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Games like Lunar Rescue belonged to the very, very early days of home computers. In these sepia-coloured times, there was no Internet, no gaming stores and no flashy, oversized boxes with "Amiga version pictured. Screenshots from other versions may differ" in the small print on their reverse. There were just blokes, fairs, dodgy one-man-band shops in lounges and one-size-fits-all inlays and handwritten cassette labels.

Lunar Rescue comes from Alligata Software. Alligata was one of the very first "independent" Electron publishers and there's something about its packaging that evokes this long forgotten era. The incredibly simplistic art style, the big green garish Alligata logo and the rather ungrammatical "Software With Byte. For Electron" underneath the title... All of it so wonderfully offputting. It speaks, almost silently, of that short space of time when many people believed computers should be used for anything but gaming, when no-one cared about the cover and when software was so scarce that people would buy a game simply because it was a novelty in itself to have a game.

And what of the game inside the black clamshell case then? A fairly small, simplistic number in which six stricken astronauts stand patiently at the bottom of the screen awaiting rescue. All you have to do is guide your spacecraft down through the asteroids and land on one of the six landing pads there. If you make it, one of astronauts clambers on-board and you must then return back up the screen avoiding the asteroids for a second time. However, on the ascent, the asteroids turn into spaceship-things that drop the odd bullet or two in your direction.

Doubtless you've already played a game similar to this... It's the type of game that you find on unbranded "plug and play" TV joysticks, or on DVDs for your PC containing more games that you can ever hope to play in your entire lifetime. This version is nice but nothing really special. The craft responds well, gliding around (when heading both down and up) at a fixed speed and with a real sense of purpose. On the descent you also have a little bit of fuel with which you can thrust, slowing the velocity of the drop a little. This can save your bacon on many occasions.

On the way back up again, there's no way to slow the spacecraft down and it's hard to say in advance if it will be an easy or a rough ride. Sometimes you can glide through the flying saucers with ease; other times they send a hail of bullets in your direction and shooting back only seems to take out inconsequential ships rather than those that are directly in your way. If you have to veer one way or another to avoid their projectiles you may well survive... only to find that you cannot angle the craft in time to re-enter its mothership at the very top! If so then you'll erupt into a shower of sparks as you smack against its base, or choose to hit the top of the screen instead. Do this and your occupant will be rather rudely ejected!

Games like this didn't ever really "grab" anyone, even in 1983. You played them a few times and then watched the cover fade and/or thicken with dust. When I replayed it for the purposes of this book, a single game was enough. Not that it's bad, it's just that you've seen all that it's got to offer in that time. Still, I can't fault that retro packaging. If you want a physical version of it, expect to pay about £7.