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Take a sizeable slice of filled 3D shoot-'em-up, throw in an element of trading and mix it all up with some extra thrills and spills and plenty of neat touches for good measure. The result? A very tasty piece of software from Gremlin. Gary Penn enjoys his launch...

So what is the Federation Of Free Traders? It was formed in 2079 after man began colonising other planets and needed more than just an efficient delivery service. Space pirates were rife and so traders had to rely on safety in numbers - the numbers grew, and the Federation was formed.

As a new recruit, you start inside a space station just off the planet Iles, with the objective of reaching the highest rank - through cadet to Commander and eventually Admiral. To do this you need in excess of 9,000 points. One of the best ways to earn points is to embark on and complete one of the fifteen different missions, varying from the simple delivery of a message, to investigating strange disappearances and seek and destroy missions. Your rank also affects the mission's toughness - the higher your rank, the harder the mission. However, it's worth bearing in mind that points awarded depend on the difficulty of the mission.

Another way to earn points is by shooting hostiles - but don't shoot any friendly craft, as you lose points. There are over 32 different types of ship to be found, all with varying degrees of intelligence - and some are more aggressive than others. So don't antagonise, just fight to survive, and don't rely on missiles as they can be jammed.

The ship has three weapons systems - primary, secondary and tertiary. Basic lasers are fitted as standard, but the secondary and tertiary systems are a matter for you and your bank balance. There are six types of drive available, five types of lasers (long range), three types of missile (also long range), four types of Plasma Projectors and Gauss guns, and sand. Sand? Yeah, sand - dump it in space and it rips through most things that get in the way.

But before you can buy anything, you need money. And to get money you need to trade proficiently. You trade for money, and use the money to improve your ship. The better your ship, the better your chances of rising through the ranks. There's plenty to trade, including miscellaneous metals, gold, silver, weapons, food, textiles, machinery, wines, gems, furs, drugs, surgical equipment and transplant organs - uh? "Yeah, you can flog them to the military - they can always put them to good use," jests author Paul Blythe.

Certain planets are good trading ground, so goad, in fact, that they are worth landing on. Having entered the atmosphere, you fly over vast solid 3D, terrain, trenches, expanses of water, roads, mountains, hills, trees and even the occasional forest, with gun emplacements and tanks on hostile planets. The system map tells you whether you can land or not.

But all this zipping around willy nilly takes it out of your shields - and once they go, you're history... unless you use the escape pod. Arm it prior to your destruction to ensure that you get picked up afterwards. You lose your ship and cargo, but at least you get to keep any credits accumulated so you can buy a new ship and re-tread the beaten path. And just to make life in the space lanes a little more bearable, there's the option to save your game to disk.

The packaging features cover artwork by Peter Jones, perhaps better known for his Larry Niven book covers, and includes an extensive but comprehensively covering all aspects of how to play and progress. There's also a music disk, featuring 20 soundtracks written by Gremlin's in-house musician, Ben Daglish. It features, apart from an original title screen score, two of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker movements, three movements from Vivaidi's Four Seasons, and five improvements from Handel's Water Music. At least you're not stuck with Strauss' Blue Danube...

Paul's programming frolics began at Sheffield Polytechnic where he was studying a course in Electronic Engineering which involved writing business software on an Apple system. His first commercial break came after replying to an advert from Mastertronic, and the result was an unreleased version of The Last V8 on the Apple.

After a short stint at Digital Integration he joined Gremlin, and helped out with Deflektor on the ST before writing his first game, 3D Galax - a rendition of that age-old arcade favourite Galaxians, with filled 3D graphics. Then came FOFT... "I love Braben and Bell's Elite," Paul confesses. "I played it and played it and thought it was brilliant, but there was always a feeling that it could have been taken further - although maybe not within the constraints of 8-bit. So I wrote 3D Galax as a test bed of routines in preparation for FOFT. It's taken about a year to write, with a fair bit of time spent looking at how to make the maths involved in the 3D calculations work efficiently.

"There's been a lot of external input though, from friends and colleagues mainly, and I've attempted to incorporate all valid suggestions - even SIMPLE. Someone jokingly suggested: "If there's a ship's computer, why not a language? So we have. It's limited, but it is fast and can be a lot of fun. You can use it as an alternative form of entertainment when you want a break from playing FOFT. Basically, I like a game with plenty of long-term appeal, which is why I've attempted to cram in as much as possible. The only problem is when to stop - I could keep making additions and refinements, but then it'd never come out!

"What's next? It's a project provisionally entitled UK101, but I can't say too much about it at the moment - other than it's a simulator involving a helicopter.

Author Paul Blythe reckons that once proficient at playing FOFT, it would take approximately 75 hours of solid play time to complete - and even then you still won't have seen everything. Once you get engrossed, it's a claim difficult to dismiss.

FOFT's definitely a big game, with plenty of blasting and trading fun to be had. The 3D graphics work well, although it must be said that as far as creating a stimulating playing environment is concerned, there is a weak point - and that's no true feeling of flight unless there are other objects on screen.

It's a little confusing at first, as the stars don't rush towards you (Paul deems this "unrealistic"), and there's only a speedometer to inform you that you're moving. But once the shooting, ducking and diving starts, this small flaw is easily forgiven and ultimately ignored. Comparisons will undoubtedly be made between FOFT and Acornsoft/Firebird's Elite, but just how the conversion of Elite fares we won't know until next month. One thing's for sure though: Elite's going to be hard pushed to top FOFT.

FOFT should be ready in time for the PC Show, all going well. Unsurprisingly, there won't be any major differences between this and the ST version - other than the music and sound effects.