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You (Wilberforce by name) have been left on duty - presumably as chief bird scarer - with the nitwit of the week, Freddy. While you do your best to kill the flying fiends, Freddy (your ever-faithful companion) stands around flapping his arms like a demented chicken.

Such behaviour attracts an albatross-sized hawk which plucks Freddy from the ground. It's your job to rescue him.

The left and right arrow keys move you around, the space bar fires and the down arrow gives a pause facility. There are two options open to you: kill all the flies that whizz across the screen, or hit the hawk with bullets. Your rifle fires pebble-size ammo, so you can imagine how difficult it is to wipe out the insects. Shooting the hawk is easier. If you do this (and don't kill freddy in the process - no matter how tempting a target!) Freddy will plummet earthwards.

Even with his frantic armwaving, Freddy has the aerodynamics of a brick. You now have two other choices: carry on plugging away at the birds in the hope of killing all the flies (thus saving Freddy - even if he's inches from death) or run across the screen, drop your rifle, pick up a basket and try to save him.

Once Freddy is safe and sound, you return to your gun, he starts flapping about again and that hawk zooms in once more.

The game isn't limited to hawks, flies and Freddy though. There are embryo birds which descend to earth if you hit them. Should they touch anything on the way down, they return to their shells and soar up to the skies again. If you touch one while it's bobbing about on the ground, a life is lost. You can stand on them though if you're careful.

While you avoid the birds, kill the flies and rescue Freddy, yellow eggs drop towards you. Contact with one isn't a free breakfast, but an early death: both Freddy and Wilberforce are limited to three lives. At least death ends the incessant chirruping from roosting birds, which gets a bit irritating.

Though I found Dragon Hawk a disappointing game, I did keep playing it. In fact, I couldn't stop the program; it won't take no for an answer. Pressing N to the another game Y/N didn't end the game, but merely gave you the chance to use another name.

However, if you want a fun game to encourage anti-social behaviour, this could be the one.