I love passing the time in Flat Earth's Objects in Space. In fact, I love passing the time in Objects rather more than I love actually achieving things in many other games. An absorbing blend of submarine and space sim distinguished by some decadently throwback interface design, it sees you hauling passengers and cargo across 2D star systems while dodging pirates or indulging in a bit of skyway robbery yourself. These journeys can take upwards of 10 minutes from system jump to system jump, and once you've given the autopilot a heading, there's essentially nothing to do save twiddle your thumbs and luxuriate in the retro ambience of your ship, with its chevron-fringed levers, neon grids and see-saw hum of cooling fans.
You might hop back to your comms room and check your email (best not to do this while the engine is firing, however, as the FTL modem drains power and your reactor can only handle so much in one go - I once managed to paralyse myself by downloading a newsletter in the middle of a braking manoeuvre). You could also turn on the MP3 player for a little light synth, or study the peeling posters in your bunkroom. Or you could click away from the game entirely, leaving it to tick over in another window till a rumble of thrusters indicates that you're approaching your destination. Objects in Space is discreetly composed of tabs, with different parts of your ship (or any space station you're aboard) accessed by hitting right or left arrow. Switching to your computer's desktop feels oddly like a continuation of this: it's as though the very hardware running the game were just another fat nugget of 80s technology, lodged in amongst the raster displays and light-up buttons that comprise your bridge.
Out now in Early Access, Objects in Space lacks the more obvious grandeur of an Elite: Dangerous - there's no 3D galaxy map, no panoramic third-person view, just a spiral of pixel stars through the comms room viewport - but its grubby pocket of space-time feels every bit as lively as Elite's universe, and no less Dangerous. Each system is aswarm with merchant craft, enforcers, military ships, smugglers and banditos, their interactions tracked by your bridge sensors and hailing screen. Eavesdropping on those interactions is another great way of whiling away the longer voyages. As I write these words, the captain of the nearby Pygmy Giant is having a particularly terrible day - fined for possession of contraband just after leaving port, only to fall afoul of a pirate in the shadow of a nebula.