Recover the seven missing pieces of Getafix's cauldron so he can brew his famous magic potion, or else the small village of indomitable Gauls will no longer be able to hold out against the Roman invaders. As always, it's up to Asterix to save the day accompanied by his ever ravenous friend Obelix. Make your way around the village, its forest, the surrounding fortified camps and even the Imperial capital itself whilst engaging in combat with nefarious legionaries, wild boars and even a Gladiator in the quest set before you. It's a nice looking game, but it has no sound and is ultimately way too difficult as the fight sections are a bit of a gamble.

See also: Asterix Chez Rahazade.

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Asterix Chez Rahazade
(Coktel Vision, 1988)

Asterix and his colleagues are surprised when an Indian fakir, Kiçah, arrives at their village looking for help. The monsoon season has passed, and the Ganges valley, where the fakir comes from, has not seen any rain at all. Kiçah wants Asterix, Obelix and Cacofonix (or Assurancetourix as he is known to French readers) to travel to India before Princess Rahazade is sacrificed to the gods. This is a graphic adventure where decisions are made based upon choices you make regarding conversations with the characters. Among the places to visit are Roman camps, Rome itself, a pirate ship, and ancient Greece. The graphics are spectacular, but the game can become slightly wearisome, and there seems to be no indication of how well you're doing.

See also: Asterix and the Magic Cauldron.

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7

The simplest games aren't always the best as far as I'm concerned. This game sees you controlling a spaceship and flying it around a maze, firing at enemy spaceships and watching out for laser beams that pop up randomly to block your path. Once you destroy all the enemies, you're faced with the same thing all over again. The graphics are extremely blocky, albeit colourful, but there isn't much sound - and why should there be? Nonetheless, there's only so much I can take of this game; it gets boring rather quickly for me.

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5

This is a simple and cheerful little game that starts off being addictive but becomes a bit frustrating. You control a ball which constantly moves left and right and bounces off the walls and anything else it comes into contact with - you can only move it up and down. The aim in each of the sixteen screens is to collect four objects within the time limit and avoiding hurting the ball too much. The graphics are brilliant and the music on the title screen is also great, albeit a little bizarre for some tastes. However, most of the game is written in BASIC and the controls can often be unresponsive, and the ball sometimes has a mind of its own.

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6

The A-Team are four Vietnam war veterans who are wanted by the American government, after having escaped from prison for crimes they didn't commit. The TV series, which was shown in the 80s, was extremely popular (and extremely violent). In the computer game, the A-Team have invaded an army base, and your task is to clear it of the enemy soldiers and tanks. The screen scrolls horizontally and you must aim your crosshairs at them and fire, but try not to run out of ammo, or shoot your fellow team members! The scrolling is a bit slow, and the brilliant theme tune to the TV series isn't here (shame!), but there's plenty of action and the graphics are nice too.

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7

Pilot the Advanced Tactical Fighter across hostile territory in this flight simulator-cum-shoot-'em-up. Armed with a multitude of Amraam and Maverick missiles, as well as your gun cannons, you must engage enemy forces on land, sea and air. Fly over green pastures, deserts, mountains and oceans as you destroy the opposition's fighters and installations. Viewed from a 3D perspective behind the 'plane, the ATF moves along nicely in the fast scrolling three-dimensional environment, and the surrounding information banks on your screen are a nice touch. While it has more of an arcade feel than most flight simulators, the loss of realism is compensated by good graphics, sound and gameplay.

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A320
(Loriciels, 1988)
Reviewed by Guillaume Chalard

As the captain of an A320 airbus, you must prevent a hijacking and save your passengers. First, you have to gain access on board. Then, you'll have to pilot the plane and arrest the hijacker. Well, that's easy to say... This rather good game features digitised pictures and good sound effects. What made it very boring was the loading time between two screens. Though the pictures sometimes look good, they often look blurred and it may be difficult to spot little details - and every detail counts in this game.

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7

"Up and atom!" Seven levels of action await our diminutive hero, with eight bombs to be defused on each level. Each bomb must be carried to the top of the building, where the bomb can be defused by touching a strange glass ball (!). Of course, Atom Ant will have to avoid all the 'planes, helicopters, missiles and other flying insects that guard some of the bombs, and there's a time limit as well. Even so, the game is a bit too easy, although it may take a while to work out how to dodge the 'plane that guards the defuser on the second level! The graphics are good in most places and the music at the start of the game is excellent.

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7

Here's a crazy little game, in which you seemingly control a car which has to drive around the town shooting other cars and strange objects, while not bumping into them, because if you do, the game is over. I don't know what the aim of the game is - maybe you're just meant to get as high a score as you can - but the really cute and colourful graphics and sheer silliness of it make it ridiculously addictive for me! It's a shame the music isn't very good, and only having one life is a bit annoying, but these are minor drawbacks to what is actually a rather good game.

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8

An extremely ugly-looking Breakout clone - so ugly that one can be forgiven for thinking that it's written in BASIC. It isn't, by the way; if it was a BASIC listing in a magazine, it would be reasonably good, but as a full-blown commercial game, it is appallingly bad. Actually, it's not so bad that it deserves zero out of ten. The game is actually playable, although you can't stop the bat from moving, so positioning it below the ball is very tricky and the game is pretty difficult because of this. You can also design your own levels, but you'll simply be put off by the abysmal (and very flickery) graphics.

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