Spaceman Sid is a variant of Moon Patrol for the BBC Micro and the basic game play is very similar. The game is a side scrolling game in which you travel left to right. The object is to drive over the surface of Mars, avoiding obstacles and shooting aliens, while trying to beat your previous score. Points are scored for rocks, drones, alien ships, bases etc. that are blown up. Obstacles come in the form of rocks, craters and mines that must be jumped over. The alien hazards you must contend with come in two main forms, drones (small missiles that skim the ground) and spaceships that fly overhead. To combat these you have a gun which fires a missile vertically upwards and a bullet horizontally forward.