Argus 1987
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: ZX Spectrum

Real-time strategies are one of the most popular genres these days, thanks to the addictive combination of resource gathering, unit building and tactical combat. However, very few people know that the beginnings of RTS gaming lie with the Spectrum. You may have heard of Herzog Zwei, a Sega Genesis game, which all Dune 2 bashers use with great pleasure to point out that the "first" RTS was not Dune 2. Herzog Zwei hit the shelves in 1989, three years before Dune 2. However, what most people don't know is that the first true RTS game came two years earlier, in 1987, on Spectrum. Its name was Nether Earth (a quick note: The Ancient Art of War by the Murry brothers was released in 1984, but while it featured real-time tactical combat, it lacked all the other aspects of RTS gaming).

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.

Electronic Arts 1993
Genre: Sport
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

In 1993 'NHL Hockey' started off the famous NHL-Series which has seen a new version almost every following year. They all offer great gameplay, the original teams and players of the NHL and great grafic and sound. From the starting menu you can choose whether you want to play an exhibition game, a season or a playoff round or have a look at the various statistics. There you can view the real 1992/93 stats or the ones of your season. The 1992/93 season which is represented in the game saw just 20 teams compete for the Stanley Cup, divided into four divisions. You can select to re-play the actual schedule or create a random one. You can also set up the rules to your likings. For example you could select no offside or no penalties and of course the length of a period. Up to 20 human players can take over the teams, either on the same PC or by transferring game data on disks. When you have chosen a team you can start your first game.

Flashpoint Productions / Electronic Arts 1994
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Deutsch, Castellano
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Noctropolis - city of darkness. Home of the superhero Darksheer, the archenemy of every villain out there. Peter Grey's favourite place to escape to from his full life as the owner of a less-than-successful book store. You guessed it: Darksheer is a comicbook in the style of the so-called 'golden age' or 'silver age' of comics.

Infogrames 1989
Genre: Strategy, Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: Francais, English, Deutsch, Castellano, Italiano
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

This game demonstrates the Amiga's superiority over almost every other system. It was also released for the C-64 and the PC. Both versions feature much worse graphics and sound. While this is quite logical for the C-64, it is quite surprising for the PC from today's perspective. Even though the game was ported to the PC much later, the graphics are still really bad. Not to mention the sound...

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).

Software Dynamics 1994
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

You might not believe it if you haven't lived through that period yourself, but screen savers were a profitable commercial market for a long time. One of the best-known companies living from this was Software Dynamics, and their prime product was called After Dark - the world's single most popular screen saver. Everybody knew the flying toasters back then.

Unlimited Software / Sega 1989
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Remember those old coin-ops where you sat in a cage that rocked with you as you raced a car? The first one I came across and was immediately fascinated with was called Outrun. You were racing a Ferrari Testarrossa through cities, along beaches and over mountains. The sound, video and chair movement were so realistic that even before I sat in a real car, I knew how to drive (or so I thought). Outrun for PC is the best Sega could do to convert the original game.

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.