Each computer controls a separate jet, but both occupy the same air space and each is visible out of the cockpit window to the other player.

PHANTOM COMBAT is the single player version of the same game - or should I say, single computer version, because PHANTOM COMBAT does support a kind of two-player option.

The instrument panel at the bottom of the screen is superbly drawn in full colour with analogue dials and digital readouts. I have never seen as good an instrument display on the Electron. There is also a black and white version of PHANTOM COMBAT further on the tape, in Mode 4 for extra speed.

Flying is easier said than done. Although the manual lists all the keys, I kept fumbling because of the illogical and confusing choice for pitch and roll. However, all the other keys were sensible enough.

The handling characteristics of the Phantom feel good and Mach II flight can be achieved very quickly. When in combat mode, your adversary appears a delta-wing shape.

The enemy planes are based on two real life jets - the Soviet Mig 21 and Su 15 - and supposedly mimic their big brothers' accurately. I couldn't really tell, but they are certainly deadly enough and quite intelligent.

The cassette inlay takes great pains to stress the fact that this is a proper simulation and doesn't rely on arcade sprites to depict the objects. Everything, we are assured is calculated and drawn on the screen at 15 frames a second.

I must agree that I wouldn't consider a game to be a true simulator either if the landscape and objects were drawn as sprites. But no flight simulator does this, so I can't see why Doctor Soft makes such a big thing of it.

And I must take issue with the claim of 15 frames a second animation. The flicker is dreadful. The techniques rather than the Electron's slow speed are at fault here - the display is constantly being drawn and wiped again, resulting in it being blank for 50 per cent of the time.

PHANTOM COMBAT is a good simulator, marred only by a flickering screen display and a brief manual. This is a program which probably only comes into its own as the dual computer BBC Micro version, but as a standalone Electron simulator it is a good buy.