Back in the early 80s, even on sinfully expensive arcade machines new game ideas appeared, which later disappeared without a trace. Due to the limited hardware, the coins were mainly lured by the skillful design of the gameplay. With Quack A Jack, a clone of such a Japanese arcade game was ported to the Amstrad CPC.
As a duck, you are on your way on a floor paneled with 11x20 tiles, along with some enemies, immobile cooking pots and an egg from which a deadly terraductile emerges after 10 seconds. If the egg is reached in time, another one will show up immediately somewhere on the playing field until the next level is reached. The enemies become more numerous and faster.
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.
Anno 1602 is a classic city building sim. You're founding a settlement in a world of islands, and develop it by providing space to live and necessary goods to the citizens. In mission mode, you have to fulfill single tasks, but in free play, it's your final goal to beat your opponents from the surrounding cities to achieve sovereign rule over the islands. At the beginning, you choose a appropriate island to found your first settlement. Right from the start, you have to deliver basic goods to your people.