A picture history of videogame spaceships

If there's one thing you can bet your bottom dollar on it's that there will be at least one game about spaceships each year. It's the law, or an old tradition or a charter or something. It's been that way since games began - in fact the very first videogame featured them back in 1961.

But we're not complaining - in terms of awesome, interstellar craft are right up there with pirates and ninjas and robots. So to celebrate gaming's ongoing romance with booster-powered, warp-fast, proton-firing, wormhole-dodging vehicular imaginings, we thought we'd take a look back at almost 50 years of spaceships in games. Using the attractive medium of in-game and box-art imagery, we've gathered a mighty collection of galaxy travelling vehicles and other futuristic flyers for your visual enjoyment. Appreciate the craftery, admire the design, reminisce about the spaceships you've piloted or blasted with laser death. Prepare to enter hyperspace...