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Flying the balloon in Pulsar Software's Up, Up And Away for the Atari computer would be easy - if there weren't kids with slingshots, lightning bolts from foreboding black clouds, windmills, kites and small planes all trying to pull you out of the sky.

So the main challenge is simply a matter of staying alive. If your balloon is hit by something, or runs out of fuel, it will deflate and plummet like a stone.

Keep your eyes open and your hands tightly on the joystick. You will have to be careful from the moment you take off.

The first danger you are likely to face is the kid with the slingshot. For some reason, that kid feels the need to sling arrows at your innocent little balloon (the miler). You can move quickly, by thrusting the joystick hard to the right, and try to avoid the shot. Alternatively, you can manoeuvre round it once the shot has been taken.

If you manage to make it past the kid, you will have either a storm or a crazy acrobatic pilot to face. The pilot seems to move completely at random. He is happy to hit your balloon with his propellor and cause your eventual downfall. As for the storm, unless you are careful a bolt of lightning will strike you with a crack of thunder.

Avoiding the previous slings and arrows was relatively simple. You will have to keep practising your manoeuvres to avoid the plane. The storm clouds are best survived by moving quickly into the spot between two clouds.

At the lower skill levels, the windmill should not pose too much of a hazard. Later, it can take considerable dexterity to survive. The trick here is to be travelling high enough and fast enough so that you don't get sucked down to the ground by the force of the suction generated by the windmill.

The kite is perhaps the trickiest challenge for beginners, but actually one of the easiest to figure out. You must restrain yourself from flying past the kite until its owner moves the kite to the right.

A nice simple game without too much violence. Something to quietly get frustrated with when you have had it up to your eyeballs with the Star Raiders, Space Invaders and Pacmen.