Mindscape 1992
Genre: Action, RPG
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

You, as a knight of the druids, have been sent in a quest for the moonstone, which if finished will give you a place between the legends. In your adventure you will have to fight monsters, a dangerous dragon and three other knights, which can be controlled by up to three other players.

Midway 1993
Genre: Action, Sport
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Playing Mortal Kombat is a pure pleasure. Or pain, depending how well you are doing. The game offers everything a lover of fighting games could wish for - fast paced action, tonns of moves, punches and kicks, all of which can get combined, decent opponents, each with special attacks and a lot of blood. In addition, some extras, such as small skill tests and the introduction of all characters makes the game very well rounded.

U.S. Gold 1990
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Detective Adventures may not be the most common genre, but they do exist (especially here on this site). All of them are somehow linear in their story and limited in their puzzles. All but one: Murder.

Tiger Media 1992
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Ever since his wife passed away five years ago, Randolph Steere's life has been solely dedicated to his research of afterlife. Nothing was too expensive or too ridiculous to get into contact with his Irene. Electricity was banned from his villa, because Randolph assumed it would disturb the psychic energy. He even hired a medium to support his efforts! Until the day he fell down the stairs and died...

Activision 1986
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Famous detective Sir Charles Foxworth is taking a holiday on the Mississippi with his servant Regis. He's just taking a stroll around the upper deck of the ship when he discovers an open cabin door. Behind it: a dead man. As it turns out, the body of Raleigh Cartwright III. Sir Charles has three days to find the murderer, because then, the ship will reach New Orleans, giving the culprit a safe chance to escape.

Apogee 1994
Genre: Action, Puzzle
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

The Baron Baldric goes to the puzzle and trap filled lazarine towers of his wizard ancestors in a mission for clearing them of monsters in this isometric adventure.

Each time you go inside one of them the doors will close, and remain so until you have killed all the creatures and destroyed the monster generator, located always in the third and middle tower level, to avoid more of them from appearing. Only then you will get the main gate key and advance to the next tower.

Papyrus 1994
Genre: Sport, Simulation
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

With this game and Indycar Racing Papyrus covered the two most popular American racing series which see up to today frequently appearing new versions (NASCAR 4 being the latest).

Nascars are very simplistic yet powerful stock cars which run mostly on ovals. Although not as fast as Indycars they are quite sturdy and durable and this is absolutely necessary because NASCAR races are endurance races which can last up to 3 hours pure racing time and more.

Acclaim 1993
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: SNES

Many sports games are usually followed by at least yearly but unimproved sequels (like FIFA or NHL). NBA Jam is the first part of such a series, so I chose this one for the sake of originality.
NBA Jam simulates (you guessed it, did you?) ghetto sport #1: basketball. To make things clearer the teams are reduced to 2 players, so it's more like streetball than basketball. You can choose from the original NBA-teams, represented by their best (= best known) 2 men. Up to 4 human players can compete simultaneously. In solo games the computer takes control of your partner, but you can still request him passing or throwing. You can also select to always control the player who has the ball or to team up with a friend. Difficulty level and length of a game can be set as well.

Hewson 1987
Genre: Puzzle, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Nebulus is one of the most addictive puzzle arcades I have ever played. First encountered on my Spectrum, the game has followed me ever since, and still graces my hard drive. Created by the same people who released the hellish Impossaball, Hewson, the game is a little simpler, but even more addictive.

Argus 1987
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: ZX Spectrum

Real-time strategies are one of the most popular genres these days, thanks to the addictive combination of resource gathering, unit building and tactical combat. However, very few people know that the beginnings of RTS gaming lie with the Spectrum. You may have heard of Herzog Zwei, a Sega Genesis game, which all Dune 2 bashers use with great pleasure to point out that the "first" RTS was not Dune 2. Herzog Zwei hit the shelves in 1989, three years before Dune 2. However, what most people don't know is that the first true RTS game came two years earlier, in 1987, on Spectrum. Its name was Nether Earth (a quick note: The Ancient Art of War by the Murry brothers was released in 1984, but while it featured real-time tactical combat, it lacked all the other aspects of RTS gaming).