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Moon Cresta is one of the classic coin-op games of all time. Though it is a bit long in the tooth, Moon Cresta will still maintain the old attraction for the zappitall addict (like me!).

Moon Cresta is based around a number of screens of aliens. These aliens come in a number of different types, usually in two waves per type, with varying levels of meanness. The first two waves are sort of round fluffy types, that split into two when you shoot them. The next level are extremely evil little aliens, that are very fast and come in rather difficult formations. These must be tackled with extreme prejudice lest you get destroyed.

Now you get meteors that dive in from both sides of the screen at once. Colliding together at the bottom of the screen. If you are really flash, you can sit at the bottom of the screen and time it right so that one shot can knock out both meteors (not enough time to fire two shots), but cowards like me usually cower in a corner, avoiding one of the meteors and shooting the other.

The final belligerent round has hovering knives that dive down trying to kill you. Then follows the docking round. The docking round is the bit that differentiates Moon Cresta from all the other zappit games.

In Moon Cresta, you don't have three different lives or ships. Instead you have three different stages - rather like an old step rocket. The first stage is very little with a single gun, the second stage is a bit bigger with two guns, and the third stage is bigger still with two guns.

Getting killed with one means that you go onto the next. The docking stage puts the next stage to go at the bottom of the screen with your current stage at the top. You now have to guide your ship down onto the next stage using left/right and fire for thrust, and dock with the next stage. Thus you can get more stages and more firepower, as the extra guns are in addition to what you already have, there is also a bonus-based on time taken to dock. Complete everything and you go back to the beginning of the game to do it all again - but this time with only your first stage.

So that's the gist of the game. An excellent zappit game, needing only the sketchiest of tactics. Hand-eye co-ordination is all with a quick trigger finger being the difference between success and oblivion.