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This game has the dubious distinction of being the only one in a recent batch of reviews which did not feature some form of fast load. Almost twenty minutes after initiating the load, it became hard to understand how we ever survived in the days when all games loaded like this. To be fair, this was an advance copy and it is to be hoped that fast loading will be used on the production version. Mogul please note.

As for the game itself, it is fairly straightforward space war shootout. Instructions are included in the program but the principle is simple. You are charged with defending the space station Zeta 7 from hostile spacecraft. Included among these craft appears to be a renegade Enterprise which has no doubt temporarily fallen to the Klingons. You are located in a defence pod some distance from Zeta and are equipped with a plasma bolt with which to blast the attackers.

Naturally the enemy will also fire back and, although you have shields to deflect their blasts, you may sustain sufficient damage to destroy you. You must be equally wary lest too much damage is inflicted on Zeta 7 causing it to explode spectacularly, with a horrendous number of civilian casualties.

Control is by joystick and this operates reasonably smoothly. The main problem of this game is the relatively slow movement of your plasma cannon compared with the frantic dodging of the enemy. It has been pointed out that in any real space war, the velocities involved would make it impossible to aim weapons by hand. Computer control would be essential.

This game is a fairly good illustration of that fact. Nonetheless the graphics are of a reasonable standard and the game is an average example of its type. You may feel, however, that you'd rather spend your money on something with a bit more originality.