The Interceptor

The aliens have arrived, and instead of diplomacy they are flattening one city after another with orbital bombing runs. Humanity’s only defence is the Interceptor — a flying machine programmed by Alexey Silaev and published in 1993 by the Moscow firm DOKA.

The whole game is a juggling act between two weapons: rockets fly upward at the UFOs, while side cannons shoot down the bombs drifting toward the city below you. Ammunition is limited and hits hurt, so every now and then you must retreat to the landing pad to repair and resupply — while the city takes a beating in your absence. A level only ends when you sweep the last saucer from the sky; then it’s off to defend the next city.

Watch out for two special gifts: the red bomb is a nuke that can level a city in one blast, and the blue fusion charge destroys everything airborne when it detonates — including you. Simple, tough single-screen action, exactly the way early-nineties Russia made it.