Graftgold / Firebird 1988
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: ZX Spectrum

Meta robot KLP-2 from Quazatron is back: This time, the reactors of eight satellites have to be shut down. Of course, these satellites are full of robots to destroy as well.

KLP-2 moves (or rather floats) over the three-dimensional platforms which now have a fixed distinction into screens (circumventing the problem of the rather slow scrolling). Again, it's all looking and moving very smoothly - technically, this is yet another step forward from the already high standard the predecessor set.

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!).

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.

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.

Taito 1988
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari ST

Every system of the 80s and early 90s had 'its' platformer. This immensely popular genre was especially liked by the companies because it was so easy to make those games! You didn't need any ground-breaking new ideas. The basics are always the same anyway: run from left to right (and sometimes up and down) and avoid your sprite is killed by the nasty monsters. To kill those, there were two general ways: shooting them (in whatever way) or jumping on their heads. Whoever came up with the latter must have smoked a bit too much of the wrong stuff! But for some reason, this concept stuck.

Nick Sumner 1988
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Freeware
System: C64

Breakout with a unique twist: Instead of one, you're controlling four paddles at once. One on each side of the screen, so up and down move the ones on the left and right vertically, and left and right move the ones on top and bottom horizontally.

Tecmo 1988
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Silkworm represents a pretty popular genre on the Amiga. There were tons of similar games in which you were either flying, driving, walking or whatever and simply shot everything that came into sight. And this is almost everything that needs to be said about this particular game! The enemies are well done.

Bitmap Brothers 1988
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Although there were quite a lot "simulations" of real team sports like soccer in the Amiga's days, it seemed to be nearly impossible to port such tactical games with so many players to the computer. Most companies simply didn't care and published almost unplayable sports games. But there were also the smart ones like the Bitmap Brothers who thought a bit about different concepts! The result was Speedball, the summit of team sports games.

ERE 1988
Genre: Puzzle, Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Some games are so weird that you can't help wondering what kind of drugs the designers have been taking when they came up with this. Spidertronic is such a game.

You control some kind of futuristic 'bio-mechanical' spider which - for whatever reason - is walking over isometric platforms somewhere in outer space (?). Some of the squares have a different colour than the usual blue. These have to be picked up and can be used to repair (?) the way to the next level. Only one coloured square can be carried at the same time, and the order of the colours is important.

Microstyle 1988
Genre: Sport, Simulation
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Before he began to make "serious" racing sims like Formula 1 Grand Prix, Geoff Crammond created this Amiga classic. It is set in a fictional (or let's say I hope it is fictional) Stunt Car league. There are four divisions and the player of course starts in the fourth. In each division there are two courses on which all three drivers (of the division) have to race against each other in head-to-head duels. Points are awarded for the best lap and the winner. At the end of the season, the best driver of each division gets to the higher division, while the last one is relegated.