Some awful games were released in the early years of the CPC, and this is one of them. Reach the top of the castle by jumping across the pits and avoiding the monsters, climbing ladders, and jumping on to the moving platforms and trying not to fall off. The graphics and sound are almost laughably bad, and the controls are strange, too - getting the man to jump correctly is extremely frustrating. The levels don't even vary, either, but then again, it's best not to bother attempting to reach the second level!

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This is another of the Freescape games, and this time, it's set in a castle where you have to rescue your twin brother/sister (you can play either a prince or a princess). You have to search the castle and kill twenty spirits before confronting the dragon. There are lots of puzzles to work through and keys to find, and you must also make sure you don't get yourself trapped, or get lost in the catacombs - it's essential that you make a map! The 3D graphics are great, but like all the other Freescape games, there's not much sound.

See also: Castle Master II: The Crypt.

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This was the last Freescape game to be released, and you could only buy it either bundled with Castle Master or as part of the Virtual Worlds compilation. After rescuing your twin brother/sister in Castle Master, you are now held captive in the dungeons and have to escape. You start on the sixth floor below the ground and have to work your way up to the first floor. It uses the same formula as the first game, although some doors are padlocked and can't be opened with keys; you'll need to find another way to enter these rooms. It's a rather nice game requiring a lot of brainwork and careful movements, although in my opinion, it's more difficult than its predecessor.

See also: Castle Master.

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Cauldron
(Palace, 1985)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

Collect the six ingredients of your most powerful spell in order to defeat the evil Pumpking and thereby claim the powerful Golden Broomstick which is sought by the best and cleverest witches in the land. Fly across the landscape on your broomstick finding the coloured keys to the six doors, behind which lie each one of the reagents you require. As you peruse the skies, you are attacked by all manner of things; witch-eating bats, cloak-scorching fireballs, murderous pumpkins and badly behaved seagulls are just a few of the hazards facing you. A large, engaging game that is highly enjoyable in spite of its difficulty.

See also: Cauldron II.

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Having defeated the evil Pumpking, seized the Golden Broomstick and become Witch-Queen, the Hag no longer lives in her dilapidated cottage but has moved to a huge castle at the edge of the forest. You play the part of a small pumpkin, who was in fact the Pumpking's guardian in Cauldron, and must recover the Golden Broomstick from the clutches of the oppressive Hag. In what is some respects a similar game to Wizball, you must bounce around the Hag's castle avoiding her supernatural minions. It was always going to be hard following up to Cauldron, and while this is a good enough game, its prequel is superior.

See also: Cauldron.

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Ug the caveman is intent on stealing some pterodactyl eggs, and he has to collect three of them. However, he can only carry one at a time, and he mustn't drop it on his way back to the cave! And then there's the prehistoric monsters to watch out for as well... There are nine islands in total, and in between each island, there's a two-screen bonus level where you collect wheels. The colourful cartoon graphics and the phrases that appear on the screen when you collect fruit ("twistin' my melon" is one example) make the game appealing, but it's a bit too easy, and having to complete the same bonus level after every island is very tedious.

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Caves of Doom? It's more like Graphics of Doom! OK, maybe I'm being harsh - the game is ancient and the graphics are very colourful - but they also suck! But look beyond the graphics and you'll find a pretty challenging (but not impossible) and enjoyable game. The story is that you're trapped in the bowels of the Caves of Doom and must find all the keys, whizzing around in your trusty jet pack, before making your escape in a handy rocket. It's nothing ground-breaking, but it's got a certain charm to it! The graphics are bad (one of the more intimidating bad guys is a stick man!), the sound is bad, but the game is good simple fun! Oh, and one other thing; it's much easier to play using a joystick.

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Centre Court
(Amsoft, 1985)

I'm not a fan of tennis, but as far as tennis games go, this early effort must rank as the worst of the lot. The first thing you notice when playing the game is the truly awful, flickery graphics; two little stick men being watched by several other stick men, with the ball being represented by a tiny dot. The next thing you notice is that the game is unbearably slow; definitely not the fast-paced action that you'd get at Wimbledon. There really is little else that I want to say about this game, other than that it is rubbish!

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Centurions
(Reaktör, 1987)

Doc Terror wants to steal the entire world's supply of tyron dichromate from the Weapons Development Centre, and only the Centurions - Ace, Jake and Max - can stop him. The game takes place in an enormous maze, and the aim is to locate six segments of a key. These segments are locked away in buildings, and in order to obtain them, you must open the doors to the buildings by looking for the key with the corresponding shape. To make things more difficult, these keys are surrounded by 'moats' which can only be passed if you are controlling the correct Centurion - either Air, Land or Sea. The gameplay resembles Gauntlet, but most of your time is spent repeatedly trudging from one end of the maze to the other in a search for the correct door or key, and boredom will soon set in.

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You are the captain of the Cerberus, a pirate spacecraft. You've heard news of a freighter which contains lots of treasure, and you fly your spacecraft towards it - but then you are surrounded by the Starfleet Police. It's a trap! Now you must shoot your way out of this situation. A nice story, but this is just another standard space shoot-'em-up, and it's not a very good one. The graphics are quite good, although there's no scenery - just vast, empty space. The game moves at a fairly leisurely pace and there isn't much action. All you do is encounter the same waves of aliens; there are no levels or targets to reach, so there's not much point in playing it.

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