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.

Taito 1988
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari ST

Every system of the 80s and early 90s had 'its' platformer. This immensely popular genre was especially liked by the companies because it was so easy to make those games! You didn't need any ground-breaking new ideas. The basics are always the same anyway: run from left to right (and sometimes up and down) and avoid your sprite is killed by the nasty monsters. To kill those, there were two general ways: shooting them (in whatever way) or jumping on their heads. Whoever came up with the latter must have smoked a bit too much of the wrong stuff! But for some reason, this concept stuck.

Electronic Arts 1993
Genre: Sport
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

In 1993 'NHL Hockey' started off the famous NHL-Series which has seen a new version almost every following year. They all offer great gameplay, the original teams and players of the NHL and great grafic and sound. From the starting menu you can choose whether you want to play an exhibition game, a season or a playoff round or have a look at the various statistics. There you can view the real 1992/93 stats or the ones of your season. The 1992/93 season which is represented in the game saw just 20 teams compete for the Stanley Cup, divided into four divisions. You can select to re-play the actual schedule or create a random one. You can also set up the rules to your likings. For example you could select no offside or no penalties and of course the length of a period. Up to 20 human players can take over the teams, either on the same PC or by transferring game data on disks. When you have chosen a team you can start your first game.

Flashpoint Productions / Electronic Arts 1994
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Deutsch, Castellano
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Noctropolis - city of darkness. Home of the superhero Darksheer, the archenemy of every villain out there. Peter Grey's favourite place to escape to from his full life as the owner of a less-than-successful book store. You guessed it: Darksheer is a comicbook in the style of the so-called 'golden age' or 'silver age' of comics.

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.

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!

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.

Peter Leahy 1998
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Parashooter - one of the two games I never managed to make a screenshot of! Highly promising slogan, eh? Well, it does show some technical sophistication on the programmer's side at least. Or it could be my inability to use Windows where this game runs in...

Mons & Simen 1984
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Paratrooper is quite an old game (published in the same year as the much better-known Alleycat, 1984) and, as many of those games, graphically none too advanced but quite addictive.

Storyline:

The story, if the lack of one can be named such, is very simple. You command an anti-air battery and the enemy is trying to destroy you. They're trying this in two different ways:

Martin Gelter 1992
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Language: Deutsch
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

Sometimes, one small idea is enough to make a good game. Kaiser is a great C64 classic many people know. There are also lots of remakes. Only few of those tried to expand the gameplay, though.