Microsphere 1985
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: ZX Spectrum

Eric is a normal schoolboy, and this game simulates his normal daily life. Unsurprisingly to those who haven't played it, but probably surprising to those who have, Skool Daze does have a goal. Eric's report card has gotten long. So long, in fact, that he's bound to get thrown out soon. Now there's only one thing to do: Eric has to get the card from the school safe located in the headmaster's office.

B Seiler 1985
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Spacewar (or SpaceWar, Space War or Spacewar!) is one of the first computer games ever. Some say the very first, but even though the line between funny tinkering and actual games is of course blurry in those early days, that's not entirely true, because Oscilloscopes had already been 'misused' for simple 'tennis' games back in the 1950s. Stephen Russell wrote Spacewar for the PDP-1 in 1962 - more than 40 years ago! The PDP-1 was a luxurious computer for its time: it used a cathode ray tube as display and could be used pretty much like the PCs we know today (compared to the earlier IBM computers at least).

Gremlin Graphics 1985
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Plus/4

Back in the Eighties, Sword Of Destiny was one of the first computer games I played. After putting the cassette into the slightly damaged drive, you had to push down the play button and the cap all the time to avoid a crash during the process of loading. The longer the screen glimmered like a rainbow gone mad, the more the excitement grew. Finally it began: Down into the catacombs!

Avalon Hill 1985
Genre: RPG
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

"Ah yes, my young fellows, I still remember when I first climbed down the stairs into this vile dungeon. All I had was the sword of my father and no clue how to use it. And then they came! Zombies, Skeletons, Orcs! I fought them all - barely made it out alive with the few coins I was able to find in the corners of the tunnels. Bandaging my wounds I made it to this very tavern and spent the night. But when the morning sun rose I knew I had to go back in there. I could not leave that dungeon unconquered. And so I travelled deeper. My skills got better, I got faster - soon I was starting to fight of demons and dragons - and the deeper I ventured into the caverns the deadlier they got!

Mike Woodroffe & Others 1985
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

By the power of Grayskull.... All the children in the 80s knew this catchphrase. They watched the adventures of He-Man and his friends (and foes) on TV, bought the action figures, read the comics. And of course there were several computer games for the most common systems of the time.

Softdisk 1985
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Before there was idSoft, there was Ideas from the Deep. And before there were 3D shooters, there were Pyramids of Egypt. True to idSoft's later games, this game is an arcade that requires quick thinking and some tactical-level decision-making.

Melbourne House 1985
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

After the success of Karate Champ, it was only a question of time until the first imitations would arrive. The Way of the Exploding Fist is one of these. Whatever your personal verdict about the game's quality (and imitations in general) is: It's certainly one of the games with the most creative names ever! Exploding Fist? Hard not to like it!

Imagine / Konami 1985
Genre: Action, Sport
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Aspiring youngster Oolong wants to become Grand Master of Kung-Fu. To achieve this, he has to defeat ten opponents (one after another, not all at the same time).

Nothing special so far, the mid-80s had their fair share of beat 'em ups (and many good ones). What sets Yie Ar Kung-Fu (I'll drop the capitalization seen on the title screen here) apart is the opponents. In the seminal hits of the time (Karate Champ and all), the player mostly faced faceless enemies who were identical to each other and also to the player. In Yie Ar (to shorten this even further), each opponent has his or her own sprite, his or her own moves and even his or her own weapon (!).