Silmarils 1994
Genre: RPG
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Silmarils could not find a worse time to release Ishar III. 1994 was a year when highly anticipated sequels were battling surprise hits, and Ishar III was neither. On one side you've had games like Ultima VII, which was so massive that Origin split it in several parts, Dungeon Master II, one of the most anticipated RPGs of all times, Might and Magic: World of Xeen, arguably the best M&M game, and Wizardry VI, with a new graphics engine. On the other side, you've had several surprise hits, which became cult games by now: Lands of Lore: Throne of Chaos and System Shock. Somewhere in the middle, there were the underdogs: Ishar III and Realms of Arkania II. Both games were the sequels of rather obscure series, published by rather obscure companies. Silmarils is a French company, which had a moderate success in Europe, but is unknown in the US. Sir-Tech, while well known, based its Realms of Arkania series on the Das Schwarze Auge German role-playing series (editor's note: that series was made by Attic and only published by Sir-Tech in the USA -Mr Creosote). It comes like a surprise that among such an exquisite company, Ishar III is still alive. In fact, it is shining.

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

Until this day, King's Bounty remains one of my favorite games. Offering rather limited gameplay but enormous replay value, the game has never left my hard drive, ever since I have gotten it in the 1980s. In King's Bounty, you play a hero with the task to find the stolen Scepter of Order. A band of criminals has hidden this item and divided the map pointing to its location among them. Only by defeating all the criminals, you will be able to piece together the map and find the scepter, hopefully before it is too late and the kingdom disintegrates.

Sierra 1984
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

The once proud kingdom of Daventry is in ruins. The queen is dead, leaving the old king without a heir. The kingdom is missing its three most important items: a magic mirror, which predicts the future, a magic shield, which defends the kingdom from its enemies, and a treasure chest that is always full. Sir Graham, the bravest knight in the kingdom was charged by the king to find these items, in exchange for the for the crown. Over the course of the game, Sir Graham will fight an evil witch, a dwarf, wizard, ogre, and many more fairy-tale beings, in order to recover the three magic items and save the kingdom. If you haven't already guessed it, Sir Graham is your character.

Hal Laboratory / Nintendo 1992
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Game Boy

Kirby is a small bubble that can breath in air or small creatures and then blow it out at speeds that kill whatever is in its way. It can jump and fly, and it's got a mortal enemy it needs to dispose of. Welcome to Kirby's Dreamland, one of the easier platformers, which has become hugely popular with the not-so-adept-with-the-controls crowd. The game is fairly straight-forward: you proceed through four lands, each of which has its own architecture and monsters, and each of which has three stages. You fight a boss at the end of each stage, only to fight the main level boss at the end of each level. After finishing all stages, you fight the main bosses again, after which you meet the final boss. While clearing your way through the usual monsters requires nothing more than blowing air at them, most bosses throw things at you you've got to inhale and spit back at them. Yet, because you can fly and because you can always shoot, the game is much easier than, let's say, Mario platformers.

Electronic Arts 1990
Genre: Simulation, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

"There are cases when you design something that looks good on paper and there's only one small part of it that's fun. You have to focus on that and throw the rest away." Brent Iverson, the designer, chief programmer behind LHX and the author of these words did just that. He created a flight simulator that's pure joy to play: not too much of an arcade, which would disenchant less action-prone people, and not too much of a simulation, which would leave 95% of the gaming population frowning. LHX is simply the right blend of arcade, simulation and pure fun.

Access Software 1990
Genre: Sport
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Links by Access Software was the turning point for PC golf games. Before Links (BL), golf games were more or less arcade simulations with blocky graphics, overly simplistic interface and so few options that after several days, you played just about everything there was. After Links (AL), golf games became the most realistic sports simulations around. Links introduced not only photoralistic graphics, but also a whole host of new options, very realistic physics, an unsurpassed interface and a franchise method that survives until today.

Sierra On-Line 1988
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Manhunter: New York was by all accounts one of the most unique adventure games of its time. In addition to a brand new approach to Sierra adventures, it featured a very original story, a very good atmosphere, but also weak graphics, interface and gameplay. I would think that it was the gameplay that sentenced the game to obscurity, which, however, was not deserved.

Bug-Byte Software 1983
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: ZX Spectrum

Manic Miner is probably the best known Spectrum game ever created. Not only it offered an unprecedented length of gameplay, it offered a reward for the first person to complete the game, lush graphics and the never before heard of in-game music.

Microsoft 1992
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Microsoft Entertainment Package is a pack of 29 games, which were originally released for Windows 3.1. Over the time, some games disappeared, others are still to be found. Few of the games are original. Yet, they compose a fairly entertaining mix no office computer should be without. And home computers will bennefit from this package as well - some of the games are fun and addictive. Let us take a closer look what this package offers:

subLOGIC / Microsoft 1988
Genre: Simulation
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

In the 1980s, Microsoft was not known for gaming. At that time, the still fledging company tried to persuade the world that MS-DOS was the best thing since sliced bread, and that their VisiCalc software could take on Lotus 1-2-3 any day. There was one exception, though: Microsoft was the pioneer in civilian aviation simulators. Let me correct myself: Microsoft was the publisher of one such pioneer, Bruce Artwick, and his company, subLOGIC.