While piloting a 'plane over the Caribbean, you are forced to fly into the Bermuda Triangle. Your 'plane crashes into the sea, but fortunately you ejected in time. Unfortunately, you have landed on the Emerald Isle, and the only way you can leave the island is to find treasure and therefore promote yourself to King or Queen - but the first thing you'll need to do is release yourself from your parachute. This game has approximately 200 locations, and every one of them is accompanied by a picture. However, most of them are poor, although they can be switched off to speed the game up a little. Even though this is another 'treasure hunt' adventure, it's quite amazing just how much has been squeezed into the CPC's memory.

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8

This game licensed the name of the best Spanish football player of all time. As a result, it was the best selling 8-bit game in Spain ever. Emilio Butragueño Fútbol is quite an enjoyable game, although it lacks most of the features usually found in other football games. You can't play any competitions or manage your team at all; it's always the same two teams playing a single match. Nevertheless, it features a great two-player mode, and so people used to arrange competitions anyway. It may have aged badly, but I used to have a very good time playing this game.

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7

I don't know why Emlyn Hughes appears in this game, because it's got nothing to do with football (thankfully)! It's a general knowledge quiz game which works a bit like the quiz machines you find in pubs. You move along a board answering multiple choice questions, but it's a constant battle against the clock. The board is constantly scrolling backwards, and if you're too slow, the game is over. If you're quick and can answer the questions correctly, you can reach the other side of the board and go to the next level - if you've won enough cash. It's a bit different from other quiz games, but the controls are a bit unresponsive, and you need to be a fan of the genre to appreciate it. (The answer to the question in the screenshot is "Alex", by the way.)

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6

We all know how boring our science lessons are (or were) at school, but this game makes science rather more interesting. You control a skimmer which you use to collide atoms and molecules together so they annihilate each other, but if you run out of time, the atoms will reach critical mass and you'll lose a life. Also, if two atoms of different colours come together, a new atom will be produced. The graphics are quite nice, even though there's not all that much to see! There isn't much sound either, but it's still reasonable. It is quite a good game, but it's a bit too tricky for my liking.

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7

The Empire Strikes Back
(Domark, 1988)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

Based on the best of the Star Wars films, once more you must fight the Galactic Empire. Initially taking place on the surface of Hoth, you have to destroy the Imperial Probots in order to prevent them from sending transmissions revealing the location of your hidden Rebel base. The more enjoyable second stage involves taking out the AT-ATs and AT-ST with your guns and tow cables. You then pilot the Millennium Falcon against an armada of TIE fighters, while finally you have to successfully navigate through a deadly asteroid field while maintaining your shields. This time the Star Wars anthem blares out throughout, which adds nicely to the game's atmosphere. Not as fun as destroying the Death Star, but excellent nonetheless.

See also: Return of the Jedi, Star Wars, Star Wars Droids.

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8

There is one rule that all pinball games should stick to; they should be fast. Clearly the programmers of this game forgot about this, for this is probably the slowest pinball game I've played. The ball does not so much whizz as crawl around the table! Furthermore, the graphics are awful (it's a horrible Spectrum port), the music on the menu is very irritating, and most of the tables are badly designed and lack the bonus features that normally make pinball tables more exciting. This game is abysmal and boring and should be avoided at all costs.

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3

The evil warlock Krill is menacing the land, and he must be vanquished - but it is necessary to send an inexperienced Enchanter to defeat him, so the leader of the Circle of Enchanters, Belboz, has summoned you to undertake this quest. This is the first in the Enchanter series of games from Infocom, and in this game, you become more skilful at magic by finding scrolls and writing the spells they contain into your spell book. You'll need these spells to solve most of the puzzles; most of them are OK, but a few (particularly the one involving the map and pencil) are frankly illogical and confusing. Having to eat and drink regularly is also an annoying distraction, although you should pay attention to your dreams; they contain subtle clues to help you with the puzzles.

See also: Sorcerer, Spellbreaker.

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8

Ride an off-road motorbike across five stages of rough terrain encompassing forest, desert and marshland in this coin-op conversion. There are five stages to complete, each one filled with obstacles to avoid or jump over using ramps. However, you need to approach them at high speed to do this, and by the second stage, the ramps are too close together to allow you to clear the boulders below, which means that you will lose a huge amount of time. It doesn't help that the game is very unforgiving in this respect, and the dreadful Spectrum-like graphics and annoying sound bugs make this a poor game. I will never understand why the CPC magazines liked this game.

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4

The Earth has mostly been laid to waste, and only three areas of untouched land remain. Of course, the aliens are going to put a stop to that, so it's time to get your 'plane out and blast them... and that's all you seem to do. Blast some aliens, then blast some caterpillar-like alien, collect a bonus, go to the next level after blasting a number of aliens, and repeat. With nine levels in each land area, you can imagine that the game becomes extremely monotonous. The only other thing worth mentioning is the excellent music.

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4

It's the 1920s, the era of Prohibition, and the FBI are on the trail of a mob of gangsters who are manufacturing whisky. This is a three-level shoot-'em-up which was only released on cartridge. It was intended to be used with the Trojan Phazer lightgun (and was one of only two such games released for the Plus version!), but thankfully it can be played with a joystick as well. In summary, you must shoot the gangsters to score points, but shooting innocent people (including unarmed gangsters) loses you points. Once you have reached a certain number of points, you can go to the next level. The game is over when you are wounded once too often. The graphics are absolutely wonderful and it's fun to play for a while, but everyone has seen this type of game many times before.

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7