I hadn't previously heard of Arcana Software but their new release Rotor is sure to be quite a hit with space fans. As a trainee, you must play through the three manoeuvre sections in order to prove you can move Rotor in differing environments. Then you are sent to one of the four fortresses, where you must fight and work your way up the ranks, in more and more harder missions, receiving security passwords, so you can jump back to that mission, if you wish.

After you have battled your way through these missions, you reach your ultimate goal, by completing all the Class 6 missions to become Rotor elite. It seems very longwinded but I am sure there are some of you out there who could probably do it all in a day!

When you begin your flight with Rotor, you are shown a pocket computer informer, which enables you to choose which missions you wish to play. I found the way of choosing the options very annoying as you have to move a coloured triangle adjacent to the option you wish to choose making this part not very user-friendly.

The instructions that accompanied my copy of Rotor were very complex and I hope that these are simplified before the final packaging and instructions go to press.

On beginning your training mission you are greeted with the game playing area in the centre with icon bars, energy symbols, amount of crystals collected and radar scanner, to name but a few, all around. The only ones I used were the coordinates and the energy/fuel symbols at the beginning, as these are vital.

The spaceship can be moved around by the mouse, but I found this almost impossible so ended up using the keys, Rotor, as many of the recent Arc releases, is based on the Thrust concept behind with small, short bursts of power needed to manoeuvre. You can pick up, using a tractor beam that comes from the back of your small rounded spaceship, fire and thrust and I found that you must be very careful when it comes to thrusting.

As you move, you will discover small boxes with an X on them. These must first be shot, then picked up and the empty container destroyed. At this point the coordinates appear of the way out and you move your ship to the correct coordinates to complete the mission.

As you progress you have to pick up more than one container and be sure that you read what the mission consists of as sometimes they are different.

After the first three missions you go into one of the four fortresses, and there you have different taks to perform, and are hindered in your task, by hostile firing objects which can easily be shot with one hit! Again, here you must be very careful to follow the mission instructions.

I did not get any further than the combat stage but after this is where, I believe, the action begins. Other features of Rotor include a transformer which converts the energy held in the small boxes into novel ideas such as refuel, laser upgrade and power shields but you must have enough energy in order to use this facility.

To sum up Rotor, I found it was an addictive game but the addition of some music running whilst you play and the simplification of the screen display would have helped.

One for the Thrust fans!