Blastar

Blastar is a shoot-em-up that was written by Elon Musk when he was just twelve years old. The player controls a spaceship on a mission to destroy alien freighters carrying deadly hydrogen bombs and "status beam machines".

The player starts off with 5 ships (lives). If the player's ship passes directly above or below an alien ship, the alien ship may trap the player in a "status beam". If the player is directly below the alien ship when the status beam is activated, they will be destroyed, but if the player is above, they will be freed after a few moments. The player's ship can move anywhere on the playing field, while the alien ships can only move from left to right. Alien ships can be destroyed by firing an upwards-moving energy blast from the player's ship, but only one energy blast can exist at any one time; if the player fires a new blast, the previous blast will disappear. 80 points are awarded for the destruction of each alien ship. The aim of the game is to survive as long as possible and destroy as many alien ships as possible.