SSI 1987
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Francais
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari ST

War without bloodshed? Easy, just don't show the individual's fate, but take it to a more abstract level. A way more abstract level: Push around wodden blocks on a world map, and suddenly, even genocide becomes fun! Like in Colonial Conquest.

Novagen 1990
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari ST

The 21st Century (hint: this is meant to be the future ;). Interplanetary travel has become normal. Many planets in the nearby solar systems have been colonized. Nations have grown to the size of whole planets.

Ice Software / Tengen / Domark 1990
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari ST

I never expected the job of a postman to be so exciting! A cool motor boat speeding down rivers and over the sea to deliver important packages (like for example the Britsh crown jewels) to their receipients. Avoiding terrorist ships, mines and floating logs, or blasting them if they are really in the way (I'm waiting for the day DHL starts doing that). All just to ensure speedy delivery (I'm waiting for the day DHL considers taking a go at that, too).

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.

Bally Midway / Activision 1986
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari ST

This is gonna be a short one, as there's not much to describe in terms of storyline and plot. Straightforward coin-op/arcade stuff here, which is a genre I usually won't rave about. Rampage has that little something that makes certain games so addictive, though.

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.

Epyx / US Gold 1990
Genre: Action, Simulation
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari ST

This is one I spent a lot of time with back in the days. At first glance, it's a simple aerial shooter, but there's more to it than that. Even though it's far from being a realistic simulation, there's a certain feel to the controls and general gameplay that draws you in, and before you know it, you really ARE crack pilot Butch Slayer, codename Fifi.

Bitmap Brothers 1990
Genre: Sport
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari ST

The successor to the best sports game of the 80s (see the Amiga section for the first part) - published on the Atari first! A few years after Speedball 1. Corruption and violence have driven the sport underground. At least that is what the intro says. There's not really much more violence, but at least the corruption has obviously been eliminated (no bribing the officials anymore ;). Anyway, you're the manager of a team called 'Brutal Deluxe' (what a sound name!) which is a member of the second league. And now guess what you have to do...

Atari Games / Electric Dreams 1986
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari ST

Finally - the classic when it comes to top-down racers. You'll find exactly the same elements as in the later imitations. Namely: Fast and simple racing round courses which stretch exactly across the screen and randomly appearing power-ups which can be picked up by driving over them. In this case, the latter consist of bonus points and wrenches. Wrenches can be used to tune your car (motor, tires, you name it) - another standard feature.

Mr. Chip / Gremlin Graphics 1986
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: Francais, English
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari ST

A football rolling along courses made of coloured tiles, trying to make it to the end before time runs out. The colour of the ground indicates different effects on the ball: yellow increases speed, green decreases it, white makes it bounce, magenta bounces it back and cyan switched left/right controls. Rolling into holes (black) makes the ball fall into the void of space... only to bounce up again a moment later (but at a loss of time).