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At the 1985 PCW show, an up and coming software house called Rainbird was showing a short demo of a new game being developed for the brand new Atari ST computer.

A year later Starglider was released to almost universal critical acclaim. You can think of Starglider as part Battlezone and part Elite but far superior to both!

The game takes you to the planet Novenia, for centuries successfully protected from invasion by the Sentinels, unmanned ships which were "extremely well equipped to bring about a messy and violent life-style modification of any would-be invader".

In fact, so confident were the Novenians that their defences were impenetrable, that they had long ago disbanded their home-based army and airforce.

Egron fleet commander Hermann Kruud believed he had found a flaw in Novenia's defences. Egrons considered themselves to be “loveable, peace-loving people and they maintained a powerful battle fleet on permanent alert, ready to beat the hell out of any planet that said otherwise”.

Kruud's plan was deceptively simple. He had spent the last five years assembling a new invasion fleet comprising entirely of ships that looked like giant Stargliders.

The Starglider was a very strange bird that nested in Novenia's equatorial highlands and migrated once every five years to the outskirts of the Novenian system. It was on returning from one such migration that a flock of Stargliders was entirely wiped out by a couple of sentinels that mistook them for an invasion fleet.

As a result of the ensuing public outcry the Sentinels on-board computers were modified to recognize Stargliders and leave them alone.

Kruud's simple plan worked all too well. And now a desolate and war-scared Novenia is about to fall into the hands of the Egrons.

The game starts as you leave one of the four repair depots on the planets surface, manned by ARAMA's (Automatic Repair And Maintenance Androids) and left intact when the Egrons attacked.

Although your goal is to destroy the Egron invasion fleet, success will not come to those whose brains are housed entirely in their trigger fingers.

A winning strategy will have to be worked out before delving too far into the game or you will be unceremoniously vaporised time and time again. This is where the accompanying novella, written by James Follett (author of the screenplay of the film Who Dares Wins fame) comes in rather useful.

Packed with invaluable hints and tips on how to kill and maim, Follett's witty companion also contains clues such as how to recharge the AGAV's inductive energy pods, and where the Starglider Drone's one weak spot can be found.

What a pleasant change to find the story with the game concept ACTUALLY enhancing the overall package!

The planet surface is covered with battle tanks, transport vehicles, skim fighters, tri-launchers, stompers, and other assorted Egron goodies. Meanwhile, the airspace above the planet's surface is littered with mines, neutron missiles, bute and lotus fighters, not to mention Starglider One.

Most of the Egron attack arsenal have specific functions and movement patterns. Careful observation will help you devise attack and defence strategies for the various fighters, tanks etc. Apart from differences in appearance you will encounter craft with varying speeds and armour class.

Apart from the repair depots, the Egrons have also left the Energy Towers untouched because they control the underground monorail system which Novenia's invaders intend to use for themselves.

The novella tells you how the towers can be switched back on again but you'll need to master the recharging manoeuvre quickly as the Egrons won't exactly sit back and watch!

The first thing you are likely to do once Starglider has loaded is go and check if your radio is on.

But that music you hear is coming from your computer!

The game contains 10 seconds or so of sampled music, composed especially for the game, and guaranteed to raise the eyebrows of even the most cynical techno-atheist.

The movement and animation of all the graphical game elements are little short of stunning, reminiscent of the Star Wars arcade machine. At last somebody has really shown us what 16 bit technology is capable of!