You've all gone through this: You see this amazing game, a technological marvel, a sensational experience. You buy the game, and then it turns out your own computer doesn't really seem to be up to it. These days, you'd just go out and buy a new video card or a faster processor, but in 1990, that just wasn't possible - because all hardware on the consumer market wouldn't have cut it in some cases. Cue S.T.U.N. Runner.
Of all Spectrum games, Saboteur was one of the most unique and entertaining ones. Unlike most Spectrum games, it was neither pure action, nor a text adventure, and not even an arcade. The game was a blend of action and puzzle; quick thinking was more important than quick fingers, and keeping your cool was they key to success. Good memory or at least decent mapping skills were not useless, either.
Which character appeared most in Lucas Arts' Adventure games? Chuck the Plant, I guess. Just counting the mammal characters, though, it's Sam & Max. Their creator, Steve Purcell had been drawing backgrounds for many of the games, and Sam, the dog, and Max, the rabbit, had small guest appearances (e.g. as an idol in front of the giant monkey head, as a costume on Booty Island and as a portrait in the Edison's motel). And then, it was time for their own game.
On earth, an experiment with the moonstone the Avatar got on his last adventure goes awry and carries him, along a professor and a reporter, to the lost Valley of Eodon, where dinosaurs and humans live together.
When I started playing this game, I got hooked immediately. It just has...something that makes it addictive. What that is, I can't say.
For its time, it has very good graphics, almost as good as its successor, but it doesn't have great music to go along with it (except for a few major exceptions). The sound effects, however, are good, the combat system is great (Real-Time, with special attacks, throws with the glove weapon, numbers that indicate damage which are bigger if the hit is more severe, critical hits (i.e. Rabite gets whacked) while the enemies can also make criticals, you can move and swing/thrust/hit in all directions, and opponents actually fly back and fall to the ground because of the force of your hits. Plus, it just looks good 
This is, in my opinion, THE best game ever made for the SNES. It has almost everything:
-A good storyline, with 6 different beginnings (one for each of the 6 characters) and 3 different final areas. It will keep you in front of your screen for many hours, with the occasional unexpected event, and then, just when you think you've almost finished the game, you find out that you're only at about one third of the game! (Yep, it's WAAAAY longer than Secret of Mana 1) and that's just with one party, with 119 other possible parties still waiting to be tried, or, if you have too little time for that, 2 other game endings...
This game is one of the first real flight sims I played on the PC and despite its age it's a game I still play nowadays because it just has everything you can expect from a serious flight simulation game. But on to the details...
Set the Hostages Free is an extremely rare and comparatively ancient action game that casts the player as the liberator of up to ninety of the ASCII, title characters. The program uses the PC speaker and color graphics, featuring also the monochrome mode.
It's the night before you're leaving for your vacation. You can't sleep, so you think you might as well get the things on your todo list done before your taxi arrives. Not that your single room apartment allows for much varied action. A futon, a desk with a computer, a kitchen-like corner, a shower, a sink, a toilet - that's it. However, things are starting to shift, change and everything generally gets weird soon enough.
On a stormy night, your grandfather reveals to you you're actually from a race of shapeshifters from another dimension and that you've got a higher purpose in the fate of the world. Before he can explain the details, a stone Gargoyle located at the outside of the building comes alive and kidnaps him. You're on your own.