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Among the many turkeys on sale this Christmas past could be found The Great Space Race, that mega-hyped, long-promised follow-up to Valhalla. Resplendent in a plush, over-size plastic case, containing a glossy 56-page manual and colour poster, the game - pardon me, "computer movie" (Legend are into that socko boffo stuff) - promised much... and delivered little.

Far from the gods, myths and legends of Valhalla, the folks at Legend have got right down to basics with The Great Space Race (or TGSR from here on in). You are invited to become a galactic booze runner. Seems the civilized galaxy has become hooked on Natof ("Name to Follow"), a miracle drink that can get you paralytic without ever producing a hangover and, just for goof measure contains all the nutrition needed for a good, healthy if alcoholic life (Mary W will love this one). The demand is there - you have to fill it.

To do this you hire four racers to deliver crates of the stuff to 96 space stations in different parts of the galaxy. The first one to complete the course wins the race. They are only hindered in their work by roaming pirates, booby-trapped space wrecks, over-zealous police and a few other pitfalls which can knock out your racers one by one.

The game/movie comprises of two main phases. In the first, you have to hire the racers. Eight are offered (with exotic names like Noxin, Gurm, Urg, Vindaloo, Haberdaber) with fees on a sliding scale according to capability and performance. Decisions to hire or not have a time limit and hesitations can lumber you with unwanted racers, automatically assigned. Each racer must also be kitted out with weaponry, both defensive and offensive. Payment for everything comes out of your initial allocation of 50,000 cases of Natof.

Kitting out complete, the "race" begins and consists of your racers, in strict rotation, visiting various stations, off-loading crates of Natof, then moving onto the next.

The screen display consists of a central graphics area sandwiched between two large text windows; the lower giving events and reports and the upper offering options - usually a yes/no decision witha time limit given before the computer takes over and makes the decision for you. The player's toughest task is to decide which of two keys has to be pressed.

During the race, the player is aroused from his stupor every so often to deal with a situation; sobering up a racer, bribing police and pirates not to attack his racers or arrange for repairs - but only if he feels up to it. Occasionally there will be a bit of action as two ships engage in battle. This is terrifically exciting and well worth opening one eye for. That's basically it. Keep your racers in the game for as long as possible and hope that one makes the rounds safely in the shortest possible time.

To be fair, some strategic elements are built in with "personality factors" ensuring that some characters will react to other characters in "unpredictable ways". Priorities can also be chosen as to whether winning means delivering to more stations than before or the same number in a shorter time.

No doubt, given time, a player could exploit these strategic factors - but there's absolutely no incentive for him to do so. The minimal control takes away any involvement and reduces the player to a mere spectator. Fine for movies, but we're talking games here.

Graphics are great... but 1982 standards. In 1985 they look amateurish and unprofessional. The much-vaunted "facial expression" routine for The Great Space Race characters comes down to merely a "happy" or "sad" face depending on decisions. Animation is of a similar primitive quality and general screen presentation is poor. Even the concept itself is not new. Bug-Byte's Star Trader and Pixel's early-but-enjoyable Trader multi-parter have been there before.

The best - comes last: the game is partly in BASIC, which can be accessed by a simple BREAK command. Unforgivable in this day and age.

In the final analysis, The Great Space Race is a major disappointment. It is a retrograde step from a company that promised innovation and quality with its first release - and charging £15 a go should be considered the next worst thing to vandalism.