Icom Simulations 1992
Genre: Puzzle, Adventure
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Icom's Sherlock Holmes series goes into its third (and final) round. Not much has happened in the one year since the first volume had been published; the gameplay is still exactly the same: Holmes investigates scenes of crime in London, questions suspects and witnesses and Dr Watson is of course immediately stuck in a rut.

Mindcraft 1992
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Siege & Ambush At Sorinor & Walls Of Rome: A series of games very similar to each other. The screenshots look almost identical. And all the games are quite similar in fact They're all pioneers of the RTS genre. That means much action is in them. But in contrast to current titles, the strategy- component is stressed. This becomes clear when you discover that you can give orders to your army when the game is paused.

Bluemoon Software 1993
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

One of the most addictive games I have ever played, Skyroads is a unique blend of puzzle, action and racing. The game was written in 1993 by the Estonian company Bluemoon Software (currently Bluemoon Interactive), and enjoyed a moderate success as a shareware title. Bluemoon has built up a sizable distribution network with this game, and so the game was worth more than the money it earned: it opened the doors for later Bluemoon games and applications to be sold.

ASCii Corporation / Spectrum Holobyte 1984
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Sokoban was created by Hiroyuki Imabayashi in 1980, and won the first prize on a computer games contest. Two years later, Thinking Rabit, Mr. Imabayashi's company has released the first commercial version of Sokoban. The game has often been reproduced, and remains as addictive today as ever.

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.

Sierra On-Line 1987
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Released only a few months after Space Quest I, the sequel, named Vohaul's Revenge has brought little new. In fact, if I felt nasty and unthankful, I'd say that the game was one of the first cash cows in the history of PC gaming. By today's standards I'd be right - inept puzzles, the same graphics, lack of the same humor I remembered from the first part and a very short gameplay would automatically qualify a game as a rip-off. At least in my eyes; in fact such games seem to be very successful and highly regarded by certain gaming magazines. Back in the days, however, we were happy for the little we got and paid for it accordingly.

Sierra On-Line 1987
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Back in the mid-1980s, computer games were created by their fans. It so happened that two guys, Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy decided that they would like to play King's Quest in a science fiction setting. After being initially rejected by Ken Williams who ran Sierra at the time, they created a small demo to show him they could pull it off. They got the job...

Gryphon Software / Origin 1989
Genre: RPG, Simulation
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Space Rogue is an odd mix of a space shooter, adventure and role-playing. While many people tend to call this an RPG game, the fact is that it's got very little to do with the basics of role-playing - character development. More important than this ongoing debate, however, is the fact that Space Rogue is one of the first games that used vector graphics, took advantage of the superiority of IBM computers and offered countless hours of fun. The game is timeless; even today it will suck you right in.

B Seiler 1985
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Spacewar (or SpaceWar, Space War or Spacewar!) is one of the first computer games ever. Some say the very first, but even though the line between funny tinkering and actual games is of course blurry in those early days, that's not entirely true, because Oscilloscopes had already been 'misused' for simple 'tennis' games back in the 1950s. Stephen Russell wrote Spacewar for the PDP-1 in 1962 - more than 40 years ago! The PDP-1 was a luxurious computer for its time: it used a cathode ray tube as display and could be used pretty much like the PCs we know today (compared to the earlier IBM computers at least).