"Soldiers! Attention! Your objective is to drive your tank and blow up your enemies!"

Does anyone still remember the old arcade game Battlezone? Well, I do. In fact, I used to play it over and over again until my mom forced me to go to bed. It was such a fun game then. But have you ever imagined you would have it on your Palm? Now your dream has come true. A similar game -- TankPilot 1.04 is at your command!

TankPilot takes 25k of memory and is a snap to install and start playing. When you enter the game you will be presented with the title demo showing some of the objects from the game. This will give you a quick overview of the game.

The game controls are simple and highly configurable. The table below shows you 3 different sets of control layouts. And you can easily choose the one you like the in “Preferences” window (select Menu - Options - Preferences) as shown on the right.

Besides the control layouts, there are some other options that will affect the game:

• Daytime selects whether the screen is inverted.
• BG Effects turns on effects such as the ground dots and volcano.
• Crosshair allows you to select whether the target in the centre of the screen is present.

The objective of this game is simple --- drive your tank and attack your enemies. At the same time, you must avoid being blown up by their tanks. This is, however, easier said than done!

Your tank is equipped with 3 ‘Exonite Smart Bombs’ that will destroy nearly everything within your screen. Although powerful, these bombs are limited in number. So please use them only in emergencies, e.g. use it when there is more than one enemy in the vicinity, or when there is a missile coming to you and you are unable to run way. The seeking missile launching system of your tank, on the other hand, can only launch one missile at a time. When you are not able to launch a missile because the previous one is still in the air, the border of the crosshair will be thinner. Otherwise, it is bold. So look out for that and don’t be ‘trigger-happy’. =)

You can hide behind obstacles, but remember, the missiles are programmed to home in on you, and you have to keep on the move to outrun them. Sometimes, the obstacles can be rather distractive as they are represented by dots that are similar to enemy tanks in your radar system. But keep in mind that the enemies will be represented by prominent dots in the radar screen and the shape of the crosshair will change when it senses the enemy. It is important for you to look at the radar as well as the landscape in front of you at the same time (multi-tasking? =). Try to keep a certain distance from enemies by accelerating or changing directions. If you are too near, you will not have enough reaction time to avoid the missile. It is interesting that sometimes you will hit the enemy tank and bounce back! (Logical?!) In this case, try to face the side of the tank and launch the missile rather than facing its front. You will have a 99% chance to blow it out!

Speed control is crucial in this game. When you are near your enemy, slow down or stop and adjust your direction. Trust me, you will get a more accurate shot this way. You can estimate your speed by either looking at the dots that represent the obstacles in your radar screen or more directly, by looking at ground dots. That is also why I will advise the beginners to switch on the BG effects in the Preferences.