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...

Delphine 1990
Genre: Adventure, Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: Francais, English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

During tests, an American Stealth Bomber does its job all too well and it disappears. Secret agent John Glames is sent to a fictional country in South America to find it. If you think 'Thunderball' now, you hit the nail on the head - Operation Stealth is a try to get the typical James-Bond-feeling into a computer game (in fact, it was even released as James Bond - The Stealth Affair overseas).

J. Gamon 1984
Genre: Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Alright, this is definitely a weird one. You play a policeman 'driving' through town on a unicycle, with a blue rotating light attached to his helmet. Your only weapon is a truncheon which can be thrown either straight or up. Don't worry, it always comes back like a boomerang.

Sierra 1987
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

The shortest running of the common Sierra Adventures. Does that say anything about its quality? Come on, we're talking about Sierra! As if these sillyheads had ever cared about consumer wishes or producing quality products!

Frames / Arc Software Publishing 1989
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Touted as a "wargame for people who don't usually play wargames", Prince is one of the many attempts to make the genre more appealing to a broader audience by adding attractive graphics, easy mouse controls and make the gameplay a little less complex (or more shallow, depending on your point of view). It is also one of the many in the long line of games to have tried this and failed.

Tengen / Domark 1990
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari ST

You've all gone through this: You see this amazing game, a technological marvel, a sensational experience. You buy the game, and then it turns out your own computer doesn't really seem to be up to it. These days, you'd just go out and buy a new video card or a faster processor, but in 1990, that just wasn't possible - because all hardware on the consumer market wouldn't have cut it in some cases. Cue S.T.U.N. Runner.

Icom Simulations 1987
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

It seems there is no fantasy world in which people can live happily and undisturbed by huge threats. This one is no exception. An evil Warlock is trying to summon a mystical monster - the Behemoth. You impersonate the good hero who has to stop him.

BMB Compuscience 1984
Genre: Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Many great works were created by accident. Sopwith is one of them. Once upon a time, there was a Canadian software company, called BMP Compuscience. It was developing database and networking software. It was its network software, Imaginet, which is the direct reason why Sopwith was created: the game, which supported multiplayer over the Imaginet network, served as a demo to show the network's capability. Ironically, the game has built up a strong following. The networking software did not.

ajf 1983
Genre: Action
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

When and where this game was made, I have no idea. The age is based on the file, as in "not modified since 16-1-1984". So, what's it all about? It's a...Space Invaders clone!!! Not terribly original, but then again, it's from 1984, so maybe, just maybe, it was then.

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.