In the mid '80s, your software choices were fairly limited. You could either play a clone of an arcade favourite or Subbuteo (see this week's Retro). Original games were a tenner but there was a very healthy sub-£2 budget market for Speccy games. They were usually pretty awful but were playable for a couple of days and therefore worth the money.

One game that came out on the Firebird label (owned by British Telecom at the time) for a mere £1.99 was a little masterpiece though. Coded by Julian Gollop, Rebelstar was a turn-based skirmish wargame in which you had to break into a moon base and destroy a computer called Isaac. The base was guarded by combat droids and taking them out involved the judicious use of your platoon's individual action points. Moving cost points and so did shooting (aimed shots being more expensive than snap shots) and the key to winning the game was getting the balance right. It was truly fantastic and well worthy of a full-price release.

Julian adapted, improved and updated the game and found favour with the Amiga community a few years later with Laser Squad. With a few more tweaks and additions, but essentially the same gameplay, Julian found fame when he turned Laser Squad into the hugely successful X-Com. Several sequels then followed, all successful, and the latest in the X-Com series is currently in development. We salute its great grandfather - Rebelstar.