Mr Creosote 1993
Genre: Puzzle, Strategy
Rating: 0/6
Language: Deutsch
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

The first game I not only started, but also 'finished': the perfect simulation of an one-armed bandit.

Written in Quick Basic 4.5 after I had started to learn it at school shortly before.

Virgin 1990
Genre: RPG, Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

King Arthur is dead, and you, sir Constantine, are the only hope of reuniting England and avoiding the arrival of the dark age in which the roman empire has succumbed. Your knight and their deeds will be your tools for this, as your words should be backed up to show yours is the right path.

Mindscape / SSI 1996
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 2/6
Language: English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

The Holy Grail... so many people searched for it... and died searching for it. Well, Indiana Jones didn't die in the attempt, but even he still didn't get it. The Holy Grail of the strategy / wargame genre has always been combining the two classical sub-genres: 'global' strategy, i.e. raising your armies, sending them to invade your neighbour and taking care of the infrastructural questions surrounding it, and tactical 'battle simulations', typically in the form of moving single units around on a hexagonal landscape. Crossing that rift and molding it into a consistent, single game - the dream of every game designer involved in the genre and of course also every fan. Even the great Sid Meier tried at one point, and admitted his failure saying that although both parts of his game had worked well individually, the tactical parts took so long that the players would forget about the situation on the global level, making the switch back to it after a battle close to impossible.

Accolade 1990
Genre: Action, Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

This is a mix of strategy and space shooter, a well-balanced and with variety, albeit somewhat small, game where you try to conquer a region of space, attacking with real-time dogfights.

Really, the game is more about those fights than about strategy. Both factions, the Ur-Quan Hierarchy (alien slavers) and the Alliance of Free Stars (good guys) have seven different ships, ranging from small scouts to big destroyers.

Accolade 1992
Genre: Action, RPG
Rating: 6/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Born and raised in a distant colony isolated during the war you come back to Earth, bringing the ancient technology found in your planet to improve your civilization and help if the war still ravages. But it has already reached the end with the fall of the alliance and the eternal imprisonment of all those that didn't want to become slave warriors for the Ur-Quan. And humanity is among the trapped ones.

Binary Systems / Electronic Arts 1987
Genre: RPG
Rating: 6/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Only a few centuries ago, the humans have discovered space travel. They build a space station orbiting their home planet, Arth, and send out ships to scour the known universe for habitable planets. No, it wasn't a typo; the humans are convinced that their home planet is called Arth. What they don't know is that due to the rogue Crystal Planet, which has the capability to destroy a whole solar system, all races in the galaxy are in a permanent state of exodus, and during one such exodus the Earth and most of its colonies were destroyed, plunging the backward world of Arth into a dark age. Times change, and Arth is now as advanced as the Earth ever was, if not even more so. However, recently the star your planet is orbiting has destabilized, and ships that were sent out to find another habitable planet disappeared. You are a freshly commissioned captain of a small ship, with only one goal in mind: making money. Since your world needs you, though, you agree to do some exploration on the side as well. You'll soon run into questions you don't have answers for. Who are the Ancients? What is the Crystal Planet and how to stop it? Why did other races flee and why are some of them trying to wipe the humans out? All those and more questions are just the beginning of a story that offers up to 100 hours of gameplay that spans over 800 planets.

U.S. Gold 1992
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Street Fighter II - the game which ruled the arcades. One of the first examples of tweaking the modern kind of fighting to its perfection. One of the first to incorporate flashy special moves for its characters, thus making them really unique. The two-player sensation. Also a huge hit on the SNES.

California Dreams 1990
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

It's the early 60s. You're one of those 'cool rebels' who spend all day in their garage with your car. Tuning the motor, polishing it and in more intimate moments, probably even stroking it. However, what's the worth of a beautiful girlfriend which nobody else knows about? Exactly. That's why you're taking part in illegal road races.

Velocity 1996
Genre: Action, RPG
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Shooters have a tendency to lack story or at least a bit of depth, consisting in nothing more than pressing a button and moving forward. Yet a few like this one shine and reach a higher mark than the many which try only to be a copy of the famed game from where Strife takes its engine, Doom.

SSI 1993
Genre: Strategy, RPG
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Now this game truly deserves to be called 'Real-Time-Strategy'! But if I called it like that, most of you (the readers) would get a completely wrong idea of what it is like because this term is being completely misused in my opinion. Games like the Command & Conquer or Age of Empires series don't require much thinking. It's all about speed! And even if it was different, the word 'strategy' would still be wrong because it would mostly be tactics then!