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Quickbeam's new all-action arcade game Fire Force held my attention as soon as it started loading, thanks to the somewhat strange loading system employed, which loads the title page as a series of two diagonal stripes! Although this is a little reminiscent of some of the Spectrum loading routines, it does seem to be slightiy quicker than the normal method.

Having loaded the game, the next thing that strikes you is the music, This has been implemented using the Advanced Music System (AMS) from Chris Jolly, who also composed the music itself (very Pink Floydlsh).

The object of the game is to lead your crack team of commandos across enemy held territory to retrieve the 'Spirit' fighter plane that has been stolen by the enemy. If you can tear yourself away from the music long enough to attempt this perilous task you will find that the enemy troopos that occupy the jungle you must traverse are every bit as crack as yours are. However, the trek through the jungle is possible, and requires quick thinking and a very quick joystick and fire-button. Unlike a lot of arcade games, simply blasting away indiscriminately will not allow you an easy way through; careful selection of each shot seems to be the order of the day. Having managed to get to the captured tighter, you are faced with the perilous flight home. Enemy planes will do their best to prevent you from doing this. The enemy planes are represented by what must be the largest 'sprites' I have ever seen on the Dragon, and despite their annoying tendency to fire air-to-air missiles at you, they can be beaten so that you can return to base for a hero's welcome.

The game is entertaining and a lot of care has obviously gone into the writing. There is little financial reward to be had for writing Dragon programs these days, and so most programs are written out of enthusiasm. Dave 'Gibbo' Gibbons is obviously a real Dragon enthusiast. I hope this program gets the recognition it deserves.

The game deserves 5/5 although I think the price is too steep at £9.95. The current trend is to lower prices, not raise them!

Roy Coates

Fire Force is the followup to the immensely popular Shaolin Master, which took the art of joystick contortionism to new extremes and therefore this game obviously has a lot to live up to - even more so with a price tag on it of just under a tenner.

After a rather odd loading pnocess and a detailed screen at the end of the loading, a crescendo of music bursts forth from the normally restrained Dragon. The music is good throughout, not just a collection of bleeps acquired from the play command, but a specially written piece.

Enough of the music, and on to the game itself, which is a development of the well trodden and oft abused shoot-'em-up theme. Here you must locate and then fly a prototype plane in a three stage game, which allows up to three little commandos for you to get blown into numerous small fragments.

Stage one has you all alone in a rain forest with only your trusty gun to keep you company. All alone, that is, apart from a few hundred other enemy troops, all with the intent to do you serious damage.

You have to blast them with your gun, which in the true tradition of films and computer games has an eternally limitless arsenal. Scattered about the landscape are large, neat graphic palms, barbed wire and walls to hide behind or dodge past.

Dodging indeed could be the operative word in this game as the detection mechanism is to put it simply not very accurate, and to lose a life when a bullet is still well in front of you is disheartening, especially when one has just passed through your entire body without leaving as much as a scratch on your chunky graphic uniform.

If you complete this stage, then you progress to a similar second stage where you again shoot all and sundry, now along a causeway.

Finally having found the plane in stage three, you fly it over the well drawn landscape adjusting height to get under bridges and collect power, and ultimately get back to base.

When you do get back I suppose you start all over again, although I can't verify this as I've never managed to get there - the game is simple in theory, but many men are lost in action.

When it comes down to it this is simply a hit and run game with a nice tune and aesthetic graphics, but it does have that "one more go" addictive quality and is a difficult challenge for arcade fans with an itchy trigger finger.

Philip Stott

The year is 1996 and the prototype IMFTC X18 Spirit attack plane has been stolen and hidden in Africa. Your mission is to find it and fly it home. Eight soldiers including you have been assigned to the job.

This phase is similar to the arcade game Commando. You begin just in front of a bridge way with enemy solders all around. On this phase you have to find a certain place when you find the place a message on the screen comes up which says you have completed that phase.

On this phase you have to run along a bridgeway in search of a runway. Along the bridgeway are enemy soldiers running and firing at anything that moves. The solders on this phase make this phase quite hard.

On this phase you have to fly the Spirit X18 home. This is not as easy as it sounds. At the start of this phase you see a plane, which is quite large, but the enemy's is much larger but less nimble.

You have to fly under bridges, over buildings, avoid palm trees and the ground, while collecting power modules, and to stay airborne. An altimeter at the side of the screen is lifesaving in this game. This is probably the hardest phase of the game.

The game has excellent sound and quite good graphics. The sprites are unusually large for a Dragon computer game.

All praises go to the programmer for producing a brilliant sequel to Shaolin Master. Praises also go to Chris Jolly for the sound track. The only thing I hate about the game is on the first phases, where you can get stuck in the palm trees. Overall: recommended, go out and buy it!

David Linsley