Magnetic Scrolls 1987
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Magnetic Scrolls send you back to Kerovnia, the location of The Pawn. But instead of a confused stranger, you are an aspired wannabe-member of the famous Guild of Thieves! To be accepted to this illustrious round, you have to prove your abilities. The guild sends you to an island and you have to ransack as many valuables as possible. The castle-like mansion looks like a likely target, but you're already stopped at the entranceby the guards. The nearby bank on the other hand looks like an even harder job...

Melbourne House 1982
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: ZX Spectrum

If you think text adventures, you probably think Infocom and PC. However, even with all the freeware text adventures as a result of a huge fan base, the Spectrum is still the primary platform for text adventures. With over 1,400 commercial (or semi-commercial) text adventures for Spectrum alone and countless more that ware made thanks to the simple programming language, the Spectrum was a heaven for all adventure fans. In hindsight, it's not surprising. In the early 80s, PCs were still very expensive, Apple II had too good graphics to bother with text games and the rest of the crowd were consoles, only few of which had a keyboard. Spectrum was perfect: with a 3.5MHz processor it was pretty weak for high-res graphic games, yet because it was also a programming platform, it had a highly functional keyboard, perfect for text adventures.

Crystal Dynamics 1993
Genre: Action, Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

After saving the king from chocking to death his highness gives you a reward that greatly improves your life, a title of knight. Now you have the king's favour and with it the privilege of paying taxes and a fearsome enemy, the all-devouring horde.

Eldritch Games 1989
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Alone in the Dark, Shadow of the Comet, Prisoner of Ice - games based on or inspired by works by H.P. Lovecraft. None of these can claim to be the best or first game of this theme though, because there is another one which is both older and still beats them all easily: The Hound of Shadow!

Electronic Arts 1991
Genre: Adventure, RPG
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Inside the dungeon below the ruins of an ancient city your old master, Mordamir the immortal, is imprisoned and seeking help. Traps and denizens of the underground will be on your way. Only your skills and spells will be on your side as you venture to the deepest cave.

U.S. Gold 1994
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: SNES

I have to admit that I know nothing about this comic-myth 'Hulk'. But I'll try my best to do justice to him (?) in this review.
Hulk the Incredible - a character full of metaphors. Hulk the Human - he's like you and me. When it is the time again when his skin turns green and his muscles swell, he's standing on a street filled with shooting robots. Apocalypse now in a modern form. The Final Court. Even if it's unbelievable: At this point YOU get into the action. YOU are Hulk. Didn?t we all want to be him sometimes? The time has come now.

Sierra 1992
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Now that you became Dr. Brain's assistant you've got your first job assigned to you: going to Dr. Brain's private island for recovering a battery necessary in an important new creation.

Smoking Car Productions 1997
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Language: English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Robert Cath is a American doctor in his late 20s who has been kicked out of the medical establishment for his leanings towards mysticism and interest in ancient and esoteric forms of medicine. He spent the last few years of his life in Paris. Recently however, some of his research brought him to Ireland where he got caught between the fronts of the fight between the IRA and the British army. Suddenly, he's wanted by the police all over Europe - for murdering a policeman. Just then, an invitation to accompany him in the Orient Express to Constantinople from his old friend Tyler Whitney arrives. Cath decides this is the best way out, so he boards the train in Paris... or rather some kilometres later. He opens the door to his friend's compartment and finds him lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood - murdered. Cath has to find the murderer - and avoid being arrested for this crime as well as the other charges himself.

Imagitec / Gametek 1993
Genre: Strategy, Puzzle
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Deutsch
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

This review is part of The Review Roundup - Round 1: Games Related to the End of the World

Norse mythology has its very specific version of how the world is going to end. The world will fall into a deadly winter, and all kinds of natural catastrophes will occur. Monsters will rise from the depth in which they hid. The monsters will ally with the giants, facing the gods and heroes. In this final battle between good and evil, everybody will perish - including the chief god Odin.

Electronic Arts 1992
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Language: English, Deutsch, Francais
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

A young actress has been brutally murdered right behind the theatre. It looks like Jack the Ripper has found his first victim outside Whitechapel: the poor woman's throat has been cut and there are more wounds which could only have been inflicted with a scalpel all over the body. Inspector Lestrade from Scotland Yard is leading the investigation - and he asks the world's first, most famous and only consulting detective for help: Sherlock Holmes.