Gremlin Graphics 1991
Genre: RPG
Rating: 5/6
Language: English, Deutsch, Francais, Castellano, Italiano
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

HeroQuest came into being as the McDonald's version of Dungeons and Dragons. Fast, flashy and without taste, was the motto. Well, not exactly; there was some taste, and it was up to the dungeon master to create it. The original version of HeroQuest involves a big cardboard playing field, lots of plastic monsters, four heroes and 14 levels of fun (later extensions of the game, which was immensely popular in Germany where I've gotten it, added the level total to about 25). The game became incredibly populare. You didn't need to remember all those complicated stats, which dice to throw and how many times to throw them. Instead, everything was laid out for you, including the walls, which you could erect on the board. It comes as little surprise that the board game created a few spin-offs. The only successful one, however, was Space Hulk, which spawned the game of the same name by the same company - Gremlin.

Gremlin Graphics 1992
Genre: Sport, Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Released roughly at the same time as the first Championship Manager, Premier Manager was different enough to attract its own crowd of fans. This game has started a battle that, in a sense, rages until today: a battle between two styles of soccer management games. Where Championship Manager was heavy on different statistics and on putting together to optimal squad for each match, Premier Manager by Gremlin, and later its spiritual successors ? Premier League Manager and Total Club Manager series by EA ? took on a more user-friendly approach and mixed in the business and training aspects of managing a soccer team.

Magnetic Fields / Gremlin Graphics 1990
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Racing games weren't always in pseudo 3D. For instance, there were Sprint and Super Sprint (which was never ported to the Amiga, but that's a story for another day). Super Cars is a home-computer-original variant of the same idea, and quite a good one.

Gremlin Graphics 1985
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Language: English
Licence: Commercial
System: Plus/4

Back in the Eighties, Sword Of Destiny was one of the first computer games I played. After putting the cassette into the slightly damaged drive, you had to push down the play button and the cap all the time to avoid a crash during the process of loading. The longer the screen glimmered like a rainbow gone mad, the more the excitement grew. Finally it began: Down into the catacombs!

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).