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Atari seem to be stuck in a time warp at times. Coin-op games from the mists of time keep appearing on the latest sexy pieces of hardware. The latest culprit is Steel Talons, which has already appeared on the Lynx and now makes it debut on the Falcon. No complex flight sim stuff here - phew! It's a straight shoot-'em-up, your helicopter vs the world. There are only seven controls to worry about, all on your lovely new Falcon and Jaguar controller.

You are in command of the craft's altitude and the tail rotor, as well as controlling which way the nose points. To deal with the hordes of legitimate targets you have a rather wonderful cannon and a limited supply of missiles. The bird flies in a proper helicopter manner, just dip the nose down to move forward. Altitude is limited to 1,000 feet - the higher you go, the more enemies can get a bead on you. So fast and low is the order of the day, most of the time, until sneakier enemy units start appearing on top of mountains and the aircraft start buzzing you from above. You have a choice of looking through the cockpit or viewing your whirlybird from above and behind, which is often easier.

You have a targeting square which moves about the screen locking onto suitable targets. Fire your weapon and they're history, you really can't miss as long as you keep locked on and don't fly too close.

Enemy hits knock out your fuel supply - when this hits zero it's time to crash and burn. You have a number of complete refuels - effectively lives. You can crash into the scenery as many times as you like, though this uses up valuable fuel. At the end of each blast you are awarded more fuel - the quicker you obliterate the enemy, the more fuel you get. And that's about it.

There is no complex set of keyboard commands that you have to learn, you don't have to land after each mission or bother about ECMs, chaff, flares or even enemy homing missiles.

The missions are short and furious. It's dead simple to blast everything. Each landscape is small and dotted with targets, tanks, AA, trucks, bunkers and enemy helicopters and aircraft. The aircraft are the worst, if you don't catch them quickly while they are still on the ground, then they're complete swines until you shoot them down. You need to hover, get some altitude and use the tail rotor to turn and face them. As soon as you get your target locked on, quickly fire a missile. Otherwise they keep buzzing you, chipping away at your fuel with their cannons.

It's easy to fly, you can soon be skimming through valleys and following roads shooting up convoys in no time. The map has a strange time-space effect, go north off the to and you appear at the bottom. Einstein called this the "wrap-round" effect. The landscapes vary from deserts to chock-a-block with mountains. Missions take place at night, duck and in fog as well as on glorious sunny days when you can see for miles.

If you know a friend with a Falcon then you can connect the two machines via the serial ports and fly your chopper in a head-to-head battle against them - an excellent feature.

The graphics are light sourced 3D polygons, which means the colour of each face changes in relation to the light source - pretty groovy, eh? There are graduated shades of colour in the skies and the landscape adding a feeling of depth. Your helicopter is rather small and weedy-looking in the external view, a decent 3D shape wouldn't have hurt. Most of the 3D shapes are simple - your cannon flash is a yellow triangle - hardly impressive. The 3D world is respectably full of objects and moves fast, not blisteringly so, but fast enough to keep things good and playable. There is a little slowdown when there are a lot of targets about.

There are simultaneous sound effects and music, and the volume can be adjusted to suit. The engine note changes with your speed, but lacks punch. The cannon noise is pathetic - hundreds of steel cannon shells blasted across the sky sounds like a damp squib.

The Falcon's internal speaker doesn't help either. It's a waste of time, disable it at once. With some decent amplification from the headphone socket, things start to sound a whole lot better. Each mission starts with a snatch of digitised speech offering some helpful advice. Looking over someone's shoulder while they play isn't quite the visual and aural treat you might have expected from a Falcon game.

It's hard not to feel a twinge of disappointment when you first load Steel Talons. It doesn't look wildly impressive. The light-sourced 3D routines and colour graduations are quite pretty, but for the most part it looks very ordinary. It's not until you start playing that it shows its true colours. It's playable, it's addictive - good heavens! It's a good game. Your helicopter is easy to control and the action is non-stop. The missions are fairly simple but they are varied enough to keep you on your toes.

The Falcon needs games support so any release is good news. Steel Talons won't set the world on fire, but it's a sound arcade game. Using old coin-ops means that you get games that have actually proved themselves, but you don't get innovation.

The Falcon has enormous potential as a games player but Steel Talons doesn't really stretch it. As 3D shoot-'em-ups go it's an enjoyable and playable blast. It's simple and fun, as long as you weren't expecting more you should be happy. With bags of gung-ho, death or glory style, flying it's a game that grows on you.

1. Scores where it counts, it's playable and addictive.
2. Sets a fast pace.
3. Easy to fly.

1. Not the most eye-popping looks, especially your helicopter.
2. Once you've played a few missions there's only more of the same to look forward to.