Imagine the beginning of a great adventure: You are standing in a forest. The sky is blue, the sun is shining and the wildlife is wandering about. There is a guy named Jack, Steve or Brat next to you, who will turn out to be an invaluable source of information, for he is The Guide. With great foresight you brought a set of tools along, so you can start right away. What will it be? Do you want to start digging, to search for valuable ores and treasure caves? Or do you want to attack that slime creature that is coming closer, in the hope that it will drop some valuables? Or how about building a base, maybe a log cabin, first? All of this is possible in Terraria, an open-world 2D platformer, that combines the fun of exploration, fighting and building in one game.
Seas of Blood… this is going to be a tough discussion for me, because I have to admit this was the gamebook which I read/played more often than any other when I was a kid. Whether this was due to thematic preference, due to gameplay-related strengths or other aspects, we will probably find out. However, I cannot guarantee that I can stay objective at all times. Please excuse the occasional drift into nostalgia.
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.
The very same company made a Shareware game in 1994 (they're claiming 1992 on their website, however, I know for sure it was publically released in 1994). Operation: Inner Space, as it's called, is designed for Windows (a rarity in the days of Windows 3.1), and even more surprisingly, it's an action game. At the first look, it reminds the player of Asteroids: you're flying a spaceship seen from the top, blasting your way through countless screens.
