Cyberdreams 1992
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

One of the better known Adventures from the early 90s, Darkseed features classic horror with the help of well-known Swiss artist H.R. Giger who also designed the monsters for 'Alien' (the movie). Your alter ego has just moved in an old villa in a small village. It was a real bargain! Suddenly, he gets this strange headache which is unbearable without the help of a lot of pills and from the first night in the house on, he gets weird nightmares about..... alien-like creatures.

Empire 1991
Genre: Action
Rating: 0/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

There are only so many ways to make a game belonging to the hack'n'slash genre interesting. Deathbringer actually tries to bring in some welcome innovation.

The player takes control of some muscle-heavy barbarian armed with an oversized sword cutting his way through hordes of ugly monsters (or, basically, everything in his path). So far, so non-innovative. The sword actually has a name, because it has a life of its own (actually, it's a wizard who has transformed himself into a sword, but let's not get further into this...). The catch: The sword demands to be 'fed' with blood. So you have to keep killing, because if the piece of metal remains dry for too long, it'll start feeding on the player's character, draining his own life away. Very good idea.

Icom Simulations 1989
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

This time, the player indeed gets a deja vu: This sequel is so similar to its predecessor that it's hard not to get some flashbacks. You're even going to visit some of the old locations and meet some of the old people again! That doesn't mean it's a useless game only to make profit off its 'good name', but without anything new. It is just a sequel in a very strict sense: it picks up right after the first part.

Icom Simulations 1986
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Interactive Fiction made more accessable: add graphics, add a mouse-driven user interface and use the capabilities of a modern 'windowed' operating system. But in spite of that all: don't forget about your target audience!

neo Software 1994
Genre: Strategy, Puzzle
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Freeware
System: Amiga

Lured by the promise of quick money, Matt Stuvysunt arrives in London in early 1953. A meeting with his not very sympathetic, but nevertheless fascinating aquaintace Briggs provides him with a used car, some startup money and at least a faint idea where to start: a small kiosk somewhere out of town. Low gain, but also close to zero risk. Briggs himself is obviously up to something a lot bigger.

Ascon 1992
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

The late Middle Ages: The Baltic Sea are is ruled by the Hanseatic League, an alliance of flourishing cities ruled by a class of wealthy merchants. As an aspiring merchant in any of those cities, each player tries to build up a trading empire by sending out ships, buying and selling goods and establishing offices in as any cities as possible.

Promotion Software 1994
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 2/6
Licence: Freeware
System: Amiga

We're slowly turning into a propaganda site for the government - this is already the third game financed by them we're presenting! No idea what we're trying to compensate with that, wishful thinking at our school days maybe (since they're all 'educational' games) or bad conscience because of the terrorist acts.... er... better stop talking about that now.

Blue Byte 1993
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

British and American games usually keep their names when they're released in Germany - even if it's a translated version. That's good, makes international conversations about them easier. German companies on the other hand sometimes take really silly measures to increase their chance on the international market. Not that it has ever worked, but giving up would be silly, too. One of the effects is that German games have English names - even here. If you can't see anything strange about that, you're probably from the USA. What would you think if a game by an 'American' company would carry a title in Suaheli? To take it one step further: what would you think if a game by a German company was released in your country carrying a German title?

PCSL 1991
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: 1/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Dingsda was a popular quiz show on German television running from the mid-80s to the end of the last millenium (in fact, it was only popular until the mid-90s, but it ran for another five years after that). The basic premise: two teams of TV 'celebrities' would compete in guessing words which were explained by kindergarten children.

Impressions 1991
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Impressions never had the best reputation with the mainstream gamers. They mainly produced quite inaccessible (granted) strategy titles. Caesar and Cohort are maybe their widest known classic titles. The vast majority of their games completely disappeared though.