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I must admit that I would not have gone all out to find and pay £5.50 on it, its front cover not being too eye-catching. But when I received Starfire as a present, I was pleasantly surprised. Its clear, extensive instructions and excellent colour photograph of one of the screen dumps in the game, do a great deal for the user. There is even a condensed list of all control keys used for easy access when playing the game (and I must say, you certainly need it for at least your first ten games). There is also information on the author of the game, which is a very good idea as it gives an indication of how long the program took to write, etc.

Once the program has spent four minutes loading (my copy loaded every time) your name is entered and the skill level chosen, of which there are ten. Number one (ZX80 Brain) is supposed to be easy, but I haven't found it easy to complete yet, and level ten is the hardest (impossible is a better word). I am just about up to level two (ZX81 Brain) and I have had the game for two months now!

After this interaction, a data sheet appears, informing the Starship Captain (you) for the number of aliens to kill, starbases to refuel at, and time available to do all of this in.

Eventually, the game starts and the controls provided can be called up from the shipboard computer. Briefly these are:

1. Abort - abort attempt at alien or starbase 2. Battlestations - to attack the aliens using keys B,H,F,T and 4 to fire 3. Computer Call - calls up a list of controls for the forgetful, damage to ship, or energy distribution. 4. Dock - to dock with starbase (if you're lucky) for refuelling and repair 5. Long Range Scan - to see which are the lucky aliens to be blasted this time or to locate starbases 6. Navigate - to move from one subcontractor to another 7. Galactic War Report - shows how many aliens, starbases and stardates (time) remain 8. Smart Bombs - the ultimate in weapons, destroys all aliens and starbases in adjacent sectors and usually yourself if you haven't enough power left

The graphics when used are relatively slow with a slow reaction time on the keyboard but this, howeever, does not make the game any worse as the alien stops moving and firing when the button is pressed. This makes the game easier on level one while still being difficult on level ten as the alien is moving so often that it is usually impossible to get him (it) into your sights.

The game is mostly in 3D but there are a few screens when two-dimensional graphics are used. These are when the ship needs to navigate an asteroid field, time portal or dock with a starbase. In these, the ship is seen in 2D as the precision and skill needed would be lost in a third dimension.

The whole program is written in BASIC and is easily listed. The REM statements make the listing easy to understand and I have seen a couple of areas that I have not come across in the game yet, such as a black hole and a self-destruct mode. The game runs for over an hour and one disappointment at the end is that no score is employed thus, skill needs to be determined by the amount of aliens destroyed, my total being twenty-one.

In a summary, then, I found the game exciting, strategic and enjoyable though it could be vastly improved with better graphics.

Starfire runs on the 48K Spectrum.