Sierra On-Line 1988
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Manhunter: New York was by all accounts one of the most unique adventure games of its time. In addition to a brand new approach to Sierra adventures, it featured a very original story, a very good atmosphere, but also weak graphics, interface and gameplay. I would think that it was the gameplay that sentenced the game to obscurity, which, however, was not deserved.

Lucasfilm Games 1987
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

This is it - the game which started it all. The game which revolutionized Adventure games by finally throwing out the text parser completely. The game which put Lucasfilm's games division into the limelight, where they stayed for almost ten years. And even when they stopped producing these great Adventure games, nobody else was there to take their place. But I'm disgressing.

Bug-Byte Software 1983
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: ZX Spectrum

Manic Miner is probably the best known Spectrum game ever created. Not only it offered an unprecedented length of gameplay, it offered a reward for the first person to complete the game, lush graphics and the never before heard of in-game music.

Electronic Arts 1984
Genre: Action, Puzzle
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Marble Madness was one of the first games on the new and fresh Amiga system. And what a way to get a system started! Although the game was also released for pretty much every other system out there at the time, it was the Amiga version which outshone them all. Closest to the original arcade machine (and even with the two player feature), it showed off the new computer's technical capabilities perfectly. A killer application, especially considering the direct competitor, the Atari ST, only had a greatly inferior port.

Origin 1991
Genre: RPG
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

In the Victorian age many celebrities that range from Marie Curie to Lenin have ended stranded on Mars. Now a second expedition, with a few more celebrities along the Avatar and professor Spector, is sent in a rescue mission.

Microprose 1994
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Master of Magic is the sequel to Master of Orion. If you had read my review about that (I know you didn't...), you'd know MOO is my favourite game ever. Of course I had huge expectations. But the game didn't fulfill them all.

Microprose 1993
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 6/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Master of Orion - just a poor copy of Civilization or an independent game? The opinions differ extremely. There is hardly anyone who thinks it is mediocre. Either you hate it or you love it. As everbody can assume, I belong to the second group (else it would be in a different category). I'll explain why.

Access Software 1990
Genre: Adventure, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Einstein was wrong: the people living after World War 3 (which happened in 1998) aren't fighting with pointed sticks and stones. It's still guns. The whole world is in fact still very much the same as we know it. If it weren't for a few details: Half of the population has mutated because of the high radiation and people are using flying 'speeders' instead of cars.

Sensible Software 1991
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Imagine a mixture between Populous, Powermonger, The Settlers and Civilization. What you get is Mega Lo Mania. This is of course not overly correct. Some of the games are older than the game we're talking about here (Populous, Powermonger) and can therefore be classed as role models. Civilization was developed at the same time and The Settlers was released significantly later, so it was inspired by Mega Lo Mania and not the other way round.

Mindscape 1994
Genre: Strategy, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Windows 3.1 has never been a gaming platform. It was simply too slow and instable. There were of course exceptions. Most of them were turn-based games requiring much thinking. And there was Win-Doom as an action game. But that's it. Almost. One game which showed one possible way to work with Windows is almost always forgotten: Metal Marines!