Ticsoft 1994
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Deutsch
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

How could this game's concept be described most accurately? Yeah, right - by telling which classic game it's a clone of! Two problems with this though: Nobody will know the original and (even worse) even I forgot the title! It was a sports game by Lucasfilm on the C64 (at least I think it was on this system). Edit: In fact it was Ballblazer by Lucasfilm on the old Atari. Thanks to Chris for reminding me!

Inner Circle Creations / Softdisk Publishing 1996
Genre: Action, Puzzle
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

While nearing the planet Untharia your ship is shot at and damaged forcing you to land. The ship now requires repairs, but as you do not carry spare parts you are stuck on the planet. Annoyed at this situation you swear an oath of revenge against the Untharians. In an effort to fulfill your oath you plunge into the nearby jungle to search for their base.

Farrware 1993
Genre: RPG
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

It is very rare to find a shareware first-person roleplaying game. Ancients I: Death Watch is just that. Clearly copied from Bard's Tale with a few minor improvements and a much weaker story, Ancients is a second-tier game at best, but still interesting and entertaining enough to keep you playing for a few days. The game is designed in first person, where a group of four adventurers explores a city and various dungeons that are accessible from the houses. Featuring graphics comparable with the first Bard's Tale, mapping the city is quite difficult, and it does not get much better in the dungeons.

Farrware 1993
Genre: RPG
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

It is very unusual for a relatively unsuccessful game like Ancients I to have a sequel. Ancients II: Approaching Evil simply increases the scope of the original game, but offers little else.

Ancients II is a shareware first-person roleplaying game, where you take charge of a group of adventurers and travel the land, vanquishing the monsters. As is the case with the first part, I could not find a coherent story or the ultimate goal in this game. It is as if the designers were creating only a demo for a game engine and forgot to fill in a story. Or maybe the engine did not allow a quest system. Either way, the lack of the story makes the game very repetitive and boring.

Apogee 1993
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

You will play as Snake Logan, a top-secret CIA agent sent to the most dangerous mission ever - to deal with the hundreds of monsters attacking Metro City and destroying everythig in their path. No one knows why and you are our last hope. Original, no? Well, to make things even more difficult, your plane is shot while flying over Metro City and after salvaging the destroyed plane, you find one machine gun. Time to secure the perimeter.

Apogee 1990
Genre: Action
Rating: 6/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

Billy Blaze, better known as Commander Keen, is stuck on planet Mars after the evil aliens stole vital parts from his ship. Now there is just one thing to do if he wants to save the earth from their attack and that is travelling around through their weird constructions to recover what was stolen.

Parallax Software 1994
Genre: Action, Simulation
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

"3D shooters" are embarassing in general, this typical German designation alone gets on ones nerves fast. In combination with that pimply teenager who murders at home while mummy is gone shopping, these accumulations of appropriate cliches become almost unplayable.

Gametek 1993
Genre: Simulation
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

Frontier is the sequel to The classic space trading game "Elite". Elite offered one of the first truly open ended games. A game of freedom where you could go and do whatever you pleased with no set storyline or levels. However Elite was also pretty dated by 1993, especially the original polygon wire looking BBC version. So Elite II hit the shelves.

Pop Software 1994
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

Ron Balewski 1988
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

Mah Jongg is one of those little gems you just HAVE to have on your harddisk - for the simple reason that it's small, runs under Windows without the slightest problems (at least not under those Windows versions I played it under - which are Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows XP) and is exactly the game you are looking for when you want to play but don't have an idea what to play. It's always good for a round or two... or even for a playing it all night (if you are like my mother - and she's hardly a gamer, far away from that actually!).