It is not often that one encounters games that make you want to throw your keyboard at the monitor in frustration, but this is one example. The concept is fairly novel - take a bog-standard platform game, but instead of controlling a person, you control a bat, and you must guide the bouncing ball to the end of the level and making sure it avoids the traps. There are also bricks to destroy, Breakout-style. The ball is incredibly hard to control, the game is too fast, and positioning your bat accurately is impossible. What's just as bad is that you only have one life - that's really helpful!

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Jinxter
(Rainbird/Magnetic Scrolls, 1988)

Many years ago, the Bracelet of Turani was created to protect the land of Aquitania from the influence of the Green Witches. However, a witch called Jannedor has managed to break up the bracelet and its five charms, which are the real source of its magical powers. Now Aquitania is under a spell of bad luck, and you must recover the charms, in order to restore the bracelet's powers. This text adventure has a very quirky sense of humour indeed, especially when you examine the many objects that you can get! The difficulty level is set perfectly, and interestingly, you can't die - although if you solve some puzzles incorrectly, you will lose some luck and be unable to complete the game later on! This is another brilliant adventure from Magnetic Scrolls, although the graphics aren't quite of the same standard as their previous games.

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Jocky Wilson is a Scottish darts player and won the Embassy World Darts Championship twice, in 1982 and 1989. This set of darts games lets you and up to three friends play darts (although you don't have to smoke and drink as much as Jocky). As well as playing in a tournament, you can try a 'round the clock' game in which you must hit the numbers 1 to 20 on the dartboard in order. To aim the dart, you move it about the dartboard, but it constantly rotates so that aiming the dart precisely is quite difficult. For this reason, it's not as good as some other darts games I've played as it takes a considerable amount of patience and practice to get used to playing the game.

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6

Someone has to take on the terrorists and there's only one man for the job - Joe Blade. Guide our hero in this quirky platformer around the enemy base freeing the hostages, solving the puzzles to arm the bombs whilst collecting any keys along the way. However, all this has to be completed before the explosives go off, so it's also a battle against time. It's unfortunate that the monochrome graphics and poor sound really let down what is actually quite a good challenge.

See also: Joe Blade 2, Joe Blade 3, Prison Riot.

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The second instalment in the Joe Blade series is set in 1995, in a crime-ridden city, where muggers rule the streets. Only Joe Blade can clean up the city! This game is much like the original; you wander around the maze-like streets to track down sixteen citizens - men in raincoats (oo-er!) who will give you one of four puzzles. These must be solved in 60 seconds, or the game's over. The gameplay is really limited; all the screens look the same, and it's easy to lose track of where you are. The graphics and sound are both poor as well.

See also: Joe Blade, Joe Blade 3, Prison Riot.

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5

Joe Blade is back - again! After his previously more musclebound antics, this represents more of a return to the first in the trilogy. Once again you are rescuing hostages, collecting objects and setting off bombs. This time, the environment is a large office tower comprised of several levels navigated by a lift, all filled with various nefarious terrorists, thugs, mines, and somewhat lethal robots. As with its predecessors, this is quite a challenging game, but you can't help but think that by the third instalment they would have come up with something better, as there seems to be very little advancement in terms of sound, graphics and playability.

See also: Joe Blade, Joe Blade 2, Prison Riot.

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5

Another excellent game by Hi-Tec based on a popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon character, Jonny Quest has you in the role of the schoolboy supersleuth as you roam the fortress of the evil Dr. Zin, rescuing your kidnapped comrades - your mystic Indian friend Hadji, your dog Bandit, your bodyguard, and finally, your inventor father. The game itself - a nice blend of platform action and Dizzy-style puzzles - is fairly big, but also quite linear, so you never get lost, and little surprises are thrown in along the way, like the enjoyable scuba-diving section, so you never get bored. The graphics are good and well animated, while the sound effects are sparse but serviceable. Also, the difficulty level is perfect; it's a challenging game, but not impossible. Overall, one of my favourite games!

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The name means 'the game of the goose' in English, and it's much like snakes and ladders. Get up to three friends to play (you can't play it on your own, unless you want to take control of all the players) and roll the dice to progress along the board. Landing on the geese lets you jump some of the squares, although there are some squares that cause you to miss some turns - and don't land on the skull! Younger players will enjoy the bright colours and pictures, but the scrolling is extremely slow and anyone else will find the game very tedious.

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Plenty of simulators exist for racing cars, but have you ever fancied having a go at driving an articulated lorry? You've started work with a haulage company and have to transport goods around town. Your lorry can only store so much, so several trips will be needed, and you'll have to watch your fuel gauge as well, and make sure you don't speed in built-up areas! There is a practice mode to help you get used to driving the lorry, but I never got used to parking the lorry in a loading bay, which you must know how to do. It's fun driving around town like a maniac at first, but if you can't park, you'll get nowhere. The graphics and sound effects aren't convincing, either.

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5

A cross between Breakout and Space Invaders is perhaps the best way to describe this Spanish arcade game. You control an alien who can walk along the top of a long wall consisting of bricks. Instead of shooting at the monsters, you must kill them by jumping on the wall, which results in a brick being dislodged. Hopefully the brick will hit a monster and kill it. However, if you dislodge too many bricks, there will be gaps in the wall that you may be unable to jump across! The graphics are brilliant and really detailed, although there are few sound effects. It's also a rather difficult game, but persevere with it and you may well end up liking it.

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