You're a cabin boy called Jim, who has to collect treasure (or booty if you want to call it that) from an old galleon. There's lots of it to collect in the holds of the ship, but you'll need the correct numbered keys to open the holds. Then there are the ghosts of the pirates who used to sail the ship; touch them and you lose a life. And finally, some of the rooms contain platforms and lifts. This is a simple platform game with colourful graphics and a short tune that repeats itself constantly and soon becomes quite irritating. At first it seems good, but the collision detection is dodgy, particularly when getting on and off lifts, and when you lose a life, you go all the way back to the first screen, which is very annoying indeed.

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Aliens have set up space stations which are currently orbiting around Earth, and you must destroy all of them on each round. Just make sure you don't crash into the mines and rocks, and watch out for the waves of aliens which appear when you hear the alarm that signifies 'condition red'; they approach very fast, and you should try to guide them towards hazards which they will hopefully crash into. You'll lose lives frequently, but there are lots more to pick up, as well as extra fuel and bombs, and better ammunition. The graphics are detailed, albeit very blue, and a suitably space-themed tune plays throughout. However, it's not a very sophisticated shoot-'em-up, although it is worth playing if you want a quick blast at something.

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Rockford the ant has to collect some diamonds scattered throughout a maze. He can dig through the earth, but this may release one or more boulders, and if he doesn't get out of the way, Rockford will be a dead ant. Later on, you'll also encounter a few enemies. This is one of the all-time classic games, and the graphics stay true to the original. However, while the first three levels are OK, things suddenly become really tricky on the fourth level, which I don't like. Still, you can have fun designing your own levels with the construction kit.

See also: Boulder Dash III, Rockford.

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For some reason, Boulder Dash II was never officially released for the CPC, but fans of the original game can enjoy a new set of sixteen caves filled with boulders, diamonds and all sorts of other nasties. This time, Rockford has donned a space suit, and while the enemy creatures may have new names, they perform the same functions as other nasties in the previous games - for example, fireflies are replaced by mouths, and butterflies are replaced by eyes. Fortunately, the option to select which cave to start on is still there and is very welcome, as the game is extremely difficult; in fact, I would say that several caves are impossible to complete, thanks to those mouths!

See also: Boulder Dash, Rockford.

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7

Oh my God! AMTIX! gave this game 91%? Why??? Anyway, in this game, you play a tennis ball who is constantly bouncing up the screen, and you have to move him around between bounces so he lands on nice stuff like grass, and avoids bad stuff like spikes. And that's about it, really! This game has many levels, but I only ever get to level 2, before I turn it off through sheer frustration. The graphics are pretty abysmal, especially if you have a green monitor (is that grass or spikes? Oh, spikes. I'm dead...) , the difficulty is absurd, but to its credit, it has a nice little ditty of a theme song, and - though I hate to say it - it is strangely addictive. Also, you've got to love Bounder himself. He's a cute little guy!

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4

Four outlaws - Jack Nickalot, Charles Bronkon, Clint Westwood and Kodak - are on the loose, and you're out to capture them, dead or alive. There's a bounty on each of these criminals' heads! Each level consists of three parts. In the first part, you're on foot, shooting Indians, cowboys and Mexican bandits. In the second part, you're on horseback trying to stop a train carrying the outlaw, and if you succeed, you go on to the third part - a one-on-one shoot-out between you and the outlaw. The graphics are colourful and well drawn, and the music is good as well. Unfortunately it's quite difficult; you can't fire horizontally, and the enemy characters have an annoying habit of walking straight into you, which loses you one of your three lives - and you should have more than that.

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5

The car you're driving in this game isn't any ordinary car - not only is it equipped with bullets, but it can also fly. Speeding along the highway, you must dodge or shoot your opponents who are driving towards you; they must have no fear! The highway weaves in and out and branches into two at certain points. The graphics are OK, although I don't like the tune that plays on the menu. Your opponents are far too difficult to miss, and shooting them often has no effect.

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4

Can you guide Brainache (otherwise known as Private Harry Jones) through the Stella mines to retrieve his mining equipment and the Anatese diamond and bring them back to the spaceship one at a time? It's going to be a perilous mission, since the mine is full of deadly plants and creatures. This is a dull game which only has one level. The graphics are poor and there is a lot of flicker, and the scrolling between screens is slow as well, but the worst thing about the game is that the mutated insects that you will encounter are very difficult to both shoot and avoid, and it's very frustrating indeed. The music on the menu is the only worthy aspect of this mediocre game.

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4

The name suggests that this game is going to seriously hurt your brain, and it will! There are 26 screens, each containing areas of different colours. A ball bounces around the screen, and you must manoeuvre three coloured lines using a cursor so that the ball is trapped in a red area of the screen, where you will score points. If the ball enters a purple area, however, you will lose points, and if it enters a green area, it will warp to another area of the screen. To go to the next screen, you must have more points than when you started the screen. It's frustrating at first, but if you're smart, you can easily find ways to trap the ball. I don't know what other people will think, but I love this game to bits!

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9

Based on the awesome 80s cartoon show of the same name, Bravestarr is a truly awesome game. The story goes that your master, Shaman, has been captured by the evil Tex Hex, and you must get him back. Apart from flying around on your hover-jet shooting bad guys, you can visit various locales, grill the regulars, learn clues to Tex Hex's whereabouts, and so on. The graphics are very colourful and detailed, the sound is excellent (there's even an attempt at the show's theme tune!), and the game is hugely fun, mixing several genres successfully. My only gripe is the game's length - it's very short (I finished it in around ten minutes!), but that doesn't matter because you'll play it again and again!

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