Dommelsch 1999
Genre: Sport, Simulation
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

Every sport has been converted into a computer game already. Football, basketball, ice hockey and so on. Then there are some 'sports' which aren't really sports at all! Like for example motor racing, fishing, chess or...... darts. All these have one thing in common: no athletic ability is needed. So why call them sports then? Well, maybe so that the people doing it can proudly say I'm doing sports ;)

Three Sixty 1990
Genre: Simulation
Rating: 2/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Unlike the highly realistic 'Aces of the Deep' 'Das Boot' takes more emphasis on action elements then on tactical planning. This becomes obvious in several aspects which are discussed later. Graphics are quite ok for 1990 whereas the sound is minimalistic.

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.

SSI 1990
Genre: Action, Simulation
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

On board of a dragon you will engage in aerial fights with your lance and your dragon's breath as weapons over three-dimensional, polygonal landscapes.

This, albeit its problems, is one of the few original D&D games, to this helps that there aren't statistics and tedious development levels that are the label's trademark. But, as usual, the main lack is the simplistic story. The game is based in the Dragonlance books, so you will be fighting along the good guys, called in a stroke of originality the good dragons army, against the bad guys, named, surprisingly, the evil dragons.

Microprose 1993
Genre: Sport, Simulation
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Deutsch, Francais
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

This was IMHO the first racing game which came up with great graphics, sound and decent realism concerning car handling and setup. Although quite a number of the tracks in the game are not in today's race calendar or have been modified this game is still a lot of fun due to the lots of options.

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.

SSI 1995
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Great Naval Battles IV: Burning Steel is the last part of the quite interesting GNB series by SSI. It covers naval warfare in World War II with a focus on artillery battles rather than aerial attacks (similar to Task Force 1942 by Microprose).

Microprose 1992
Genre: Simulation
Rating: 6/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

In my opinion 'Gunship 2000' is one of the best heli-simulations. Replayability is high due to the many machines you can fly and the randomly generated maps, so no two missions will be the same.

Rauser Advertainment 1993
Genre: Simulation, Action
Rating: 0/6
Language: Deutsch
Licence: Freeware
System: Amiga

I've always had a soft spot for promotial games. With some ironic distance, they're mostly very funny: unvoluntarily humor galore. The uncoolest companies trying to get their useless products into the concious of young people. That's of course not easily done. Medicine against rheumatism suddenly turns hip, politicians become MTV-compatible stars. Or the promoted product doesn't turn up at all. Hilarious!

Mattel / Epyx 1985
Genre: Simulation
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Back in the 90s, 'action toys' were the market. The leading company was Mattel with their action figures ('Barbie for boys'). And there were these toy cars. Completely unlike the car models which existed before and served only 'museum values', these little metal (or plastic if it had to be cheap) vehicles were actually designed for children playing with them! I, for example, held 'ramming contests': causing two cars to crash frontally and the one which falls upside down loses.