Frederic Vester 1989
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 2/6
Language: Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Every time I think of this game, I have to giggle. Falling back into childhood mentally like this has a very good reason. When the game first came out, I was still quite young. One guy who went to school with me kept talking about this game, obviously very fond and proud of it. Later, it turned out his enthusiasm was caused by a simple reason: His father had forbidden him to play computer games in general, but he had made an exception for this one - Ökolopoly was the only game he was allowed to play, so he had to pretend it's cool. And now that I've written it down, I can be sure I'll never forget this amusing anecdote myself...

Delphine 1990
Genre: Adventure, Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: Francais, English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

During tests, an American Stealth Bomber does its job all too well and it disappears. Secret agent John Glames is sent to a fictional country in South America to find it. If you think 'Thunderball' now, you hit the nail on the head - Operation Stealth is a try to get the typical James-Bond-feeling into a computer game (in fact, it was even released as James Bond - The Stealth Affair overseas).

Software Dynamics 1994
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

You might not believe it if you haven't lived through that period yourself, but screen savers were a profitable commercial market for a long time. One of the best-known companies living from this was Software Dynamics, and their prime product was called After Dark - the world's single most popular screen saver. Everybody knew the flying toasters back then.

Unlimited Software / Sega 1989
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Remember those old coin-ops where you sat in a cage that rocked with you as you raced a car? The first one I came across and was immediately fascinated with was called Outrun. You were racing a Ferrari Testarrossa through cities, along beaches and over mountains. The sound, video and chair movement were so realistic that even before I sat in a real car, I knew how to drive (or so I thought). Outrun for PC is the best Sega could do to convert the original game.

J. Gamon 1984
Genre: Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Alright, this is definitely a weird one. You play a policeman 'driving' through town on a unicycle, with a blue rotating light attached to his helmet. Your only weapon is a truncheon which can be thrown either straight or up. Don't worry, it always comes back like a boomerang.

Mastertronic 1986
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Plus/4

P.O.D. - Proof Of Destruction. A game in which you're indestructable? Great idea, will take advantage of that immediately! Nah, nah, you can't hurt me, evil monsters! Oops? What was that 'boom' sound? Aw, crap - look for yourself what happened :( This is a fraud! It clearly said 'Proof Of Destruction' on the box. I demand my money back!

SSI 1994
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 6/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

A classic of turn-based strategy games which became the basis for a long series of similar games. But none of them could match the quality of the original.

You can surely question to take World War II as the background for a game but that´s not going to be discussed in this review. Instead let´s move on o the game itself: The player, a high-ranking general, takes control either of the Allied or Axis forces. There are single scenarios and whole campaigns which mostly are based on historical battles.

Elite 1985
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Paper delivery is a common way of increasing your pocket money. At least I guess it is in the USA. This game is the ultimate simulator of this thrilling job. You can use it to evaluate if this job suits your abilities and interests or for training purposes to improve your service.

Graftgold / Hewson 1985
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Deep in space, all the robots on a ship have gone mad, defying all human orders. The player has to 'clean up', destroying all the robots. Sounds like your average shooter? Then be prepared for a twist: You take control of a kind of 'meta robot' which will attach itself to any other robot to take control of its functions.

Graftgold / Hewson 1990
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Graftgold never really made the big leap away from 8 bit systems. Although they created many great games on the Atari ST and the Amiga, the revolutionary and original things they had done were a thing of the past. In fact, they even 'remade' their most popular classics. Uridium got that treatment later, but for Paradroid, they at least had the humility not to call it Paradroid 2.