Microsphere 1985
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: ZX Spectrum

Last year, schoolboy Eric managed to steal his report card from the headmaster's safe. He has taken his time to forge a positive one. Now it's time to get it back into the safe.

A lot has happened on the school grounds over the holidays. It has been split in two sections: a boys school and a girls school (with a fence between them). The boys' building (the only part which could be seen in the prequel Skool Daze) has been expanded, too. There are now more classrooms, more offices, a new assembly hall and (perhaps the most useful innovation) a bathroom. The school has also bought a new safe to replace the old one. This one doesn't have a combination of numbers, but a simple lock. But where has the key been hidden?

Infocom 1986
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

In spite of a few visits as a kid, I've pretty much always been quite a cynic about the circus. Ballyhoo is all about the circus. So insert your favourite fuzzy stereotypes here as I'll neither be listing them, nor be talking about 'the magic' or whatever. This game is set in the circus. The owner's daughter has been kidnapped and she's held for ransom. The player has to find her, because the detective who has been hired to investigate is a clueless drunk.

Core Design 1994
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English, Francais, Deutsch, Dansk
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Banshee is a very late arrival in the genre of shooters. In 1994, the gaming industry started moving everything towards 'three-dimensional' games, and classic concepts like this one slowly died out. Thankfully, this genre (at least the subgenre of 'vertical shooters') got one final hit with this game.

Sportsware Productions 1985
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

There are some things I've always enjoyed. Staying up until late in the evening on my C64 (or proudly-owned P IV more recently :lol:), reading, writing (as you can see here). Oh yeah, and watching box matches. I never practiced box professionaly, although I did have some recalcitrating classmates who realized that you *can* learn something if you watch the TV. Boxing is just one example, if you know what I mean :lol:

Sierra 1995
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English, Deutsch, Francais
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Battle Bugs is one of the games that do not need a story. You just complete mission after mission. Nevertheless it has a naive charme because of its theme (insect battles). The military background is ironically weakened by that. Most times they are about "conquering" most of the food that is lying around. That is done by moving a "unit" near the thing that you want to conquer. Then a flag appears on it, slowly rising. If you have more bugs there the flag will rise faster. When it has reached its top you own the object. Unfortunately the enemy tries to achieve the same so that heavy battles take place. As long as both sides have insects around the food nobody owns it. Conquered targets can of course be taken over the other army if it dominates the control zone. Almost any unit has its own special ability, strengths and weaknesses. A grasshopper for example is lethal for enemys but it also is killed fast. Bees can (of course) fly and also drop bombs, dynamite or cheese (!) on the enemy. This last thing is used to stun units. All flying animals have to fear ants with missiles. These specific characteristics should be considered when planning the battle. An example: A huge mass of enemies that would easily crush you hands down comes nearer. You send your "pill bug" in their direction. The enemy army concentrates on it, so that all are on the same place and beat it up. Now your bee starts and drop its bombs on this concentrated mass. The pill bug is immune to bombs but the enemies die in the explosions. Level completed!

Various 2004
Genre: Strategy, RPG
Rating: 5/6
Language: Castellano, Catala, Cestina, Dansk, Deutsch, English, Euskera, Francais, Greek, Hungarian, Italiano, Nederlands, Norsk, Polski, Portuges do Brasil, Russian, Slovencina, Suomi, Svenska
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

Even people who don't really follow the development in this 'scene' will know that there are countless 'open source game projects' floating around the Internet. Many of them remakes of classic concepts, some highly original. Most are nowhere near a finished state. What you can see on their homepages is usually a 'roadmap' outlining what still needs to be done (pretty much everything), and a few early screenshots. Sometimes, you can even download some kind of 'alpha engine' which doesn't really do anything so far. Experience tells that more than 90% of these projects are abandoned before they've achieved anything.

Blue Byte 1991
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Battle Isle - the game which got two different groups of games into public focus: wargames and German games. Both had had their loyal fan-base before, but both had been small. Tactical wargames turned into a very popular genre following this game. German games stayed a niche market in spite of this game's success.

Blue Byte 1993
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: Deutsch, English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

After two mission disks and the differently themed History Line: 1914-1918, Blue Byte followed their more successful game to date up with a real sequel. The evil robot armies are back and the Drullians saw no other way than to kidnap a great strategist to lead their armies - you. Stories have never been a strong point in strategy games (that made it even more surprising that a 'novelization' of the story actually came with the game).

SSI 1990
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

You know, some time ago (about 200 years or so...), there was a great man (I avoid saying 'big' at his 1.60m height) who liked war. Maybe a bit of a pertinent introduction, but no matter if you are French of Anglo-Saxon, you are going to enjoy this.

Revolution Software / Virgin 1994
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English, Deutsch, Francais, Italiano
Licence: Freeware
System: Amiga

If at first you don't succeed.... Lure of the Temptress wasn't a very good game, but it did receive quite positive reviews - let's just say there are and were games which are even more overrated. After that, Revolution Software took their time to develop a successor - and they succeeded in a brilliant way!