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The reputation of Cascade has so far rested on the first class flight simulation Ace. That, and the 50-game compilation packages which sell for next to nothing (and you get a digital watch).

Now Cascade has voiced the intention of putting out more "quality" games. Sky Runner is one of them.

It's again from the mind of Ace programmer Ian Martin and he's very frank about where he got his inspiration - the movies Return Of The Jedi and Dune.

Remember the Jedi scene where the flying motorcycles hurtle through the trees? That really sums the game's action sequences. The story is about inter-planetary drug-busting.

The setting is the 24th Century. Street corner drug-pushers are a thing of the past. All was joy. Life goes on, spreading throughout the galaxy. The rich get ricker and poor get poorer - and angry.

And when people get angry trouble can occur. Some governments took to introducing control drugs into the water supply.

After a twenty year experiment, the programme had reduced both crime and production. Everybody faced economic ruin, until the discovery, and settlement of Vega 3, named Naibmoloc.

A secret department was set up to handle this solution to the control problem. They organised agents, to recruit bands of men to harvest, process, and smuggle the new control drug, now called SKY.

The agents, known as Sky Runners, set up huge harvesters, and began mining the Sky from the forests of Naibmoloc.

To defend the Harvesters, gun towers were built around the sector being cleared, and a squad of ruthless Sky Bikers, flying through the trees, were recruited to defend the running.

Ace was mainly flight simulation. Sky Runner is primarily a shoot-'em-up. I favour Sky Runner to be honest.

I loved the sound of the skimmer. It sounds like a rogue vacuum cleaner. A hit.