Tapuak has been with the site since the day it opened. Of the four initial reviews the site consisted of, one (Chaos Engine) was written by him, just under a different alias. He 'officially' joined the crew in late 2000 as webmaster of the newly established SNES section.
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!
Back in 1986, computers still being futuristic wonder machines, it was much easier to get lost in them still. A good time to experiment with new forms of literature. Whereas numerous companies acquired big name licences to be adapted into games, and some even had the active support of the original book authors for such adaptations, there were also a few attempts to actually produce original works in computer-based formats which would fulfil literary standards. One of them was Portal.
Mr Creosote
This is the "abominable" yeti? It seems quite clear where the sympathies of the illustrator lie. Unfortunately, the text does not introduce any such doubts. There are no subtleties to be found in this adventure. Caverns of the Snow Witch starts out as a yeti hunt, then turns into a dungeon crawl and finally lets you pay a long march home. There is a good reason for its episodic nature. Of course, I only learned about that decades after first encountering it.
Mr Creosote
Did the guy on the left use this weirdly short rapier in a duel against the dead (?) guy in white and red? No visibile wound, though. St. Thomas was a short-lived Prussian colony, located in the Carribean, in the late 17th and early 18th century. Don't worry if you haven't heard of it before. After all, now that you know about this game, it is your opportunity to learn, isn't it?
Mr Creosote
Who could possibly resist this call? Released towards the tail end of the C64's lifetime, Creatures showed what could still be squeezed out of that legendary home computer. It might not have broken revolutionary new ground, but it was the result of a long optimization.
Mr Creosote
With a cover like this, you really have to ask yourself who the target audience of Scorpion Swamp was supposed to be. From the looks of this illustration, my guess is about eight-year-olds? A low difficulty level inside would confirm this theory. Is it fair, then, to judge it from an adult perspective these days? Don't worry, I'm trying my best to be fair.
Mr Creosote
Stuffy old men in suits taking decisions about our world's future from their ivory tower. Earth Command is painfully realistic, dealing with all those alarming issues of today's world. Just that it is from… 1993. Wait a minute, does this mean all this has been known for decades? Wouldn't this imply we could have done something to prevent where we are now? Unheard of! [sarcasm off]
Mr Creosote
Merchandising is not new to us, and the game Doraemon 2: Animal Planet Legend, based on the movie of (almost) the same name, appeared on what was probably the most popular handheld in the early 1990s. Although the Gameboy started its triumphal march in other parts of the globe – outside Japan – the game remained untranslated until today. Hence the attempt to close a potential knowledge gap.
LostInSpace
I don't think much of an introduction is needed for this one. It's one of the most popular games of the homecomputer era, after all. Obviously, the difficulty with games like Turrican is always: is there anything which has not been said about it before?
Mr Creosote
Having just escaped from Deathtrap Dungeon, a well-deserved rest with our good friend Mungo seemed in order. Only that said Mungo immediately sends us on another seemingly hopeless adventure: defeating the Lizard King and freeing the enslaved humanoids from his grasp. At least he's coming along as well. Oops, maybe that wasn't the best of ideas…
Mr Creosote
One of the most beloved games on the C64, Wizball's specialty was cooperative multiplayer. Something not all that often found in games of the time. Or even today, for that matter. Which is too bad, isn't it? Why always this focus on competition?
Mr Creosote