This game may have the Mario brand, but it’s also a very comprehensive typing tutor. It only had one fault I could find, it wouldn’t let me skip ahead to more advanced levels if I felt I was advanced enough to start further ahead. I had to go through each of the easy levels to see what was happening up ahead.

The first step is to create yourself a profile. Give yourself a name and choose if you want to play as Mario, Luigi or Princess Peach. Then you’re off starting your lessons.

There are five lessons, each contains different sets, such as numbers, letters, top keys, bottom keys, symbols and the entire keyboard. Each lesson is themed, the first being standard Mario head-butting blocks, plus under the sea, in the castle and typing a letter (of gobbledy-gook).

I’m not a huge Mario fan, but I did enjoy this typing tutor. It was addictive and it worked damnit! It’s a really good typing tutor. If you want to refine your skills so you can get that super-secretary job, or you want to be able to say more on IRC in a shorter span of time, then definitely have a turn with this. It’s abandonware, so it’s free. And one of the best free ones out there I’m sure.

One thing I found quite unusable was the initial menu. There were no text rollovers or anything for the menu items. I took the spanner and hammer combination to be “setup” and I was right, I could choose which card deck to use and configure the sound. The one with the graph I took a guess at and got wrong, it is actually some sort of scoring thing. The clock icon is used to set a time limit for answering the questions. The little gloved hands in the middle is where you can change the player setup – who plays as what colour, add more players etc. Of course the bottom icon is the “Let’s start the game!” icon

So like the board game, you roll the dice and move your piece. You are asked the question from the card corresponding with your colour, but you do not type in or select the answer, you choose it in your head. Once you have decided the answer, push the “reveal” button and then you get to put in whether you got it right or not. So realistically this game is designed for you to play with your friends around a table (erm, around a computer). I think it must have been purely for those who didn’t have the board game but wanted to play, not for people home alone that want to play vs a computer. There is no computer player option, so you better make sure you have some friends to play with.

The little bird guy that comes out and asks you the question is very cool. He takes you into themed rooms and asks you your question. I enjoyed his sarcastic sense of humour too! He kept accusing me of guessing it correctly when I got it right.

Really, you have to play against humans otherwise it’s not going to work I’ve been cheating the entire time I’ve played this…

First, a big thanks to Oyn who found this game for me. I was looking for it for many years. I used to play this game at Intermediate school on the class computer, because we were there earlier than school started. After all these years I could only remember a game set in the middle ages, and that there was arm wrestling, archery and galloping a horse between towns. So I described this dream game to Oyn and he went hunting, and sure enough he found it – he finds everything. Thanks Oyn! (k)

This game was way before it’s time. It was enthralling, stunning, fun and adventurous. I have always had a fascination with all things medieval.

So, where to start? You are a knight who has returned from afar, only to find that your uncle has an army approaching to conquer your lands and your home has been ravaged. Your castle is a ruin and you need to amass an army to defend the lands. A bit like the Robin Hood movie with Kevin Costner? The problem is that you’ve been gone so long that nobody really cares who you are, so you need to go around doing archery and arm wrestling and other things to gather enough respect and money to get the army together.

So you get on your faithful steed and face the county map. You ride your horse from town to town and other inhibited areas and do all that is required to save your land from the oncoming slaughter.

The first town you’ll come across is Chatany Malabry, where you spend most of the game trying to conquer the annual archery contest. I totally sucked at the archery. You have to gauge the angle up, down, side-to-side, force etc. You get 6 rounds. It was quite difficult! I also managed to pick up some supplies from the store to aid me in my quest.

The town of Lorando is to the west, where there is a used-car salesman and an optimistic barman. It’s a quaint town, where people are friendly and they have a lot of… shrubbery.

Knights Templar Abbey isn’t a town, but it’s another area you can visit. I was confuddled here, seemed a good place to just purchase things. I thought it was awesome that there were Knights Templar, very medieval. Shame they weren’t ready to rally to my cause just yet.

The best place to visit though is Torantek, the restless city of scoundrels and people without morals or faith. Wow, careful not to be mugged I say. People tend to stare at me and don’t like me. I did find some mercenaries but they didn’t like me either. It was a very interesting place to be. Some nice shady characters for you to take your moods out on.

But that’s not all, there are many other places to visit and see, other challenges, people to meet and talk to, buy things from etc.

I really recommend this game, it’s just brilliant. So popular it was ported to nearly any platform you can think of!

The highlight of this game is when you play in “3D” mode, you get to witness actual battles between the pieces. I love watching the castle eat the queen, very cool. Each different combination of pieces have a unique battle, which is very fun to watch. It’s almost worth losing a few of the games so you can see all the different wars going on between pieces. Apparently one set is red and the other is blue, but it’s really pink and blue when I play. Gotta love those oldschool graphics.

If you aren’t into the whole waiting for battles then there is also a 2D mode, where you can look down on the pieces, very old school normal chess. Not half as exciting as full on Battle Chess.

A very impressive feature of this game was the ability play over a modem. Yes, back in 1989! How awesome is that? You can go and battle with your neighbour.

There’s another lovely feature, called “Setup Board”. You can arrange the pieces how you want, and then you play. I guess it’s a bit like cheating, but it’s a good way to see the different battles. Plus it’s good to test out certain moves. Probably helpful if you’re learning, I only used it to watch the pieces fight!

There are difficulty levels, from Novice through to Level 9. You can also set a time limit for moves. So, there are a lot of awesome features in this game. They really did think through what people would want to do in this game, obviously a lot of user requirements were gathered.

The sound effects are brilliant. No need to settle for lame sounds anymore! You can live it up with swords, knights clinking around in armour etc. Adds another dimension.

If you like chess, are good at chess and just like watching little wars, then you’re going to love this game. If you don’t like chess, then it might help you get into chess!

This is another one of my bought ‘games’. Its not really a game, its more of an educational application. In Cartooners its all about making cartoons. There are no real game elements in this application, its just letting your creativity flow.

When you start Cartooners, you get into the main menu where you can choose a couple of options. Look, Play, Create and Quit.

Look
In ‘Look’ you are at the theatre, you can click on the tickets to play a short movie. The movies already listed are the default movies which came with the application. These movies show off what you can do with the software.

Play
‘Play’ is about the same as the ‘Look’ option, however when the movie ends when you just watched one, you dont return to the theatre, but you stay in the editor where you can edit the movie and add bits.

Create
‘Create’ is the most interesting option, here you can do whatever comes to mind, to make the ultimate cartoon. When you start ‘Create’, you’ll start in a blank screen where you can start making your cartoon. First of all you can load scenes. The scenes can be anything from the default list, but you can also load your own pictures, saved from LBM files. I just loaded the ‘graveyard’ setting and added a bunny to the scene. You can place the bunny everywhere in the scene, but it makes the most sense when you put him/her on the ground. You can set it just far right, one pixel away from the border and you can make it ‘Act’. For instance, you can make the Bunny hop into the view. Then press record and it starts recording frame for frame in (faster than) real time. When it has hopped past from right to left and off the screen, you can slide the frame marker back to the beginning and press play. Now you see the bunny hop from right to left, your first cartoon has been made! To add music go back to the first frame and select a tune from the ‘Music’ menu. Select the ‘spooky’ music and press record again until your bunny has hopped out of the screen again. Now when you slide the frame marker back again and press play, your cartoon will play with spooky music playing This is just an example of what you can do with Cartooners.

There are lots and lots more actors to play around with, that can do (act) different things, like dancing and flying and landing and walk and move in all sorts of ways. You can load more than one scene, switch scenes as you go, add sound effects and music, work in multiple layers and add scenes and actors of your own. Speech and exclamation balloons help you with clearing up things. Its just a program to let your creativity run wild.

Its lots of fun making your own cartoons, but its too bad you cant add digital effects and the program only supports LBM files. However the program does support CGA, EGA, VGA, Tandy and various soundcards: Adlib, CMS Gameblaster, Roland MT-32, PC Speaker and Tandy.

It will keep you entertained for a while, but it wont last long anymore these days.

Before we’re getting into nostalgia, lets talk about this golfing game. Its actually my first experience into the sport and golf genre on the pc. It was just fun going through the golf courses with a couple of friends, going in turns, trying to get as low as possible under par. Well usually it was just trying to get as low as possible with the points, because we never made it under par. Only with luck. Yes, this is another multiplayer game on the same computer, also known as Hot Seat. But at that time that term wasnt invented yet. So we just went in turns and hit our balls

In the game you can choose three different difficulties, ranging from kids until pro. Actually I never recognized any difference in difficulty between those three settings, but perhaps I could be wrong. Next you can choose the number of holes you like to play, 18, 36, 54 or 72. Well, when you’re playing with four people, you could be playing a single game for hours and hours if you play all the 72 holes. Its already playing for hours when you’re playing single player. So I usually just pick playing 18 holes. Its just enough for a quick game.

You usually try to get under par, or if that doesnt work, on par. If even that doesnt work, we’ll just keep on playing until you’re so embarrased that you stop playing all together. You have a number of wood and iron sticks to choose from, then just whack the ball into the right direction. Well you obviously have to counter balance for the wind speed, or your ball will fly off the screen, into the trees, the rough, the bunker or into the water. If you keep your ball onto the fairway, everything will be okay and you got your game under or on par. The lower your score, the better you do!

The graphics are limited to 16 colors EGA in a resolution of 320×200. I think it just looks reasonable for a 1988 game, although theres not too much detail. Maybe its just good, to keep a clear look onto the ball into the field. Its also possible to play the game in 4 color CGA and then it will use two palettes. The cyan/purple/white/black scheme for the menus, green/red/brown/blue scheme for in-game. Just like a Sierra AGI adventure. Its looking very retro, and I just love to play it that way. When the game is ‘rendering’ the golf course, you see it getting drawed. Layer for layer, and trees are getting added as the last layer. On an XT it takes a while to draw, although I found that fascinating. On DosBox, you still see it getting drawed, although its much faster than on a real old computer I think its nice to watch that. It does that with every ‘scene’ though, so every view has to be re-rendered. For some, annoying as heck, for me, kinda nostalgic. I just love it.

The sound is pretty awesome for its time. It was one of the very first PC games actually playing digital sound effects and speech over the PC Speaker. They called the technology RealSound. When you start the game and you’re in the main screen, you hear birds singing. When you start the game and you’re actually in the game, you’ll hear crickets chirping randomly and when you’re playing on a course with water surrounding it, you will hear frogs croaking at random times. It really sets the mood. When you’re playing the game and hitting the ball just right and it lands on the fairway, you’ll hear the reporter making remarks. Although the reporters vocabulary is somewhat limited, its still nice for a game that old. Try hitting the ball into the water, I love it when the ball disappears and you’ll hear a splash The sounds are making this game definately a great game. Because most the games and applications at that time were limited at making the pc speaker just beep one voice at a time, this game sets the golfing mood so much better with the digital sounds! When you’re putting your ball, and put it right into the hole, you will hear a public applause. Even though you dont see any people surrounding you. They must be your imaginary friends

This game is just about winning and stragically choosing your sticks and checking the wind speed and slamming the ball at the right speed and angle. Do it alone or do it with friends. Its more fun with friends anyhow. Its a good laugh garantueed. Just having fun with this fairly easy golfing game. It will keep you entertained, but the longer the games get, the sooner you will go bored. Its nice for a change, but not for playing hours and hours at a time.

I was looking through my old games collection, wondering what game to review when this one popped up. I just had to add it to the site! This game is a total classic.

I laughed when I found out who designed it. There is a guy here at work called David Bayliss, but I’m sure he’s no relation. David Bayliss ran a one-man company called Wordworks, him being the one man in it. Wordworks has only released two freeware titles that I am aware of – Elevator and X-Fighter.

Anyhoo, seeing as I am reviewing the game, I should actually talk about the game! This game is great. By looking at the title of the name “Elevator” you can safely assume this game has an elevator in it. It sure does, in fact it’s all about elevators.

You are this cute little dude, who has to ride the elevators around the level and collect all the bags of gold. Once you have done that you can go onto the next level. Seems easy you say? It is no way near as easy as it seems. Timing is critical, those lifts get faster and it gets harder and harder. As with all old games the character isn’t nice and responsive like they are in modern games, you need to use pure skill. One slip and ‘ahhhhhhhhh’ down the elevator shaft you fall. You only get so many lives, so it pays to ration them.

The graphics aren’t all that bad, just what you would expect from an older game – yellow red and green gracing the screen. However, the colours do suit the simplicity of the game, and are not hard on the eyes. They are quite good.

This game is excellent. You really should give it a whirl, and see if you have the pure skill required. I really I do recommend it to all lovers of the old platform games, especially if you enjoyed Lode Runner and Jumpman!

Command your Cobra space ship in a fantastic voyage of discovery and adventure, a supreme test of your combat, navigational and entrepreneurial skills.

Trade between countless planets, using the proceeds to equip your ship with heat-seeking missiles, beam lasers and other weapons – corporate states can be approached without risk, but unruly anarchies may be swarming with space pirates.

Black market trading can be lucrative but could result in skirmishes with local police and a price on your head!

However you make your money, by fair means or foul, you must blast onwards through space annihilating pirate ships and hostile aliens as you strive to earn your reputation as one of the Elite!

The following statement is by no means an exageration, or solely my opinion:

Elite is quite possibly the best game ever created, a masterpiece of design and gameplay.

While the game is immense (remember that word!) the concept is simple: you are a freelance space pilot… that’s it! The game has 8 galaxies to explore, each containing approximately 500 unique planets. You can be a choose to be a trader and ferry goods between worlds, or a pirate who attacks ships and takes their cargo. Or a bounty hunter, or an asteroid miner or… you get the idea Earn money, upgrade your ship, undertake missions, maybe even go after the evil Thargoids (the big bad aliens in the game). What you do is entirely up to you.

Emulation fans may want to try out the original BBC Micro version of the game, or the Archimedes version – regarded by many (myself included) as the best version. Or if you’d rather stick to the PC version then get a copy of Elite +, the remake that has updated graphics and sound.

This game truly is a classic, two thumbs and a leg up!

Eye of Horus is an excellent platform game. I remember my mum buying it for me when it first come out – this was the only game we every bought when we were young, and I think it was a worthwhile purchase. I remember copying it for my friends! (Wow, I was a warez freak and never knew it :O.. hell, I wasn’t even 10 years old, how was I supposed to know!).

I have included an excerpt from the manual to better explain the story line of the game (it’s a pretty powerful and beautiful one you see):

The story, chiseled in stone, is about a once powerful king names Osiris. Osiris was a benevolent King, loved by all – except for one: his half-brother, Set. Set tricked Osiris into lying in a chest. Set then nailed the chest shut and sent it down the Nile, hoping to end his brother’s life.

But just as the captive Osiris was about to breathe his last breaths, his beautiful wife the legendary Isis found the chest with her dying king. In the joy of their reunion they conceived a son whose name was Horus. Osiris never lived to see his son – for he died in Isis’s arms. She ried to hide his body, for fear that Set would find it. But to no avail… Set did find it. And he tore the corpse into seven pieces, scattering them throughout the tomb. Now it is well known that a soul can not lie in peace unless his orpse is whole and properly placed in its arcophagus. Even his loved ones are unable to est until his body has been restored.

And so it is that neither Osiris, nor his family – Isis and Horus – is depicted on the final aintings inside the labyrinth. And not until orus reclaims the scattered bones, returns them to the sarcophagus and defeats the evil Set, will Osiris and his family reclaim their rightful place on the eternal sandstone of the burial chamber.

The unfinished legend is now up to Horus. And up to you.

So it’s your task to journey around the pyramid. One cool thing about this game is that as shaman, you have the ability to transform into a bird at by pressing the upward arrow key. This ability allows you collect items that are out of reach, and also avoid many of the dangers. That was one thing I noticed about this game, a great variety of dangers.

To get the real understanding of this game you have to play it. It’s a lot of fun, and a great challenge. Might take a while to understand the order of things and they way you have to do them, but I thoroughly enjoyed it

No one knows ‘ow long they have been ‘ere; even old Albert don’t recall ‘em comin’an”e reckons ‘e might he over ‘undredt. We didn’t mind when they kept themselves to themselves. I mean all we wants is a bit o’piece an’ quiet an’ leave to go about our business. We’re simlple folk ‘ere in Little Dullford and we can’t be don’ with magic an’ spells. I never did ‘old with folk meddlin’ in things best left alone. We’d see ‘em o’course; in the forest pickin’ toadstools an’ suchlike, or p’raps one would pop into Tubby Hieke’s shop for ‘erbs an’ stuff, but by an’ large they left us normal folk alone, and that’s ‘ow we like it.

They’d ‘ad arguments before, we all know that. Well, readin’ them magic books all day they can’t be right in the ‘ead can they? Anyway, two summers back, or maybe three (I remember because that was the year Albert’s donkey died), old Leanoric (he’s the older one I think), he turned ‘is brother Learic into a frog! His own brother! but he turned ‘im back after a week an’ at least they didn’t bother us. Two weeks back, all this changed; first the forest went quiet for a few days, not even a sparra’ dared to make a sound. Then the noises began, first shoutin’ then all manner o’ bangs, explosions and things best not thought about. Yesterday, old Leanoric upped an’ left an’ moved to another ‘ut on t’uther side o’village. Hieke (who knows’em better’n most), reckons they’s about to start a feudin’ an’ woe betide the poor soul who gets in their way. That as maybe but there’s strange things afoot in this ‘ere village an’ no mistake. lt don’t take no fancy book learnin’ to figger we ‘ain’t seen the last o’ this, you mark my words.”

In Feud you take on the role of one of two brothers – wizards – who are um.. feuding. You must travel the land collectin ingredients in order to create nasty spells to use against your sibling (who is doing the same). This game was the spectrum equivalent of the one-on-one deatmatch (against the computer) except that this is more fun.*

It’s a very simple concept that works well – though it is not without it’s problems. For instance each game can go on for a very long time, finding ingredients is a lengthy business when the game world is as big as it is in Feud. Also some spells can only be used once, meaning that you have to go to the trouble of collecting the ingredients all over again (very annoying). It would be much better IMO if once you have a spell, you keep it for the duration.

The graphics are very nice for the time the game was released (some of the best seen in the spectrum as far as I know) and the game world itself is quite interesting, if a little on the big side (it’s very easy to get lost).

All in all a fun game, flawed in a few places but still a nice way to waste an hour or so.

* Look, I don’t care what anyone says – Quake sucks arse. Bite me!

Oh wow, I was bumming around per usual and stumbled across this game. Floppy Frenzy is made by Windmill Software, who bought us such treasures as Digger.

Now this game takes me way back! I remember thinking this was the corniest and geekiest idea for a game ever. The developer probably was sitting at his desk going ‘uh duhhh what should I uhhh.. game.. uhhh what about duhhh oh wow a disk.. oh uhhh ooo sticker says no dust.. ohhh a game.. uhh duhh cool’ . Indeed, a skeptic I was, but I was given this game way back when variety was slim, so I played it, and to my surprise, I thought it was rather funky (even though it was a rather strange concept).

This game is cool! You are a magical (well, not magical as you are square) 5.25″ floppy disk, and your job is to get through each maze-like level avoiding all the things you see on those stickers that come with disks (magnets and dust being apparent in this situation). If you touch magnets
or dust, you shall be ruined like any God-fearing disk would be!

I think the perfect sequels would have been the 3.5″ Floppy Frenzy, followed by the ever-popular CD Frenzy, Zipdisk Frenzy and Removable Hard-drive frenzy. But I guess the demand was low, a real shame really *sniff*.

The graphics were in lovely shades of red, green and gold ? liken to Digger, and other Windmill Software classics. I cannot comment on the sounds, if any you can expect the lovely sounds of your PC speaker.

Overall, Floppy Frenzy *cringe* is a nice simple yet totally fun game. It’s so cool how all these old games top the stakes in game-play, even after all these years. (Boy do I feel old). At 50kb, you can give it a shot.

The first game I ever played on C64, although this is for PC. It was cool, I even still have the cassette at home that still works in my old Amstrad. Hehe, you would think I was a fanatic. I get déj� vu when I play catacomb because of this game! It was an excellent foundation layer for the dungeon crawler games though.

This game has multi and single player. You pick your own character, and the others pick theirs. When you start this game you chose from the following four characters:

Thor the Warrior:
He’s the big man. Takes a bit to knock him out, but he doesn’t have any special magic powers. He also moves a bit slow.

Merlin the Wizard:
Touché! Well, you couldn’t very well have a Wizard and not call him Merlin I guess! Merlin is a cool character, he has strong magic abilities, and can kick some arse. He cant really do much when he’s being hit on the head, as he’s a very fragile character and its better to kill everyone around you before they get too close and smack him.

Thyra the Valkyrie:
This was the character that I always used. I guess that’s because I am a girl =). She’s tough, she’s powerful, has magic. Plus she looks dang good in a skimpy costume! What more could you want? She moves relatively fast and has the best of all the characters rolled into one I think.

Questor the Elf:
He can use magic, and can hit people pretty hard. But he’s pretty fragile again, and his best characteristic is that he is the fastest. Which is good when you need to get away as he’s got stuff-all armor. But when surrounded with nowhere to go, who you gonna call?
This game is great, you go through many levels, gathering treasure and potions and killing the dungeon monsters. It’s so much fun. There are many dungeons to go through, and if you’ve played Catacomb, then you’ll pick this game up really easy, as this game inspired all like games.

I guess the one bummer is when you are playing multi player and you get caught in different screens and get stuck, as the screen just isn’t wide enough for you both to go back and get together again! That used to cause a lot of resets when Sarah and I used to play it!

You MUST download this game and play it. It’s excellent and totally rocks hard! I love it!!!

Ooh, scary I remember playing this game way back on the C64. It was a lot of fun then, and still is a lot of fun now on the PC

Another one of my much loved side-scrolling platform games. You can climb up and down things, and go onto different levels etc. But you still go from left to right jumping around and killing all the baddies, trying to make it to the end of the level. Sweeet!

Your enemies are scary monsters that come out of graves and other ominous places, such as zombies, ghosts, bats and icky things. You are the trusty knight who slays these hideous beasts and goes around doing the general kickass job he’s supposed to do! You can collect various things to make you stronger and aid in your battle to get to the end of the game.

I was just reading that to complete the game you have to go back to the beginning and go right through again on a harder level. You have to complete it twice in total to actually complete it. Man, talk about rough! I never even made it through once! This game is HARD! So if you are sick of all the way-too-easy games, and you think you are the bee’s knees then maybe you should try this game out

Pretty good-looking game considering it is 14 years old! Great colours, and the monsters all look scary and you look like the hero you’re supposed to be Typical PC speaker sounds.

Turned out to be a very cool PC game and everyone should give it a go, especially if you never got to have a turn on the C64, because it’s a great game and a very wicked challenge.

A nice little side-scrolling platform game. Goody features you as a crazy little burglar guy, who bounds around the place collecting tools for his task to rob the big bank. While you are jumping around though, you have to look out for the policeman, and other various enemies that you’ll encounter. Beware, some of them are rather…. Odd

I had another little play of this game after it was added to the site. I couldn’t remember how hard it was to control him! The controls on this game are quite tricky, you use the a, z (up and down) and the o, p (left and right) keys if I remember right. Sure that isn’t too complicated, lots of games use those keys, but when it comes to jumping ARGH!! I think it hates me! You can only do running jumps, he will not jump up and across! Which can make things really difficult.

The graphics are ok, with their basic orange and green colouring. Monuments of Mars here we come. The pictures are all really cute, and it’s great for a 1987 game:)

This game is great apart from the fact that he just wont do what I instruct him to!

The Opera Soft Team:

Wow, check it out! I never knew that Berk was a member of the Opera Soft team. Stay away from that trapdoor Guys!

Wowee. It’s an isometric game in all its 1980′s glory. Looking awful like so many Ultimate games like Alien8, you’d be forgiven for thinking your PC has turned into a Spectrum.

It’s easy to install and get running, but it rips along and you’d better use a slowdown utility or the game will be over before you’ve figured out the controls. Indeed it’s unplayable even on an old 486.

Well it’s quite a good game. You have to assemble all the parts of your escape kit, beit disguises, wirecutters or whatever. There’s a regular routine at the camp like roll call and meals and you must be present whenever the prisoners are checked, so you have to be sneaky to get anything done. Once you have everything you need for your
escape, it’s time to go!

Well the graphics suck, but in a retro way, so that makes them alright. The sound is internal speaker only (yike). And it has a tendency to crash the sound routines on exit so your speaker will burble away until a reboot. But on the whole it’s quite an enjoyable game although you probably won’t play it more than once.

Coming a close second to Zork for the position of Infocom’s moast famous title, THHGTTG (hehe) is the adaption of Douglas Adam’s story of the same name. You play Arthur Dent, and your home (and planet) has been destroyed by a Vogon constructor fleet to make way for a hyper space by-pass. Rescued by your friend (who, unknown to you, is an alien) you will travel to alien worlds and into the past and future to discover the true nature of your, and mankinds, existance.

Most of the plot elements and great characters from the book have been transposed into the game, and it is this that is the game major shortcoming. Fans of the series will find little challenge in the game at all, everyone else will find some of the puzzles to be HIGHLY obscure and difficult.

This is a hard thing to disregard but if you can you will find THHGTTG to be a interesting game, utterly faithful to the original story.

Not one of my favourites, but I recommend it anyway.

From The Tolkien Games Archive:

This is one of the most classic text adventures of all time; at least in Europe. The original game had a large vocabulary and very good character interaction for its time. It was probably the first time ever that such traits had been paired with graphics in any text adventure. In 1985 it was selected #1 in the magazine Sinclair User’s Top 50 Spectrum Software Classics (but it only made 42 in a later Top 100 List in Your Sinclair). The game was also released as part of The Tolkien Trilogy.

The game was first developed for the TRS-80, but when the ZX Spectrum was released, it was decided to continue development on that system, because of the Spectrum’s superior graphics and other capabilities. The first Spectrum version was called 1.1 to make it look more finished. A version 1.2 was later released with several bugs fixed.

A rumour that Tansoft created the Oric-1 versions is not true. Tansoft only distributed that version.

In the United States, it was published a few years after its original appearance as The Hobbit Software Adventure, a much extended and improved version. This version is the first part of The Tolkien Software Adventure Series. In Europe, this version was only distributed for the C64 and still under the title The Hobbit.

Across all platforms, the game sold in excess of one million copies.

The popularity of the game has inspired many parodies of it. So far, I know about The Boggit, An Everyday Tale of a Seeker of Gold, The Tebbit and Hobbit – The True Story. In addition, there is a German simplified BASIC version of the game called Der kleine Hobbit.

There are also references to The Hobbit in many other games. The Tunnel Like Hall picture is reproduced in Bored of the Rings, Gandalf and Bilbo appear in Werners Quest, there is a grave-stone with the text “R.I.P. The Hobbit” in the Commodore 64 version of The Quest for the Holy Grail and Quest for the Golden etc… has so many references that it is almost a complete parody of the game in itself.

The game was rewritten in PL/I for an MVS mainframe by an employee at IBM.

Personal Opinion: to be honest I found that the game moved a bit too fast for my liking, especialy at the beginning. THe game is based on a classic piece of literature and so I expected to be gently introduced to the plot, not thrust straight into things. The NPC’s too were slightly annoying, seemingly wandering around at random.

But what the hell, it’s a classic game and I love Tolkien, so I had to add it and you have to download it.

You know it makes sense

This makes me want to cry.

Archer MaClean’s Interntional Karate (and it’s update, IK+) was without out a doubt the best and most fun game available on 8-bit systems. Argue with me on this and I will set fire to your house!

But THIS, this is a travesty. The graphics have gone straight to CGA hell, replaced by awful blue and magenta tones, the sound is quite frankly awful – it does retain the same fluid control system as it has on other platforms.. but the presentation spoils the whole game.

I suggest that you download this game, play it for five minutes and then go get an Atari ST or Amiga emulator and a copy of IK+ (or even a C64 or speccy emulator).

The difference between the two is extreme.

Such a let down =(

Jetpack was great! I remember this being one of the games I would never delete off my computer. There were hundreds of levels, which meant that you were entertained for a long time. Some of the harder levels made my head hurt =

It’s a really fun little puzzle game, which is easy to get the hang of right away. You are this cool lil’ dude with a jetpack on. Your task is to collect all the emerald gems and then move onto the next level. At first it’s easy as you get used to your jetpack and phase shifter that lets you burn holes through specific walls. Some walls are denser than other walls, and therefore take longer for you to get through. Some walls you cannot go through at all. There are other items to collect, like gold and jetpack fuel. You’re gonna need fuel on the bigger levels, as the jetpack doesn’t come with a bottomless supply unlike McDonald’s coffee.

As the levels increase the difficulty does to (What? You expected something else?), and things such as ice, and ooze are there to add another bit of a challenge. No game is complete without evil homing bots that love to follow you and springs things that want to zap you dead. Once hit you are dead and have to restart the level, which can get annoying, but there are continues galore (bonus!).

The level creator was very cool, and came included with the game. I spent ages making levels for my friends that were really hard, and they did the same for me. You are given all the elements of the game, and can create your own levels to play. “Some teachers bought Jetpack because they considered the editor to be educational, encouraging their students’ creativity” (quoted from www.adeptsoftware.com). It was pretty popular . There are a lot of fan websites out there with levels they have made. You can download and play these for more challenges still.

The sound and the graphics are what is to be expected from that time, standard PC Speaker beeps and pretty colourful squares for graphics. It is a tad outdated now, but if you love old games then you would expect what you got.

Overall, it’s a fun game, enjoyed by all. I’ve seen quite a few Jetpack fanatic sites out there, so it must have some kind of crazy phenomenon thing going. Definitely worth a play, and don’t forget to have a go with the level editor.

Visit the homepage of the developers: www.adeptsoftware.com

P.S. Oh yeah, did I mention the Christmas edition Jetpack? Kickass!

Jumpman is one of those very old classic games that paved the way for your typical platformers. It was designed after Nintendo started with all that Donkey Kong nonsense

This guy called Randy Glover made Jumpman and then went and found Epyx who were kind enough to be the publishers. (This was back in the days when you got really rich really quickly making games). It was originally made for the PC and Atari systems, then its sequel was made shortly after (Jumpan Jr, 1984) and that was available also on C64.

Jumpman is great fun! You run around collecting flowers (stfu! they are so!!) and avoiding bombs that are floating around the screen. They are these horrible evil white dots, and when they see you they make this typical high pitched noise and hurl themselves straight at you across or down the screen and you have to jump and run away. Its heaps of fun, and does require a lot of skill. When Jumpman jumps, he kind of leaps so you have to be sure to not jump too late when near the edge of a platform. You could find yourself way down on the ground, legs sprawled, seeing stars if you do

There are 30 levels in all, meaning great fun that can last for ages. It’s not an easy game, quite a challenge. Scaling ladders, jumping bombs and climbing up ropes. All very fast-paced and full of action.

This game has standard old-timer graphics. So it might hurt your eyes. Back in the old days (*sigh* here she goes again) it used to look really cool with its green platforms and orange flowers, but nowadays you’re gonna have to settle for pink (but that’s why you’re visiting this site for right? Because you love pink!).

The sound can get on your nerves, and is rather loud. He makes this noise when he moves, and when he falls on his head. Like others, I could never figure out how to turn the sound off. But as with the graphics, this is an older game, 19 years old at the date of this review – so expect great gameplay and disturbing graphics and sound

I’d definitely recommend getting a copy of this game. It’s a wonderful old game and brings back heaps of cool memories, and totally kicks butt (Donkey Kong eat yer heart out ~~ Hehe).

When I started the game, the credits started rolling. When the credits stopped you just started playing. It isn’t before you can speak to King Edward that you know what your mission is (Getting a chest, a mirror and a shield). The story in the game is quite short and it only contains on page of text, making it very short.

You start as Sir Graham, just outside the castle and when you met King Edward, he tells you that you must go on a quest, because King Edward is dying and if you manage to complete this quest you will inherit the throne and also because your kingdom is weak and poor and if you get these 3 things, your kingdom will become strong and wealthy. You have to get a magic mirror which can tell the future, a magic shield which protects the bearer from any mortal harm and a magic treasure chest that is always filled with gold coins. There isn’t much more of a story in this game. A part the makers could have spent a lot more time on.

The graphics are like the regular Sierra game graphics at that time (like in Space Quest 1, Leisure suit Larry 1 and Police Quest 1). The graphics isn’t that bad even though they dent to interfere with the game play.

The game play was okay, with some nice puzzles, but like in so many Sierra games, it can become quite annoying. You can die and if you die and haven’t saved for a long time and die, you have to go back to the old save and do all the things you just done all over. This can be very annoying. Also there are things that try and kill you if you enter the map where they are, and there the witch is by far most annoying.She got me probably a dozen times. I also noticed that if you enter another screen and there is a tree where you entered, you will get stuck in the tree and that is quite annoying.

There isn’t much sound in the game, some music when you die and when you accomplish great achievements. There isn’t much more sound or music in it.

This game could have been far worse than this but also a lot better. There wasn’t really a story and you had to figure out most times what to do on yourself and there wasn’t a real story that helped you do it. The game play was sometimes annoying, but not at all as annoying as in games like Space Quest 1, and it was a lot easier to avoid dieing. This is a great classic though and if you do want a classic then you should get it.

2.5 out of 5

Having defeated his enemies in the first game, Mr Last Ninja rebuilds his ninja school… then something happens and he is transported to present day (well, 80′s) new york.. and theres a baddie and… oh I can’t be bothered.

If you’ve played the first game then this is more of the same, with slightly improved graphics and a more interesting setting.

That’s about all I can be bothered to say about it

Can you do better? Then bring it on!

Ninjas rock! You know it’s true!

The Last Ninja however sucks large amounts of buttock. Surely his elite martial arts training extended to “how not to die when coming within 3 feet of water” or “how not to miss a jump just because you were one micron off”.

Arsehead!

Anyway, your clan (ninja clan? who knows) has been brutaly murdered and it’s up to you to avenge them.. yadda yadda yadda. The game is an action/adventure hybrid that takes place from an isometric viewpoint across a faux-japanese landscape (the effect works well actualy). You must jump (waaaaay too much emphasis on this) fight and solve puzzles in order to reap bloody vengence on your enemies. Speaking of which, one area that Last Ninja does excel in is weaponry. Along with regular punching and kicking you can get access to a sword, nunchakas, a staff, smoke bombs, throwing stars.. and all those other thingies that make life groovy HOWEVER, it’s a bit of a let down that the control system is so dire, meaning that actualy using your weapon is a lot harder than it has to be.
To be honest I remember the game being a lot more enjoyable on 8-bit systems (the C64 and ZX Spectrum).. maybe i’m just getting old Nevertheless, once you get used to the controls and the pixel-perfect precision that the game requires you may enjoy it.

Another great game from Opera Soft, the makers of Goody (that naughty little burglar dude). Opera Soft was a Spanish company and could be relied on to make great cute platform games. Ones that appealed to girls especially! Plus who couldn’t rely on a software company who had Berk on their team? I mean dang, Infocom eat your heart out

This game is also known as “Livingstone Supongo” (in Spanish I guess), but you might know it better as “Livingstone I presume” (English of course!).

In this game you are the journalist called Henry Morton Stanley. He is known as the guy who spent 8 months travelling around and through Africa to find Dr Livingstone. The doctor had been missing for over 3 years, but was found in great health in a small African village. He wasn’t lost at all but had been detained as he had gotten sick and was short of supplies. The famous “Dr Livingstone I presume?” phrase comes from when Stanley found the doctor and didn’t quite know what to say to him.

This game is a lot like the actual task was. You are to journey around in Africa and find Dr Livingstone. (Except I assume you are not an arrogant pompous git like that Stanley guy was Hehe). So you are in this side-scrolling action adventure. Who knows what could happen in the next screen? There are many jungle predators that want to eat you, and you must find the good doctor.

The graphics are great, and the sound is your typical PC speaker.

Overall its got great gameplay, and isn’t as predictable as you would want it to be.

The Opera Soft Team:

Wow, check it out! I never knew that Berk was a member of the Opera Soft team. Stay away from that trapdoor Guys!

Lode Runner, oh what a classic, and you thought I had no taste! This is one of the first games I was ever exposed to (except for those classic C64 games I woffle on about ).

My very first memory of this game being about 7 or 8 years old, sitting in the study at Maree’s house under a blanket with her with my pink pajama’s on. They had just got their brand spanking new ATARI? We used to stay up until like 10pm (boy did we think we were naughty for that!). Then we used to go to bed, and get up at some ungodly hour and get playing again in the mornings. Pfft, and you thought only boys had gaming sleepovers .

Lode Runner a good puzzle-meet-action game. 50 levels packed with action! I guess one reason I really love the game Jumpman was because it reminds me a lot of Lode Runner. This is your traditional climb-the-ladder game as you run around collecting boxes. You dig holes and trap the enemies which are, well, dumb enemies to put it nicely. You also dig holes to get yourself through parts of levels. You have to be careful though, because the holes do fill up, and that will trap your enemy, but it can also trap you. You can manipulate enemies (due to their stupidity to your advantage a lot, and also the holes you dig (get strategic with them ).

Did I mention the funky level editor? Why yes, there is a level editor, and you can create your own custom levels when you’ve conquered the 50 that are included. This is a great addition to the game, making it basically never ending. You can download the level editor as an extra above. Go on, knock yerself out

The graphics were what you would expect for a 1983 game, nothing spectacular, typical CGA. You can make out everything in the screen, which is what is necessary. You can see ladders, enemies, boxes, ground and yourself. What more could you need? I haven’t experience Lode Runner with sound, but expect your typical PC speaker to rock the casbar (or drive you spare).

I totally recommend you have a go at this game. It’s a classic, one of the best in its class. I have many fond memories associated with it, and it’s just a brilliant game.

You start off with some cash, to buy supplies for your adventure to find the Lost Dutchman Mine. Looking for information on this game, I was rather surprised that there was such a place around the state of Arizona. Go figure? So where was I? Yes, you start off in town, and you have to buy supplies, such as mining equipment, weapons, food etc. You can make more money panning for gold in the rivers, being a bounty hunter etc.

Apparently there are donkeys to help you carry stuff, as you are only one mere man remember. This enables you to take more food. You can also find more food by going fishing in rivers and stuff.

There are always dangers when on a journey to find a goldmine, mark my words! Well, actually I lie, because I’ve never actually been on an adventure such as this, but I did once pan for gold in the South Island of New Zealand, and I did find some but my sister flushed it down the toilet – but that’s a whole other story. Back to the review! I was talking about threats, such as snakebites (you’re gonna need a doctor), Indians, and other people with big guns that want to kill you dead.

This is a pretty unheard of game, and you can’t really find any information on it! It rates pretty well as an adventure game, you should play it just to get it a bit more well known

Yeah! Horror stories – I love ‘em. I was weened on Lovecraft, clothed by King, taken to school by Koontz… erm… pushed over in the playground by Rice… yeaaaah.
Anyway, back to my point – I love horror stories (and before you start, yes I wear lots of black, no I am not a Goth.. so eat me!)

The Lurking Horror was Infocom’s only attempt at a game with a horror setting. The game itself is not too hard (though it does have some very obscure puzzles) and IMO has a great plot. You are a student at GUE tech (a name that will be familiar to fans of Zork) and one night you have an irrestible urge to explore the universities basement. Well, the actual story is much more interesting and well thought out, but to learn more you will have to play the game and not rely on the description of someone who has the writing skills of a mental patient.

The pace of the game works very well and the puzzles and plot blend together perfectly, the many memorable characters and twists in the game also add to the experience.

I enjoyed The Lurking Horror, it might not appeal to everyone but for a desensitised horror fanatic like me it was great.

Two um.. clawed, bleeding thumbs up!

(god I suck!)

Marble Madness is a very old but classic game, I do remember it in the arcades when I was a LOT younger then I am now.

It’s a basic concept really, you guide the ball as it rolls down the hills until you get to the exit. With any good puzzle game there are obstacles of course, such as bumps and holes to avoid. Sometimes it gets quite hard as the pathways get very narrow and you still have to make sure your marble doesn’t fall off the edge. There are dark marbles to avoid hitting, and piles of goo that will eat your marble up.

This may seem very straightforward, but this is a VERY addictive game. Definitely not for the impatient, as I found that it took me a long, long time to get used to the controls, and an even longer time to pass up through the levels. Having a time limit to get the marble through each level is quite a challenge.

Lovely CGA graphics magenta and cyan. If you can play Tandy then I really recommend you do, as you’ll be able to have 16 colours – it does make a hell of a difference. PC Speaker sounds, which can be irritating, but trust me, I’ve heard much worse than this game!

I would suggest playing this game with a joystick, as the controls are a bit out of whack for a keyboard.

An obscure adventure game that was at the time of its release something of an innovation because it offers digitised speech through the PC speakers (although, it has to be said that the quality isn’t that great, it sounds like something akin to Welsh*).

In Metropolis you play a security agent assigned to investigate crimes in a futuristic city. Gameplay is parser driven (you type in commands) and most crimes are solved by asking question of the city’s inhabitants.

The graphics are functional and the less said about the PC speaker speech the better (damn that hurts my ears) but neither detracts from what is a highly original and charming game.

I like it, if you have any taste then you will too.

*Marrsy apologises to the nation of Wales and acknowledges that the Welsh language is a beautiful thing – if you like your face drenched in another persons phlegm that is.