Armed with a Thompson machine gun, you play the main role in a gangster movie that takes place in the streets of Chicago. Each time you're killed, a spectator leaves his seat. When you run out of lives, the cinema is empty and the game ends. Despite an original starting point, Chicago's 30 (which was released outside Spain as Chicago 30's) is far from being a good game. The graphics and the music are not bad, and the scrolling is decent, but rather than being a difficult game, it just happens to be boring and frustrating.

More information on TACGR

4

You're a male chicken in a farmyard, and along with your female partner, you have to make babies and protect the eggs that the hen lays. The eggs lie in nests on two shelves in a shed, and all the time, various animals enter the shed, climb up the ladder, and eat the eggs. You can scare them away by pecking at them, but if there are no eggs left, you lose a life. You need to make more eggs all the time by entering a small room where your partner is hiding - but then you won't be able to guard the eggs... The graphics are quite good and some nice tunes are played throughout, and it's a reasonably enjoyable game to play for a while.

More information on TACGR

7

Des Chiffres et des Lettres
(Loriciels, 1987)

Those of you who are into crosswords, word games and mathematical problems might like this game, but everyone else will probably be bored by it. Play takes place against the computer, and you play alternate rounds of either a word or a numbers game. In the word game, you choose nine letters and try to make a word out of them, while in the numbers game, you choose six numbers and must find a way to obtain another, larger number using the six numbers. It's like the British TV quiz show, Countdown, really, and it's not very interesting.

More information on TACGR

5

A ghost ship, the Chimera, has appeared over the skies of the USA, which has decided to destroy it. Four warheads have been placed around the ship, and a robot has been placed inside the ship to activate them, which you control. You must wander the corridors of the ship, finding objects and destroying barriers which are in your way by using the right object; if you use the wrong object, you will be electrocuted! The robot also requires a supply of food and water (eh?) which you will need to pick up regularly. The game uses isometric graphics and they're pretty good, although like several other games of its type, some of the colour schemes are horrible. A merry tune also plays on the menu. It's a fairly good game which will take a while to finish.

More information on TACGR

8

Chip's Challenge
(US Gold, 1991)

Chip Callahan fancies Melissa the Mental Marvel, but before he can join her Bit Busters club, she sets him a challenge of completing 144 levels of mental agility and dexterity. Chip has to collect computer chips on each of the levels, but they may lie behind locked doors or across a river or a wall of fire, or they may be guarded by monsters, so you'll need to find the coloured keys to open doors, and shields, magnets and boots to allow you to walk on fire, water, ice and conveyor belts. The graphics are fairly simple but the high-energy music is really good. It's a shame that the game isn't as fast as the music; Chip moves rather slowly and some of the levels are too big. There is a password for each level, though, which is good.

More information on TACGR

7

This is a simple game in which you control a helicopter and build an aeroplane by collecting the necessary parts for it. The parts appear one at a time on the screen, the next part appearing after you have collected the current part and moved it to the bottom right of the screen. To make life more difficult, there are four aliens which float around the screen; if you touch any of them, you lose a life. At first it's a rather enjoyable game to play, even though the graphics are rather basic and a bit flickery. Unfortunately, this enjoyment doesn't last; by the third level, things become much more difficult, and there's very little variety between levels, anyway.

More information on TACGR

6

La Chose de Grotemburg
(UBI Soft, 1987)

The village of Sadiphinrol has being terrorised by - well, something. Your partner's blood-covered body is lying in the kitchen, and you want revenge, but you learn that many other villagers have also been massacred. This French text adventure is rather good, although there are few characters to meet (which is perhaps not surprising!), and your ability to interact with them is very limited. The pictures that accompany each of the many locations are very well drawn indeed and really add atmosphere to the game, and the excellent music on the loading screen is also worth mentioning. The game isn't too difficult, either; just make sure you search locations thoroughly in order to reveal hidden objects. This is definitely one of the better French adventures I've seen.

More information on TACGR

8

This is a horizontally scrolling shoot'-em-up located on the planet of Chronos. The aim of the game is standard; shoot the enemies approaching you and avoid crashing your spaceship into the landscape. There is a range of enemies on each level and some of them aren't easy to avoid, but the game itself is rather slow and boring, and the monochrome graphics only serve to add to this. The sound effects are nothing special either.

More information on TACGR

5

The team behind this mediocre platform game actually based it on a real life traffic warden who made their lives a misery - really! Playing it made me miserable as well. You control Chubby Gristle, the fat traffic warden, and you must collect as much food as you can before dinner time. The main reason why I don't like this game is that it totally lacks any semblance of originality; it's just another collect-the-objects platform game and has no merit at all. Neither the graphics nor the music are anything special, and it's too difficult, as well as being dull.

More information on TACGR

4

Chuckie Egg
(A&F, 1985)

This is one of the all-time classics on the 8-bit machines; if you've never played this game, you don't know what you're missing! You basically have to collect all the eggs on each level within the generous time limit, and also avoid the blue flamingo-like birds - they are flamingoes, aren't they? The idea is rather simple, and the graphics may not be state-of-the-art, but remember the saying, "graphics do not make a game"? This is certainly true for this game; it's amazingly addictive and fun to play.

See also: Chuckie Egg II.

More information on TACGR

8