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).

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.