Lunar Rescue (1979): Landing, UFO Combat and the Six-Astronaut Mission

Lunar Rescue is Taito's 1979 arcade game about bringing stranded astronauts back from the Moon. Its action alternates between a landing game and a shooting game: the rescue craft descends through meteors, then fights UFOs on its return to the mothership. The overall objective is to rescue six astronauts. That gives the two kinds of play a shared purpose, even though the dangers on the downward and upward journeys are different. Fuel also matters, because excessive use of retro-thrust can exhaust it.

The landing phase

The journey toward the lunar surface is described by Taito as a landing game. You operate the rescue craft while descending, and meteors are the hazards to avoid along the way. This is the part of the game concerned with reaching the Moon, rather than fighting the UFOs encountered on the return flight. Keeping those two parts separate helps explain the design: descending and shooting are complementary phases, not two descriptions of the same encounter. The astronauts waiting on the surface connect the landing phase to the rescue objective.

Retro-thrust and fuel

Retro-thrust is the specific resource-related mechanic identified in the publisher's explanation. Using it too much can leave the rescue craft without fuel. The important relationship is between the action and its cost: retro-thrust is available, but repeated use can consume the fuel supply. It belongs in an explanation of the landing game alongside the descent and the meteors, rather than being treated as a separate score bonus. The rescue mission therefore involves more than identifying a destination; the craft's use of retro-thrust is another part of the documented play.

Where to look for the fuel display

Taito's EGRET II mini instructions identify the fuel display at the upper left and label it FUEL. That gives the resource rule a visible reference on the screen: the fuel mentioned in the explanation is also something the player can monitor. The instructions describe launching the rescue craft from the mothership, avoiding shooting stars during the landing, and returning after the rescue. Read alongside the retro-thrust rule, the upper-left display helps connect the fuel warning to the journey between the mothership and the lunar surface.

The shooting phase

Returning to the mothership changes the action into a shooting game. Taito identifies UFOs as the enemies fought during this journey. The landing phase asks you to avoid meteors on the way down, while the return journey involves combat on the way back. These are distinct tasks within the same rescue mission. Reaching the lunar surface describes the destination of the descent, and reaching the mothership describes the direction of the return; together they explain why Lunar Rescue combines a landing game with a shooting game.

Six astronauts and a repeating sequence

The overall objective is to rescue all six astronauts stranded on the lunar surface. The landing and shooting phases repeat as part of that objective. The structure is therefore easiest to understand as a continuing rescue sequence, with a descent toward the people on the Moon and a return flight toward the mothership. The six astronauts supply the larger goal, while meteor avoidance, UFO combat and the cost of retro-thrust describe the immediate actions and constraints. Reading those rules together gives a clearer picture than describing the game only as a space shooter.

Its connection to Space Invaders

Taito places the game's development after the Space Invaders boom and credits Nishikado with creating it on the same hardware as Space Invaders. That is a concrete connection between the two games, alongside the shared publisher. There is also a smaller visual reference: an Invader makes a guest appearance on Lunar Rescue's demo screen. The demo-screen cameo is separate from the rescue rules described above. Lunar Rescue's own gameplay is explained through the lunar descent, the return-flight shooting and the six stranded astronauts, rather than by treating it as another version of Space Invaders.

First published Oct 16, 2026.