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Wizard prang chaps, tally-ho, watch out for Jerry dropping cabbage crates at four o'clock men, etc, etc.

Biggles - the game of the film - only just creeps into the category "simulation". You'll remember that the package consists of two games. Firstly there is Timewarp - which confusingly is made up of three sub-games, and secondly The Sound Weapon, which has you flitting around the trenches in a helicopter.

As is the usual format for simulators, the top half of the screen is given over to an out-of-the-cockpit view of the proceedings, with the lower portion devoting itself to instruments, status screens, and so on.

The instruments give the basic information, with easy to read digital displays, bearing, air speed, vertical speed, fuel and damage levels and altitude, together with a map display which can be toggled from detailed to general coverage - and icons displaying the personnel and equipment aboard.

The latter gives the game away as far as any claim to be a true simulation, for The Sound Weapon is more an arcade adventure/treasure hunt, as you manoeuvre around the Western Front, ferrying people to and fro, picking up and dropping items in an attempt to thwart various evil plans. Not that the implementation is at all shoddy. The action is fairly fast and smooth and fairly colourful, but all the controls are via joystick, and there is little actual feeling that you are supposed to be piloting a helicopter - it could be anything from a flying carpet to a supersonic jet.

1. t really a simulation, but a fun flying game all the same, and you have got Timewarp on the other side of the tape.