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You've all heard of Star Wars, no not the film, the real battle to put weapons into orbit around the Earth. Well, Defcom takes the saga to its logical conclusion.

The Orbiting Strategic Defence Initiative was designed to protect Man from himself, and seemed to be foolproof! One day however, a fatal flaw was revealed, aliens took over the system and used it to wage war on the Earth. Only one man can save Earth from total destruction, and with a few basic armaments and your trusty (or should it be 'rusty'?) spacecraft you set out to meet the aliens.

You have just 80 seconds to wipe out the alien's first wave of attack, and a further 80 seconds to knock off the offending satellites. Even then your job is not finished, the aliens don't take too kindly to being thwarted by a mere Earth Man and redouble their efforts.

Graphically, Defcom would have been a total disaster, save for the excellent view of the Earth rotating beneath you, clearly showing continents and oceans. Your spaceship looks nothing like the lavish cover illustration, more like a sock that's grown wings. The laser fire takes the appearance of distorted frisbees!

The alien craft are a little more imaginative, though. Various spiky objects attack you in waves, much like those in Uridium. Messages appear from time to time on the screen, informing you of where you ought to be, but it's difficult to blast aliens and at the same time navigate your ship to the appropriate continent. Hesitate and you risk being hit by a fireball - decidedly fatal.

Should you manage to score over 1,000 points, you are rewarded with a more powerful laser, and guided rockets to knock out the satellites.

I found the music quite impressive, a catchy tune that didn't repeat itself too frequently, while capturing the game's futuristic flavour.

I wasn't too impressed with the game though, I thought we'd left this sort of trivia behind yonks ago. Personally, I was bored to tears after ten minutes. Only dedication to duty forced me to give it a crack!