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Chocks away with MicroProse's latest simulation, enabling you to fly against the Red Baron or the Red Army. Andy Nuttall reaches for the skies...

"In what seemed like no time at all, I was flying, wind in my hair and the sharp smell of fuel bringing back memories of the last time I was up. My Camel was a good beast - I hadn't been up in her before, but she had a good pedigree. Like the pup before her, she was strong and solid, but I was finding it difficult to manoeuvre her easily.

"Manfred Von Richthofen was up that morning as well, I remember. Nobody had really heard of him before, so I wasn't apprehensive at all - as far as I was concerned it was going to be just another dogfight.

"Suddenly, everything was quiet... Even my engine seemed to be making no noise - it was pretty scary, I can tell you! Then, in the distance, I could make out a small shape from just below the clouds. Then, all at once, it was upon me, and it was gone: a long, thin metal cylinder than made a whistling sound as it passed a few feet above my head.

"With thoughts flashing through my mind as to what the thing was, I decided to fly through the clouds to investigate. Pulling back on the stick, the Camel turned and rose up into the whiteness... In seconds I was above them, an image frozen in my mind that would stay with me forever. A huge, dart-shaped aircraft heading straight for me at a speed which gave me no time to get away. Thoughts flashed through my mind: should I fly for the aircraft, and die for my country? Should I jump out, even without a parachute, and take my chances? Should I try and manoeuvre past him, and then get away quickly...?"

To find out what happened in the end of that little story-ette, you simply must play MicroProse's Dogfight. It puts you slap bang in the middle of an aerial battle with any number of enemy aircraft, all computer-controlled and hell-bent on your demise.

You can fly a Sopwith Camel, and you can set yourself against up five fighter jets - just to see what would happen, and to test your wits and skill more than any flight simulator ever has before. MicroProse call this a "What if..." scenario, because you can take any of twelve different planes from anywhere in history, and throw them together into combat.

MicroProse are extremely keen for this to be described not as a simulation at all, but an arcade game - because most of the technicalities such as taking-off and landing aren't there. You can begin a dogfight from whichever position you like: behind the enemy, above them, side-by-side, head-to-head or bounce from above. It's also more of an arcade-style game because MicroProse have seen fit to make it one-player only. If there's ever a game which is crying out for a two-player option, it's Dogfight. Apparently there is a possibility that later updates of the game may have a two-player or a link-up mode, but it's doubtful.

The main reason to be annoyed about the lack of two-player mode is because your ST is so damn good at it. Even on Easy mode, with you given the advantage of being behind your enemy, it's still incredibly difficult to out-manoeuvre your foe. If you think that sitting in a Mirage IIIE or a Sea Harrier, and trying to shoot down a Fokker DR1 or a Messerschmitt is easy, then think again. These things fly so quickly your target has disappeared as soon as locate it. "But why don't you just use a missile?" you say. Aha, it's because most air-to-air missiles are heat-seeking, and are programmed to detect the heat from a jet aircraft - so the heat from a propeller plane isn't enough for it to pick up. So, for the first few attempts at knocking other planes down from the sky, you get knocked down from the sky. Lots, in fact.

Fortunately, even though the game doesn't install onto hard drive, there is no hanging around before you can go back into the air and try again. The presentation in Dogfight is where it scores most brownie points - it really is second to none, including other MicroProse games.

Once you've got the hang of flying around and shooting other planes down in Duel Mode, and tried meddling around with history in the What If? option, you can then go on to the really meaty part of the game. The missions.

These take place in six different scenarios: WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands and Syria. Each is well-planned, and as you would imagine it fits in well with the point in history. The WW1 strategy sends you out as sone of a group of Sopwith Camels, with a view to taking out a couple of Observation Balloons and a Zeppelin. Lots of Fokkers are launched to try and wipe you out - this is generally where the ST-controlled Camels get shot down, leaving you to get the other targets yourself.

The Falklands scenario pits British Sea Harriers against Argentinian Mirages. The British Task Force is split into two groups, one south of Port Stanley and one positioned north of Falkland Sound. Taking the role of the British, your mission is to defend both halves of the Task Force against Argentinian air attacks - with a priority given to certain aircraft carriers. (You're getting into this now, aren't you?)

As well as doing your heroic duty, you have to find time to destroy a couple of Argentinian defensive installations, so that the Task Forces can move in.

In the Vietnam mission, you take on the role of a USAF pilot with an order to knock out the Haiduong railyard, along with some radar sites and SAM installations. You can set your group of F4 Phantoms up to patrol, attack, support or defend various sites, and they go off and get on with it while you just concentrate on completing the mission objectives.

The other three missions are similar to those - fairly simple if you're a flight sim addict, but not easy to complete. You can play the enemy as well, remember, so even when you finish the six allied missions, you've still got plenty of challenges ahead. This isn't a game you're going to finish in a hurry.

The main area which lets Dogfight down is the sound. OK, so the ST's capabilities in the aural department aren't supreme, but you expect something more than a dull thudding sound when you fire your machine guns. To make it worse, all or the aircraft make the same noise when firing cannon-type weapons, and later aircraft make a dull "whoosh" sound when launching missiles. Oh, and not forgetting the crash when you die, of course, and the low hum of the engines, but that's about your lot - a distinct lack of atmosphere.

Dogfight is a bit of a risk for MicroProse. It's difficult to make a game of this type exciting, but by cutting out all the technicalities they're managed it pretty well. If you are into techie flight sims, you can add in details such as taking off and landing, but they've pitched it right for most people. It's a good game as it is, but if MicroProse add in a two-player head-to-head mode and a few more sound effects, we'll have a classic on our hands.

1. Fast and playable simulation.
2. Loads of missions to complete.

1. Poor sound effects.
2. One player only.