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There was a time when being thrown into deep space to shoot random aliens and motherships was a common gig, but it seems those kinds of contract started to dry up after the early 1980s... until now! In 2015, Luca Bordoni rewrote this shooter from the late 1980s and, even though it's coded in (Boriel's) BASIC, it plays a lot better than many a machine code game of the era, albeit with a slight jerkiness to the scrolling.

After a short sitty announcing the start, you're suddenly plummeting through space in a shuttle while negotiating alien ships heading towards you. There's a familiar feeling to this though it isn't at first obvious why. However, once the walls in later levels start closing in, it dawns that it is a vertical scrolling adaptation of Scramble. But Explorer is relatively unique in that while most shoot-'em-ups scroll from the left or from the bottom of the screen, here you fly from the top down. Although the controls are only left, right and fire, you can feel your brain wrestling with what feels like a strange direction of travel.

While you can gain extra lives from points, such as 5,000 for the first extra life, your priority (apart from not crashing) is to shoot the red fuel pods, otherwise the fuel gauge depletes and panic sets in with the alarm klaxon, swiftly followed by extinction.

Be aware too of the pause between each round of short-range fire, which requires quick, well-timed bursts to despatch the enemies. So get ready to battle through six areas to achieve the ultimate goal of destroying the base at the end.

Every level of Explorer feels like a tribute to a favourite shooter, like Centipede on one level, Asteroids on another, and so on. This adds to that one-more-go factor, spurred on by the fact that you can get on the first rung of the high score table after a couple of attempts.

Luckily, when you die you carry on exactly where you left off, which is a relief as it can get quite tough - let your concentration wane and you can easily die a few times in quick succession. Written in BASIC means you can't move and shoot at the same time, but this adds some strategy to the game because you have to move the ship into position quickly in order to have sufficient time to shoot the target.

The difficulty starts to ramp up when you hit Level 3, which is more a test of reactions and nerves as you find yourself flying into an asteroid belt. This level is more about survival than anything else; finding a path through the asteroids can be difficult, especially as you still have to shoot fuel pods if you want to make it through to the other side.

On Level 4, as the walls start to close in, it really feels like the later levels of Scramble. But Level 5 makes you realise the game has been relatively kind to you thus far. You need pixel-perfect precision to get through the ever decreasing gaps, and there is still one more level to go!

At first glance this all-round classic shooter looks basic in design, but there is variety along the way and a challenge most ardent space adventurers would revel in. More use of sound would have been nice, and added levels in the future will prolong its life, but Explorer is definitely worth checking out.

Not to be confused with the 1986 game from Electric Dreams Software, on the face of it Explorer has the look and feel of a simplistic and very basic shoot-'em-up. But you start to play and soon realise there is a little more depth here than first meets the eye. What Luca Bordoni has done is pay homage to many of the arcade shooters of yesteryear all wrapped up into a delightful package of fun for the Spectrum, where hitting the high score of the day is the same of the game - simple aesthetics and sound with great gameplay.

Control Keys: User definable
Joystick: None
Use of Colour: In keeping with the era, no colour clash and contrasts well against the background
Graphics: Small yet clear sprites, enough variety in each level to keep it interesting
Sound: Pretty basic but at least confirms you have either shot something or died
Levels: 6
General Rating: A very well executed, albeit basic shooter - with a twist