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Echelon is a 3D space flight simulator set on the planet Isis. It's more than a 'take it up for a spin and land it again' type simulator. There's a planet to survey, aliens to fight and pirates to defeat.

The game makes heavy use of the kind of 3D wireframe graphics to be found in games like Elite, Cholo and Starglider. But the most revolutionary thing about Echelon - is the Lip Stik. Don't panic, and banish from your head all thought of having to walk into Boots and ask for a tube of Max Factor rouge. The Lip Stik is in fact a radical alternative to the conventional joystick fire button. Using a headset microphone - a bit like the one that flips out of Captain Scarlet's hat - it works not by speech recognition, but by voice activation. In other words you can't give different commands, but any sound you makes activate a fire button response.

The Lip Stick doesn't unfortunately come with Echelon, you have to buy it separately, but you will be able to use it with other games.

Like all flight sims, it's worth keeping the manual in your lap until you get the hang of things. There are two things you must be absolutely familiar with if you are to get anywhere, the screen display and the keyboard which has a card overlay to make things easier.

Your patrol sector consists of a 6 x 6 grid further subdivided into a 14 x 14 zone grid. An area map can be displayed on the screen while play continues, and a zone map indicates your exact position and areas already covered.

The keyboard provides a comprehensive set of controls including seven different view options plus zoom, weapon selection, teleport, map selection and so on.

Your objective is to discover the whereabouts of a pirate base, located somewhere within your patrol zone. The space pirates have developed a sophisticated cloaking system which keeps the base invisible, but there is a special sequence of six steps which, if performed in the correct order, will deactivate the device.

Each of the six steps is represented by a map which has a graphics and a text section. The maps are empty to begin with and are filled in each time an object is teleported aboard. The text with each map gives instructions on how to complete one of the six steps. The problem is the text is in pirate code, which you have to decipher. You must also work out, through the clues, the correct sequence in which the steps must be performed.

Your task is clear. You have to painstakingly search the planet surface, teleport all discovered objects aboard and use them to crack the pirate code and discover the base. A ground-based droid, or 'RPV' can be teleported to and from the planet surface to assist in the location of objects.

To help you get the hang of things, there are six training courses. You are provided with a hard copy map grid on which you can pencil in the locations of features and objects. The area from A2 to C4 is already mapped for you and this is where the training courses are located.

Echelon is a complicated game, make no mistake about it. The manual runs to 70 pages and here are lots of sophisticated and fun things to try.

The only criticism I would make is that, as with all 3D wire-frame games the 'action' is on the slow side. There are things you can do to speed things up, like 'switch off' the planet surface, but then you lose half the atmosphere. On the other hand, if you enjoy big games which require skill to master and time to complete, then this is for you.