The game takes around 30 minutes to play through, 10 minutes of which is the intense planning phase with the soundtrack blasting in the background.

Can be played as a single player game, or with up to 4 friends, dividing roles accordingly. If you don’t have a full group of 5 players, then the missing characters are androids, which can be controlled by any player.

Turn speed is dictated by the CD, avoiding some players procrastinating on their turns / keeping the gameplay flowing.

Space Alert effectively evades the popular quarterbacking issue of cooperative board games. There’s simply no way to communicate enough useful information to other players in the 10-minute timeframe, so nobody can control absolutely everything. Everyone must efficiently work together and say what they’ll be doing to take care of the looming threats.

The components of the game should hold up to multiple plays and regular wear and tear. There are a lot of good quality wooden tokens, and the cards are made of durable cardstock. The gameboard and the tracking boards are also quite thick and should endure well.

The very basics of the game are quite simple. Every player has a role assigned to them – the captain, the communications officer, and the security officer. The players take 12 turns in 10 minutes pre-planning actions while listening to a soundtrack that explains all incoming threats. The action phase is divided into three further parts, each of which has a separate deck of action cards. The soundtrack calls out the threats, the endings of phases, data transfers, and communication disruptions, and you must act accordingly.

After the 10-minute soundtrack is over, all the actions the players planned and coordinated are resolved. If the ship is still alive after that, then the game is won.

A few of the rules show this game doesn't take itself too seriously, which is generally a nice relief when playing with those who take their gaming very seriously.

• Wiggle the mouse to prevent the screensaver from locking up the whole ship.
• Look out of the window for bonus points; you can't always trust your dashboard.

Cooperative games are more social than most, as rather than focusing solely on your next move, you need to talk to other players in order to determine what's going on.

This is also a good way to learn to listen to those around you, since it's important that your actions fit in with those of your team-mates; a bit like coding.

It may be a stereotype, but that doesn't make it untrue; most programmers enjoy sci-fi, so this theme should appeal to the demographic. The game executes it perfectly. From the aesthetic look of the game to the actions you take, there’s plenty of science fiction – aliens, spaceships, robots, etc. The soundtrack playing in the background during the planning phase also adds a lot to the immersion.

The combination of several CD tracks along with variant card combos and action options ensures that no two games will be the same, making the game widely replayable. If you run out of the official CD tracks, then you can also download the Space Alert Mission Generator to get some random scenarios, or you can browse the internet for custom missions.

Various options can be selected to alter the difficulty level of the game, such as the power of internal and external common threats and serious threats. This makes, for example, the monsters you encounter much stronger, adding a whole new level of required teamwork.

At certain points in the game communications are halted due to static on the radio. This is an excellent opportunity to dry run your steps / unit test your play. It's also a good opportunity for a shot, should you determine to turn this into a drinking game.