Activision 1989
Genre: Sport
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

'Face off!' is a great hockey game for its time but suffers quite a bit compared to EA's NHL series. Nevertheless is has a lot of things you can expect from a good hockey game. Exhibition and league games, several coaching options and nice extras like fights and a goalie cam.

Blue Byte / Ubi Soft 1989
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

The strangest thing happened with my floppy disk of this game. It would stop loading in the middle of the booting process. I thought it was hopelessly broken - wrong. All I had to do was take the disk out of the drive and put it in again, and it would continue loading as normal. Of course, this happened several times every time I loaded the game, so playing became quite a piece of work. Even with several years of university behind me, I still can't figure out a logical explanation for this behaviour. An unsolved mystery of computer science.

Ubi Soft 1989
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Ilyad is a game with a troubled past. It was scheduled for release in 1989, but for some reason, it never appeared in spite of being finished. A British magazine then dug it up and brought it to the public as a coverdisk in 1991. Another year later, it was finally released commercially at last (I doubt it was very successful; a certain other crewmember of this site owns what is probably one of the few boxed originals in existence). To get it over with right from the start: the three years show. The graphics virtually scream '80s', and they aren't even very spectacular for that time.

Papyrus 1989
Genre: Sport, Simulation
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

'Indianapolis 500' is one of the first racing sims that kept me from doing anything else than racing around the famous 'Brickyard'. The game itself is actually quite simple: The Indianapolis Raceway is the only track and you can choose from three different cars. But the ultimate challenge, to finish the Indy 500 race (which takes about 2-3 hours of pure racing time) is what keeps you motivated. And very rarely you will have this satifying feeling of seeing the chequered flag.

Exxodus 1989
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Language: Francais, English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

In the far future. After a nuclear war, part of the human race has mutated and now form two new races: the Tuners who look human, but have PSI powers (reading other people's thoughts, telekinetic powers,...), and the Protozorqs, humans with lizardlike heads. The latter live in huge temples which inspire fear into passers-by. There are rumors about humans and Tuners disappearing into these without leaving a trace.

Cinemaware 1989
Genre: Strategy, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

You like the concept, but medieval England is getting a bit tiring? Then head over to medieval Japan! This is how Lords of the Rising Sun is best described. Oh, you don't have a clue what I'm talking about? Then you probably haven't played Defender of the Crown by the same company! Stop reading here and sit in the corner!

Microprose 1989
Genre: Simulation
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

In 'M1 Tank Platoon' you're leading a platoon of four mighty M1 Abrams main battle tanks through various missions. Your objectives range from defending important positions to meeting engagements or frontal assaults. You're up against Red Army troops who have invaded into Western Europe.

New World Computing 1989
Genre: RPG
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Might and Magic II was a huge improvement over the first game of the series. The Graphics were pushed to their limits, the gameplay enhanced by a new skill and NPC system and the world even bigger than in the original game. It took me over three months of intense gaming to finish this one; something that can be compared only to later Might and Magic and Wizardry series. I keep playing the game until today. While I rarely finish it, I still enjoy the early stages of character buildup.

Infogrames 1989
Genre: Strategy, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: Francais, English, Deutsch, Castellano, Italiano
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

This game demonstrates the Amiga's superiority over almost every other system. It was also released for the C-64 and the PC. Both versions feature much worse graphics and sound. While this is quite logical for the C-64, it is quite surprising for the PC from today's perspective. Even though the game was ported to the PC much later, the graphics are still really bad. Not to mention the sound...

Frederic Vester 1989
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 2/6
Language: Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Every time I think of this game, I have to giggle. Falling back into childhood mentally like this has a very good reason. When the game first came out, I was still quite young. One guy who went to school with me kept talking about this game, obviously very fond and proud of it. Later, it turned out his enthusiasm was caused by a simple reason: His father had forbidden him to play computer games in general, but he had made an exception for this one - Ökolopoly was the only game he was allowed to play, so he had to pretend it's cool. And now that I've written it down, I can be sure I'll never forget this amusing anecdote myself...