Producer: Psion, 48K
£7.95

An early Spectrum program, and always popular, this simulates the effects of flying a single seater light aircraft, including landing and taking off. There are 2 airfields (one very difficult and surrounded by hills), lakes, beacons and a very good map of the whole area. It takes many minutes to fly over the whole map. Instrument flying is essential to success and, as usual, there is a lot of accompanying instruction to digest. The cockpit view is simple but oddly realistic. If you enjoy contemplative games, then this is still one of the best, although watch out for some oddities if you try looping the loop - the program doesn't seem to cope with that!

Producer: Psion, 48K
£7.95

An early Spectrum program, and always popular, this simulates the effects of flying a single seater light aircraft, including landing and taking off. There are 2 airfields (one very difficult and surrounded by hills), lakes, beacons and a very good map of the whole area. It takes many minutes to fly over the whole map. Instrument flying is essential to success and, as usual, there is a lot of accompanying instruction to digest. The cockpit view is simple but oddly realistic. If you enjoy contemplative games, then this is still one of the best, although watch out for some oddities if you try looping the loop - the program doesn't seem to cope with that!

THE COMPLETE YS GUIDE TO FLIGHT SIMS

Oh cripes. Whose idea was this? Couldn't we do it on something else? Nah, we promised. How about putting if off for another month? Or we could make JONATHAN DAVIS do it? Heh heh. Right, where's he got to? Ah ha!

Neeeeeow! Dakka dakka dakka! Kaboom! "Crikey, Ginger, pull up! Over."

"I can't! I think my flaps have gone a bit funny. Over." Neeeow! Boom!

"Bail out! Bail out! Over." Dakka dakka dakka. (Ricochet noises.)

"Er, okay then. Over and out."

Sorry about that, just trying to inject a bit of excitement into this thing because, let's face it, flight sims aren't exactly the most exciting bits of software around.

Or are they?

No, They're not. But there are loads of them about, and people keep buying them. Why is this? Perhaps we'd better investigate.

For thousands of years man has dreamt of flight... (Cut the crap, Ed) Erm, well, perhaps it's because they demand a bit more thought than your average arcade game. Fast reactions are all very well, but what about using your noddle occasionally? Keeping a plane in flight isn't just a matter of wobbling your joystick about a bit, which is the impression that lesser games give. You've got angles of attack to worry about, altitude, navigation, weapons systems, undercarriage... the list is endless. As are the manuals usually. And that's another thing. If you've never played one before you'll need to spend hours wading through one of these breeze-block tomes before you can even get off the ground.

Once you've got the thing up in the air though you're well away. With any luck there'll be lots of scenery to look at and plenty of enemy thingies to 'take out'. You might even like to indulge in a bit of aerobatics to pass the time. The one thing you should always keep an eye on though is the ground. Stay away from this at all costs. Unless you're landing, of course, which is another story altogether.

SO WHAT'S A FLIGHT SIM THEN, EH?

In compiling this guide I was faced with the usual problem - what exactly is a flight simulation? What are the criteria? Where do you draw the line? I decided to seek the advice of one of Europe's leading experts in the field of computer games.

"Er, Matt? (Cough.) Matt?' I ventured.

"Mmm?"

"Would you have said that, say, Fighter Pilot was a flight sim? Huh? Matt?" I enquired cheerily.

"Er, probably," he replied.

"How about Harrier Attack?"

"I expect it is, yes."

"Or Night Raider?"

"Um, look, I've got to go out. To the, er, shops. I'll see you later. Maybe."

Unperturbed. I decided to try Andy, but he didn't appear to hear me. I also tried ringing up a few friends. They all seemed to be out.

So it's all down to me then. Well, I reckon that really, in a flight sim, you ought to be in control of a plane of some sort. Ideally you'd get a 3D view out of the cockpit, but I'll be flexible and allow ones where you see the plane on the screen from the back (like ATF) and even ones where you see the view in 2D (from the top or something).

Another important guideline is the number of keys. Preferably there should be at least 2,452 of them, each with about three different functions. But, again, I'll allow a generous margin of error and set the bottom line at six.

And finally there's the manual. Obviously this should be as large and impenetrable as possible, with lots of incomprehensible acronyms that you have to keep looking up in the glossary at the back. A rough guide to length? Let's say 500-600 pages for a decent one or, if the game comes in an ordinary cassette box, an inlay card that folds out into a thin strip long enough to wrap round Matt's tummy at least two and a half times.

So now we know just what makes up a flight sim, let's take a look at a few…

RATINGS

Once again, the normally-so-versatile YS rating system doesn't really seem too appropriate here (Instant appeal? Addictiveness?). So what we've done is to come up with a revised system, specially tailored to meet the needs of today's flight sim. Let's have a nosey...

The View: Can you see anything nice out of the window? Or is it all just green and blue wiggly lines? And does the scenery glide around smoothly or jerk around like an Allegro with a dodgy clutch?

Realism: This can often be determined by the number of keys the game uses. So that's just what we've done. Counted 'em. As there are 40 keys on your basic Speccy, and each one can be doubled or even tripled up, the maximum comes out to exactly 100. Handy, eh?

Dakka Factor: Is there much to shoot? Or is it all a matter of map-reading, gauge-watching and other such nonsense? And once you've shot whatever it is, does it explode dramatically and plummet to the ground leaving a trail of smoke behind it? Or not?

Net Weight: A crucial part of any flight sim is all the junk that comes with it. So, adding together all the disks, maps, manuals, stickers and the box, what do the YS scales make of it? (All weights are, of course, approximate.) (In degrees.)

Flight Simulation
Psion

As we found earlier, this was the first Speccy flight sim ever, and it shows. It comes on a cassette with the game on one side and 'Blank Tape' conveniently written on the other. See which one you prefer. It actually looks quite promising (the inlay card is massive, with loads of miniscule instructions) and, despite the fact that it's largely written in Basic, the game moves along at a fair old rate. The problem is the scenery. All there is to look at on the ground (which is blue) is the runway, Lake Orb (which is round), Lake Tri (which is triangular) and some hills (which you can't see at all, but you'll know if you crash into them). The plane responds to your controls very sluggishly, but luckily you don't have to use them much because a 'flight' generally consists of taking off, pointing the plane towards the other airport, coming back three and a half house later and landing. If you crash there's a lengthy disaster effect and then you're asked if you want another flight. Press N and the program stops. Hmm. A legend in its own time, but a bit crap in this one.

FIRST STEPS TOWARDS PAPERLESS LEARNING

Theodora Wood considers the current state and the potential of educational software.

Computers have now found their way into approximately one in 10 British households. Half a million Spectrums alone have been sold and presumably at least twice as many adults and children have unwrapped their cartons and plugged-in their hardware. Some will have caught the programming bug, others are small business users, and a large proportion have been shooting-down the alien hordes.

Software houses were quick to supply the games market and some have provided educational software but it is only recently that the numbers of educational titles have risen, with the large educational publishing houses realising the potential of the market, complete with glossy packaging and nation-wide distribution. At present Britain lags behind the U.S. market, both in the range and number of educational programs available, and is following roughly the same pattern of development.

The biggest number of programs available, for both the Spectrum and ZX-81, are of the rule-drill variety. They operate in the same way as the most traditional methods of teaching, by showing examples of the subject to be taught and then testing, sometimes by games. They can be divided into those for the younger age group - three to nine - and those which are aimed at older children as learning packages.

For the younger children the lack of reading skill places a greater emphasis on the use of graphics, animation and sound in the programs used to teach bask skills such as letter recognition, counting, simple mathematics. It is important with programs such as those that there should be a substantial element of interaction with the computer - children love pressing buttons. The testing part of the programs provides for that in most cases and duplicates the worksheets and workbooks used in schools throughout the country in electronic form.

First Numbers - Collins Educational, 16K Spectrum, £5.95 - is a series of five programs on one tape illustrating the concept of the electronic workbook. Instead of the examples remaining inert on the page, they bound round the screen in full colour; hopping frogs, seals bouncing balls on their noses, and elephants moving across the screen, rather too slowly, to the tune Nellie the Elephant, all emphasise the numbers one to 10. A program illustrates how to write the numbers by first drawing them on the screen and then flashing arrows following the direction of the pencil, identical to a workbook, except that there the arrows do not flash.

In contrast, there is Alphabet - Widget, 48K Spectrum, £5.95 - a program to teach letter recognition which uses no on-screen movement to illustrate its point. Its use of the Spectrum sound capability is lamentable, as the reward for a correct answer is the same for every letter, and can become extremely tedious even for the youngest child. When attempting to teach letter recognition, which is essentially a sound/shape matching activity, it is important that an adult should be present, as without a voice element the objective cannot be realised.

For the younger child who has little or no reading ability, better capability of the Spectrum in the area of colour, graphics and sound make it a superior machine to the ZX-81. Moving up the age range, a considerable number of programs operate on the electronic workbook level, from junior up to 0 level and beyond, and they are widely-available either at department stores or by mail order.

The ZX-81 appears more regularly in those titles, where more on-screen text can be used and flashing graphics are not so important. That kind of program would be a valuable aid to learning for the motivated child and for examination revision. Rose Cassettes and University Software specialise in that kind of programs.

Quiz programs are an extension of the question-and-answer format, such as the ones produced by Psion - 16148K Spectrum, £6.95 - for geography and history. Time Traveller - John Wiley, 48K Spectrum only, £9.95 - extends the scope by using the format of an adventure game, complete with wild animals, soldiers and priests, at the same time testing a child's knowledge of history through having to answer questions on historical fact correctly before passing through the time warps from 2000 BC to the present. This type of quiz would obviously have more attractions than the more straightforward versions, and would be more entertaining for groups.

All the programs mentioned so far are an extension of traditional teaching methods and provide a paperless way of learning subjects as diverse as O level French revision and the history of inventions. For the younger age groups they could be a valuable aid to learning basic skills, if used for short periods, and should be compared to other hardware aids such as Speak and Spell, the Talking Computer and little Professor to assess their effectiveness.

They also provide an introduction to the use of the computer and its keyboard. In the short term a child's interest would be retained probably by the novelty value of using a computer but that may later prove ephemeral as electronic workbooks become a more familiar feature at home and at school. Older children could use them in conjunction with their studies to clarify and identify areas on which they need to concentrate.

Simulation programs present a real departure from the electronic workbook and use the ability of the computer to deal with interactive variables to the full. Simulation programs at their best place a child in a real situation, engaging attention in an imaginative way. Again, the superior Spectrum graphics and colour invalidate the use of the ZX-81 and most titles are available for 48K Spectrum only.

Heinemann has produced a package for the eight-to-12 age group, Ballooning, which is accompanied by a glossy booklet explaining ballooning, with its history, development and suggestions for further activities. The balloon moves over a simulated landscape at the top of the screen while a child interacting with information on the dials placed below - altitude, temperature, fuel, rate of climb or fall - controls the upward or downward drift of the craft.

The child can stop the action to make a decision more coolly or mark position on a graph relating to altitude and distance, thus simulating a barograph. By practising at the controls of the balloon, a novice balloonist can execute various missions set by the program, some of which are extremely complicated, and in so doing become aware of the interaction between the temperature of the air inside the balloon, its rise and fall and its limitations as a flying machine.

The variety of other activities suggested in the accompanying booklet ensures that the program is open-ended and the concepts introduced in the package explored in different ways. Meanwhile, arguments rage as to who has achieved the most number of safe landings. Flight Simulation - 48K Spectrum, Psion, £7.95 - and to a lesser extent Nightflite - 16K Spectrum, Hewson - together with a 16K ZX-81 version, are similar programs suitable for nine-year-olds upwards and continue the theme of flying a machine but with greater difficulty level. Realtime means precisely that and there is no stopping the action to assimilate the information on the dials.

Map reading and basic navigational skills are also needed to move the aircraft round the landscape in the case of the 48K version, and the impression of reality is enhanced by being in the cockpit, seeing the landmarks below, and experiencing the tilt of the aeroplane in relation to the horizon, as well as the dizzying effect of rushing towards the ground at an increasingly frightening rate.

Simulation programs prove an imaginative vehicle for the introduction of the terminology used and the concepts involved in a particular activity and accomplish it in a different way from the rule and drill programs; instead of learning by example a child learns by the consequences of actions, albeit within the limitations of a simulated micro-world.

Learning by direct experience is more valuable than learning by rote and one would expect that more programs of this kind would be available in 1984, to introduce children to a wide variety of concepts and situations.

There are also programs for both the Spectrum and ZX-81 which operate in specialist areas not covered by the rule-and-drill format. Programs such as Firework Music and Tuner - 16/48K Spectrum range for 16K ZX-81, Software Cottage, £5 each - introduce children of almost any age to the basics of musical notation, pitch and keyboard use, and are ideal for use where a household has a computer but no musical instruments as, sad to say, only a minority of children retain an interest in playing music beyond a certain age.

Bridge Software produces a program, Night Sky - 16K Spectrum, £8.90 - which shows the stars visible at any time of the day or night from the Midlands - 0°, 52°N - on any day of the year. The second program in the pack shows the stars appearing in order of magnitude, with the 20 brightest stars named. Although operating within a specialist field, this type of program is of note as it adds an extra dimension to the star maps in books; moving the time on hour by hour shows the viewer how the stars rise and fall throughout the night and their positions throughout the year.

It also gives city dwellers a chance to look at the stars which are rarely seen through the orange glare of street lights and seen even more rarely at 3 o'clock in the morning.

The state of the art of educational software for the Spectrum and the ZX-81 introduces children to the keyboard of the computer - just watch a three-year-old press ENTER - and the notion of paperless work while reinforcing the learning processes involved in gaining skills which are basic to any educational curriculum. They can also introduce new concepts in an exciting way through the use of simulation techniques. None of them however, deals with the use of the computer in the programming field.

The Microelectronics Education Programme was designed initially for use in schools and contains some programs which teach skills which are the stepping stones to logic and programming techniques, as well as the more usual rule-and-drill programs. At £24.95 per pack of seven to eight programs, it seems rather expensive for home use but its use in schools is a selling point for distributors such as W H Smith.

Farmer introduces problem-solving and reasoning to the seven-to-11 group, while Watchperson does a similar task for the eight-to-11 group and includes route planning. Mazes are a graphic way to introduce logical processes and many of them are available in the games section of the software departments of stores.

To learn programming as a technique, the most innovative and child- centred way is to use Logo, a high-level language developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under the guidance of Seymour Papert. Instead of using the computer to help a child or young adult to learn certain skills, the user programs the computer to execute commands. Logo enables children from about nine upwards to achieve results which would be much more difficult to achieve using the Basic language common to the Spectrum and ZX-81.

By the use of simple commands, a child can instruct a robot/turtle to move round the screen or on the floor, drawing as it proceeds. Imagine telling someone to walk round a square shape; walk 10 steps, then turn right; at that point it would be absolutely essential to know how many degrees to turn through, otherwise the shape would have no chance of being a square. Similarly with Logo and it is in that way that the value of such a program can be seen, as geometric functions are learned not by looking at a text book but by practical use of them in an activity which has been chosen by the child.

Logo does much more than introduce children to geometric function, however, because by choosing a problem, like drawing a house, the child has to split the activity into its component parts - roof, windows, chimneys - and find the best way of achieving the desired result. That type of problem-solving can be applied to any number and variety of activities and the adult version is well-known as critical path analysis, involving the exploration of logistics to determine the order in which activities are executed.

Logo also introduces children to the basic concepts of programming in a simplified form - to loops, nested loops et at - and for those who have no immediate knowledge of, or affinity with, those concepts, its simplicity is an easy introduction to them. In future years robots and artificial intelligence will enter many areas of life and a knowledge of the logical way in which a programmable machine works will undoubtedly be a skill which many will need to learn.

Snail Logo - Spectrum 48K, CP Software, £9.95 - is an example of this type of program which can be used either with the Zeaker turtle on the floor or displays, if desired, a snail moving on the screen.

The documentation with the program is excellent, describing the concepts behind it and giving examples of programs to try. They lead the novice from simple routines to more complex ones involving the use of named procedures - subroutines - and variables. Although there are ample facilities to copy the program being worked on, there is no means of saving them, which is very irritating, as obviously children might wish to evolve a program in the space of days or weeks. It would be better also if the snail could be seen on the screen at the same time. No doubt other versions of Logo will be introduced in the coming year.

Looking back on the development of educational software at the start of 1984, the main impression is that the field has scarcely been explored. Two obvious areas where development is necessary for the Spectrum and the ZX-81 is a simple word processor allowing children to type-in a piece of writing and then correct it, and the interactive database program similar to that of the Tree of Life which runs on the BBC micro.

Potential exists in the simulation/adventure format and the use of Logo to stimulate children into areas of activity which would be impossible without the use of the computer. While rule-and-drill programs can be a pleasant way of learning basic skills and an introduction to the computer and its keyboard, their over-use could have the opposite effect to that desired by deterring children using computers for life.

So what developments can we expect in the next few years? Interactive video must surely be an area to be explored. Based on a combination of personal computers and video tapes or disc players, interactive video will expand the use of the computer as an educational tool by introducing real speech into the learning process and enabling children to interact with the pictures.

After that, perhaps children will learn to program holograms to dance round the room or a myriad of small independent robots will be whizzing round when fed their programs. Educational software? We have only just begun.

Bridge Software, 36 Fernwood, Marple Bridge., Stockport, Cheshire SK6 5BE

CP Software, 17 Orchard Lane, Prestwood, Great Missenden, Bucks HP16 0NN.

Rose Software, 148 Widney Lane, Solihull, West Midlands 8B91 3LH.

Software Cottage, 19 Westfield Drive, Loughborough,. Leicestershire LE11 3QJ.

University Software, 29 St Peters Street. London N1.

John Wiley & Sons (Sulius Software), Baffins Lane, Chichester, Sussex PO19 1UD.

Collins, Widget, Heinemann and Psionare widely available at leading department stores.

What does it cost to fly an aeroplane for pleasure nowadays - at least £20-30 for an hour? Well out of range of my pocket I'm afraid. So all I have are the memories of the many hours I spent cavorting around the sky some years ago. Until, that is, I got the chance to have a go on Psion's Flight Simulation, which I eagerly loaded into my 48K Spectrum. After a brief study of the instructions, I set myself to cavorting around the sky once more.

At the start of the program, you are offered the option of take off, in flight or final approach mode, and then, if you require, wind effect. The graphics are superb on this program, especially your view through the cockpit window of the horizon and the landmarks as they appear in range. The instrument panel consists of an instrument landing system, radio altimeter, landing gear indicator, flap angle, air speed, altimeter, rate of descent and climb meter, fuel guage, power setting, and finally, in the centre of the panel, a radio direction finder which is just like the real thing.

The keys on the Spectrum controlling the functions are many and various: the '5' key allows you to bank left, '6' to pitch up, '7' to pitch down, '8' to bank right, 'P' to power on, '0' to power off, 'G' to lift and lower the landing gear, 'F' to put the flaps up and 'D' to put the flaps down, 'Z' and 'X' to control the rudders, and finally, the 'M' key is used to provide you with a map of the surrounding landscape, showing the position of beacons, lakes and two runways of different lengths.

The flying controls are reasonably sensitive, although I feel that the pitch control could have been more responsive, and the left rudder control on my copy seemed extremely slow.

The object of the program is to take off, obtain and hold a reasonable altitude, fly around the countryside or head for the other airstrip and successfully land again; I'm sure I don't need to tell you that landing is the hardest part! When one does successfully land, you are presented with the option of running the sequence again or, with re-fueled tank, taxi for takeoff. This phase of the program I have yet to master - I keep getting the message 'You crashed due to taxiing too fast'.

The instructions are supplied with the package are limited to what can be fitted on the fly sheet of the cassette. Although it explains the various function keys, it is not much use to the ab initio pilot so I would suggest that any serious, would-be Spectrum pilot should obtain a book on flying from their local library.

So far, I have spent many hours with this program. Priced at £7.95, it is far cheaper than it would cost you to hire an aeroplane, and much safer too!

Of the many uses the Spectrum can be put to, flight simulators seem to have the most lasting appeal and probably utilise its considerable facilities for memory, colour and graphics more than any other type of commercial software. Two of the best currently available have been produced by two very different software houses: Psion and Digital Integration. The former has many good quality games to its credit whereas the latter has only appeared on the Spectrum scene recently.

Seen on the shelf Psion's Flight Simulator has a considerable and unmistakable head start on Integrations Fighter Pilot as its cover design is a much more eye-catching and tempting piece of printing.The next aspect of the products which is always taken into account is the price; in this case they are both a reasonable £7.95 which should not deter the would-be flying ace.

Documentation is both thorough and precise for the two packages although Fighter Pilot's is slightly superior in that it contains pilot's notes and technical data as well as the usual instructions. The notes give advice on your approach, flaps and undercarriage and informs you of your take-off and stall speed. The aircraft's performance and specifications are dealt with in the Technical Data.

Flight Simulation does not have provision for a joystick although it is possible to use the Kempston device with the aid of a conversion tape. On the other hand. Fighter Pilot can incorporate one of three: Kempston, AGF and Sinclair Interface 2 (as well as the keyboard).

Both programs load in just under four minutes and result in a list of options. In Flight Simulation there are three: in-flight final approach and take off. Having made your choice, you are asked whether you require wind effects or not (the novice should decline as it makes the game considerably harder). Fighter Pilot boasts a more extensive menu containing five options: landing practice, flying training, air-to-air combat practice, air-to-air combat and blind landing. As well as this, you have the choice of cross winds and turbulance, your pilot rating and controls.

The Fighter Pilot instruments, from left to right, are as follows: radar and compass which includes your compass bearing and distance in relation to either one of eight beacons or an enemy bomber, depending on whether or not you are in combat mode. Next comes a digital speedometer beneath which sits the flap extension indicator. In the middle of the panel is the artificial horizon which shows the roll and pitch angle of your aircraft with respect to the ground. Below this is a linear thrust scale followed by digital altitude and vertical speed indicators. Adjacent to these is the Instrument Landing System (ILS) which doubles as a flight computer. On the far right of your console is the fuel gauge, below which is the undercarriage status indicator (i.e. up or down). Finally comes the ammunition indicator and "kills" so far.

The Flight Simulation instrument panel is somewhat similar but consists almost entirely of dials, which can be confusing when the hands rotate more than once. The controls are from left to right: an ILS below which is a radio altimeter which displays your altitude digitally when it is less than 1,000 ft. Beneath this is an undercarriage status indicator adjacent to which is a flaps indicator. Above this is the airspeed indicator which displays your speed in knots. Next comes the RDF clock. This is the principal instrument in your panel and shows your current bearing and your position in relation to your present beacon. Below this there are three digital locks showing your present beacon, your distance from that beacon and its bearing in relation to your aircraft. The altimeter comes next and this is a dial with two hands; the longer giving the height in hundreds of feet and the shorter in thousands. Finally there are the fuel and power indicators.

The maps in both programs are very impressive although the Fighter Pilot one is bigger in order to accommodate the much more powerful aircraft. Both maps are wraparound affairs which can be very confusing when crossing from one side to another. The Flight Simulation map covers 12,288 sq. miles and has two runways: club and main. It has seven beacons, one range of hills (1,000 ft high) and three lakes: Orb, Long and Tri. The Fighter Pilot map covers 20,000 sq miles, has two ranges of hills (3,500 & 2,000 ft high), eight beacons and four runways: Delta, Base, Zulu and Tango. Unfortunately, when one displays the map in Flight Simulation, one loses the instrument panel thus making prolonged periods of air borne navigation impossible.

There is no sound in Fighter Pilot and hardly any in Flight Simulation (only when you crash) although I am sure most users would rather sacrifice audial effects for the excellent graphics in both programs.

The object of Fighter Pilot (that is when air-to-air combat has been selected) is to defend the four airfields from destruction by simultaneous enemy bombers which, although of an inferior performance, are capable of devastating effects on both the airfields and your plane. The only aim we could see in Flight Simulation was to educate the user in the art of flying (which it does admirably). However, we would advise the would-be pilot to consult a flying manual if he is seriously considering flying!

Although we have not dealt with Flight Simulation and Fighter Pilot to their full extent we have tried to cover most of the important points. On the whole Fighter gives more satisfaction, even though its landscape graphics are inferior. Its controls seem more responsive and we would like to conclude in saying that although both programs are good, Fighter Pilot is more exciting and thus slightly better than its counter part.

Flight Simulation broke new ground in 1982, as the first 'serious' game for the Spectrum. It has stood the test of time extremely well, and spawned a host of lookalike simulators from other companies.

The aircraft is an unspecified light propeller-driven plane, capable of aerobatics but requiring considerable skill to navigate, especially in windy conditions. The large map over which you can fly includes terrain features such as lakes. Although the graphics seem conservative today, the satisfaction of flying a plane, even on a computer, is such that people will return to Flight Simulator again and again.

Position 6/50

This game must be one of the oldest simulation games designed for the Spectrum. Its title itself gives enough explanation of what it is all about: a flight simulation game. You are the pilot of a 'small two-engined propellor-driven plane', you can take off, land on one of two runways, or just fly about, locating your position on a map and the help of various instruments, all in real time.

The simulation in itself is quite detailed. At the beginning of the program you are faced with three options: take-off, start in flight at a random position, and the 'final approach' for landing. Then you will be asked if you want to include the effects of wind. But beginners beware! If you say 'yes' your plane will be far more difficult to handle. Then the simulation itself starts.

The main display is the pilot's cockpit view with a detailed instruments panel in the lower half of the screen, and a view of the world outside through the cockpit windows. Through these you can see the 'horizon' formed by the light sky and dark ground. If you are near a runway you will see its lights in 'three dimensional perspective', and also lakes. As you turn, climb, dive, so the horizon and features on the ground will move accordingly through the cockpit windows.

Your instruments are rather detailed and technical: speed indicator, altimeter, rate of climb, fuel left, engine throttle, etc... The understanding of those instruments is vital if you do not want to crash immediately. So always keep the instructions near you, they provide everything you need to know about the functioning of the plane.

The second screen is a map showing all the lakes, mountains and runways, as well as the beacons used to navigate. Those beacons can be changed, depending on the direction you want to head to. Your plane is also shown on this map, but maybe on too large a scale to be really precise about your position (especially when landing).

CRITICISM

One thing seems to be lacking in this game: excitement. Apart from flying, you just are not given any tasks to perform, or do not have anything to shoot at. I found that the most interesting part was landing your plane, as this needs a good deal of practice. Otherwise once you have mastered the controls of your plane it is rather dull. The lack of sound gives a sort of eerie feeling to flying, as if you were in a glider rather than a 'two engine propelled plane'. Colours and graphic details do not help either. Apart from lakes and runway lights you do not see anything. I would have liked a bird flapping its way through the screen, or some town with lit skyscraper on the ground.

The seven pages of instructions are detailed but actually hard to digest. The instrument Landing System does not seem to work properly (it is better to ignore it altogether) and you sometimes get some oddities when looping the loop.

However this is in fact a good simulation game. It takes time to master the keys. Detailed instruments and realistic (I guess), they just should have made it more exciting, less contemplative. Arcade freaks beware!

BETTER PART OF SINCLAIR RANGE

The new Flight Simulation program from the Sinclair Research Spectrum software library is one of the better offerings in that range. The program runs on a 48K Spectrum and gives you the opportunity, for a short time at least, to become the pilot of a light aircraft.

The program is very interesting and better value than some of the other Sinclair programs.

Flight Simulation costs £7.95 and is available from Sinclair Research, Stanhope Road, Camberley, Surrey GU15 3PS.

Many of the features of Psion's Spectrum flight simulation are straight out of the cockpit of a Boeing 747.

All information systems are displayed as dials just as in a real plane. These tell you your altitude, rate of climb, speed, wind and weather conditions, and your position.

The program gives you two screen presentations. The first of these shows the view from the cockpit with the instruments described above in the lower half of the screen and the view of the horizon in the top.

The plane can be made to bank, roll, dive, climb and even loop the loop - though you will have to be a pretty good pilot to make it do this.

The second screen presentation shows a map with your plane flashing its rate or progress towards your chosen destination. The airports are represented as flashing beacons with the land and lakes shown.

A masterful piece of programming and undoubtedly one of the best flight simulations yet to be produced for a micro.

Flight Simulation runs on a Spectrum in 48K and is available from larger branches of W. H. Smith at £7.95.