Activision 1986
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Kevin Mitnick...THE man. Have you heard about Kevin Mitnick? Have you ever wanted to be like him? Yeah I know...stupid question, of course you did. To be sincere, I wanted that too. I even broke into ***.*****.****.*****.edu but that's another thing.

Starbyte 1993
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

A German strategy game with decent graphics and intuitive controls? What a novel idea! Ok, there are exceptions - think of Battle Isle and The Settlers. Hannibal can't quite reach that high level, but it comes close enough...

Ikarion Software 1995
Genre: Strategy, Sport
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Germanies favourite minor matter - again - football! This game fell into my hands for 5 DM on a rummage table. Well, I could give it a try... ok, that try resulted in long late-night gaming sessions. Hattrick has one of the best user interfaces and features like the goal scenes, the articles about the games in the newspaper and the team of the day get you in the mood. Unfortunately, the game comes without a licence from the DFB, so the authors couldn't use the original names of the teams and the players, but there is an editor to rectify this.

Ozark Softscape 1985
Genre: Strategy, Adventure
Rating: 4.3/6
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

[dregenrocks] The player has to explore the continent of africa in search for a valuable tomb containing the so called "Heart Of Africa". You start in Cairo or another main african city at the coast and buy some basic equipment like a canoe, weapons, tools, food and gifts. With this stuff you start to explore the inner land, by canoeing down rivers or just by walking through the deserts, jungles and wide steppes of the continent. On the way you discover famous landmarks to earn some money and meet villagers, to earn some valueable informations about hidden crates and treasures (i.e. gold, silber, ivory). For this you have to give other treasures or a lot of gifts instead to the village-chiefs, who tell you about those secrets. You will also trade for food and may need to get back to one of the harbour-towns to refresh (save game), get money and new equpment. This will become a "treasure-trade-circle" until some chief may tell you about the "Heart Of Africa", your goal to get riches of your ancestor...

Dynamix 1992
Genre: Adventure, Action
Rating: 3/6
Licence: Freeware
System: Amiga

Loud-mouthed American Jake "Lucky" Masters who served in the first World War owes the businessman Lomax lots of money. Quite conveniently, Lomax' daughter who works as a nurse to help the poor rural population of China has just been kidnapped by some local warlord. Jake seems to be the right man to come to the rescue.

Graftgold / Hewson 1986
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Graftgold were one of the companies which started the (horrible) trend to release the same game in different 'editions' over and over again. Uridium and Paradroid were two of the earliest examples. Both excellent games.

Core Design 1994
Genre: RPG, Adventure
Rating: 3/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Again Loki is preparing to start the ragnarok, just this time he got the help of some strange monsters which seem to come from nowhere. Your job is finding the way through Yggdrasil, to recover the pieces of an amulet from another world which is the only thing powerful enough to stop him.

Rauser Advertainment 1993
Genre: Simulation, Action
Rating: 0/6
Licence: Freeware
System: Amiga

I've always had a soft spot for promotial games. With some ironic distance, they're mostly very funny: unvoluntarily humor galore. The uncoolest companies trying to get their useless products into the concious of young people. That's of course not easily done. Medicine against rheumatism suddenly turns hip, politicians become MTV-compatible stars. Or the promoted product doesn't turn up at all. Hilarious!

Radarsoft 1984
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: 2/6
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Herbie, the lovable Volkswagen Bug whose whacky adventures everyone has been following in the 60s and 70s, is back on the big screen with 'Fully Loaded'. Haven't seen it, and don't plan to, but I guess it's bad. However, legends can't die, no matter how awful this new version might be. We'll always have the original.

Gremlin Graphics 1991
Genre: RPG
Rating: 5/6
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.