Let's get one thing straight right away - MicroProse don't program computer games. They do simulations, alright? Certainly they are enjoyable, certainly they are entertaining, but they are adult entertainment, not games.

Simon Barnard, the software manager at MicroProse's new UK subsidiary, used this "adult entertainment" tag quite a few times during my visit. I began to expect that a full-blown Samantha Fox simulation was about to bust out of a back room, but no, the accent is on violence not sex.

What, I wanted to know, was a big American software house doing setting up shop in the slow and somewhat pokey little Cotswold town of Tetbury? The place is noted only for its annual woolsack race, a preponderance of antique emporia and the proximity of Highgrrove House, where the Wales's live between Royal tours and tiffs with the press.

Of course, the local garden centre has just copped a Royal Warrant, By Appointment to Prince William's Pet Bunnies, Purveyors of Rabbit Pellets. Might the chance of Di popping in to pick up a polo simulation be the attraction?

Simon says no. The reason is simply that the right premises were available, at the right price, perhaps half what it would have cost to set up in some stark and anonymous industrial estate.

This is an important factor to a new company, just starting up; having to watch the costs until turnover is established and the money starts rolling in. And besides, Stewart Bell, the managing director, lives just, down the road and didn't fancy moving.

But a moment ago you were the third biggest, er, entertainment software company in the US of A, says. Well, MicroProse Inc. is pretty big, but MicroProse Ltd. is new, British and staffed entirely by Brits. One supposes that had there been a Yank invasion, only a flash penthouse in the docklands developments would have sufficed, but the home team know the real centre of Britain is out in the shires.

Quite right, I live nearby too. And I distinctly remember that the shop that MicroProse have taken over was previously filled with trendy furniture, impossible lamps, and 'objets'.

Now the main display in the big front shop window is Stewart Bell himself, sitting at his desk just a few feet from passersby, with a marvellous view of the old Cotswold stone covered marketplace.

Obviously not one of the backroom boys. Maybe he just wants to be first to the door handle when Di drops in. Considering the olde worlde village setting, the MicroProse offices are exactly the sort of premises you would associate with a sunrise industry.

Downstairs is all split level open plan, and upstairs all skylights and computers.

The skylights provide perfect lighting for Julie Burness-Hand, the company's graphic designer, responsible for advertising and pack art. Julie is another Cotswold local, but while the rest of us were struggling through the snowdrifts this winter she was off skiing in the Alps.

You don't get let off that easy though. Julie came back with a broken thumb (honest, it was the toboggan ride on the last day) which is not much help at work and has given her reason to be even more sensitive about her double-barrelled name.

From action girl to action man; Simon Barnard has impeccable qualifications for managing battle simulation software, as he used to take part in the real thing.

Simon is ex-British army, mustered out just before the Falklands hit the fan. I rather got the impression that he was put out to have missed it, but there is nothing of the Rambo about him, just the quiet confidence that comes from experience.

Simon finally reveals the secret of the sleepy village location. Nip out the back of the "shop" and you find yourself not in a cobbled lane, but in a 5000 square foot warehouse, filled with dexion racks - and they're not empty either. They are jammed to the rafters with dried flowers, weird lamps, 'objets' - yes, it's the last tenant's stock, not yet moved out. But eventually this will be the centre of MicroProse's distribution.

Marketing and distribution are what MicroProse UK is all about, at least for the present. Most of the product will continue to come from the USA, though a contribution by British programmers is already underway.

Downstairs the accent is all on marketing. This is where sales administrator Karen Flannery and her secretary Lorna Weeks do their thing, and sales manager John Tweedy keeps a desk there too, though his job takes him out of the office a lot.

Finally there is Paul Rowley, finance manager, to keep track of the cash. It is Paul who was so smitten with the office Amstrad PC that he had taken it home, so I couldn't get a picture. Hope you made out a chitty, Paul.

I am still not clear why F-15 Strike Eagle is not a game. My copy (for the Amstrad PC) says "America's #1 Fun Combat Simulator!" on the front of it, and a sticker reading "Includes Libyan Mission" has been added.

Maybe your average American adult is more playful than the British model. Or maybe they need to be convinced that a program has its serious aspects before they can relax and enjoy it. But a close look at the back reveals that this is the British packaging.

F-15 Strike Eagle certainly sticks to the plot. A lot of effort has gone into the realism aspect, in fact it is presented as a flight simulator with armament. No greasy kid's stuff here.

And sure enough, select the Libyan Mission and there is the Gulf of Sirte on your radar plot, with Gadaffi's bunker marked as the primary target.

Up ahead is an enemy aircraft. Bank left, bank right, sight through the headup display, ya-ta-ta ya-ta-ta, gottim! Ooop... missile launch warning, better drop a decoy flare. Arm the sidewinders, pull up, immelmann, wheredego?

F-15 Strike Eagle should be out shortly on the Amstrad CPCs, but in the meantime it and many other titles are already available for the Amstrad PC. They are actually IBM versions, of course, come over from the land where a PC is just another home computer.

MicroProse looks to do well out of the Amstrad PC. Most British, ah sorry! Most other British software houses have been caught without any entertainment products for the PC, but MicroProse had suffi cient to bestow eight, count them, eight PC titles upon me for review purposes.

As these retail for £20-£25 each, they constitute a bribe rather greater than union scale even in this business - luckily I am incorruptible.

The other seven PC titles are:

Silent Service: A submarine scenario, looks brilliant on the Amiga (sigh), also available for the CPC's.

Decision In The Desert: Tanks at El Alamein; Monty is on the cover, but you are in command.

Spitfire Ace: Defend London in the blitz. Apparently British pilots also have the right stuff.

Crusade In Europe: D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge. Late on parade as usual, yanks. Doesn't Ike look young in his uniform?

Hellcat Ace: Dogfights over the Pacific. So they don't always fight over here.

Conflict In Vietnam: Ooo-er, "Your Personal Time Machine Into History". I pass on this one, being old enough to remember the whole sorry mess. Americans will continue to refight this war, trying to make it come out right. At least this way the landscape doesn't get torn up.

Solo Flight: A real novelty this, a flight simulator with no guns. Significantly, it is also the only scenario of the batch that takes place over the territory of the continental USA. Cessna, the aircraft manufacturers, are said to use this as part of their pilot training courses.

All the above use the IBM four colour CGA type screens, which work fine on the Amstrad, but it is a pity that the IBM standard isn't up to the Amstrad's eight colour, two intensity display.

It is unrealistic to expect all these titles to get a rewrite just to put more colour in the British market, but one can hope for the Amstrad PC to make it big over the water. Then we'll see.

The excitement in the MicroProse office is presently centered on Gunship, a simulation of a helicopter gunship in a, wait for it, combat role.

The Commodore version should be on the streets as you read this, with the Amstrad CPC version coming in July.

This is a big complicated simulation with more features, scenarios and options than I cared to count in what was after all a C64 product.

Still, it looked very good on the Commodore and there is no reason it shouldn't move up on to the Amstrad looking even better.

It cost over a million pounds to develop Gunship. That is more than some software companies have been selling for lately.

MicroProse are sending two British programmers to the United States, whether to learn about the C64 or teach them about the CPC6128 I was unable to ascertain.

One, 22 year old Darryl' Dennies, has already gone, the other has not yet been chosen. They will be responsible in part for the Amstrad version of Gunship, and hopefully more to come.

Loading from the notoriously slow Commodore disk drive takes so long you need a loading screen. Gunship's is rather special, with the helicopter rising up into the screen seemingly under its own power.

And all the while an interrupt driven rendition of the Green Beret's theme tune (from Apocalypse Now) cloaks the noise of the drive.

MicroProse have obtained a license for the music, unlike a number of other software companies who are super-sensitive to violations of their own copyright while cheerfully ripping off the composers.

Disc will be nearly essential for gunship, as it is too big, at least on the Commodore, to read in all at once.

There is a C64 cassette version, but I got the impression that this was primarily a concession to the Brits, as Americans all have disk drives.

MicroProse will probably have to redesign their standard pack. The PC stuff comes in a wallet too slim to accomodate a cassette.

More license deals are to come, including a simulation-of-the-book treatment of Red Storm Rising, an Amstrad version being mooted for the end of the year.

The plot involves a Soviet nuclear submarine. Don't worry if you haven't heard of the book, we're sure to get the movie, American literary efforts always travelling best preserved in celluloid.

...was not a dispute, according to Simon. US Gold and MicroProse USA had a 30 year contract covering licensing and distribution, but it could be revoked on 90 days notice.

MicroProse gave notice and revoked it, not because US Gold were doing a bad job, but because they thought they could do a better one. And yes, they did know about the Amstrad PC 1512 when the decision was made.

The move brought a lot of press speculation because this was the first time anyone had pulled out of a licensing agreement with US Gold, who are a very successful company. Probably they didn't like it, but that's business.

And business is what MicroProse are here to do. Despite talk of financial prudence, they have the backing of a major US company. They have their beachhead well inland, and the personnel to hold it, and most of all they have plenty of ammunition.

They aren't going to go away.