up within a certain time limit otherwise they explode taking you with them. Unfortunately when you do pick them up they add to the mass of your ship making it harder to control and using up more fuel.

Then there are the sun crystals of which you must collect a certain number before being given the exit coordinates.

The final and most useful items are colour-coded pearls which provide energy which your built-in transformer can convert into useful items, like fuel, extra rotation speed, more powerful engines, more powerful laser, duplicate ships and a host of other options.

One special pearl provides 200 units of fuel - it's marked with an F - and another is a wild card which advances the transformer selector a random amount. The selector wraps around when it reaches the highest value. You don't get things all your own way of course, and the aliens fight back thankfully with only fixed position bases.

While they don't seem to be very good shots, enough of them can pepper your hide to get you scurrying in search of pearls to rebuild your armour-plating.

There are three missions to carry out on each level and - I think - about five or six levels, which provides plenty of scope.

On higher levels each of the canisters and gun emplacements can take more hits before being knocked out.

Other unpleasantnesses also appear:

Pushers and pullers fling your ship about and you must build up your engine thrust to compensate. Then there are force field walls which can be turned off for only a short time and weird guns which fire diagonal rays.

The sound is adequate although I think they've only used one or two channels - the volume drops too much on four or eight - but there's no music. Bit of a shame really.

Complaints? Just two: After spending an hour building up a well-armed and fast Rotor it's really annoying being unable to save my status and having to start again from scratch.

Additionally the highest level is almost impossible without a enhanced Rotor, but you can't start at a lower level and then - using a password - jump to a higher one. You can only proceed from the point you start at.

This game is extremely addictive - it's just hard enough to make ita challenge and there's enough variety lo make it interesting, despite being so simple,

The only reason I haven't awarded nines and tens in its scores is that we need to be able to move up in the scoring. The game-writing professionals have arrived - at last.

Lazarus