NOMAD
(Ocean, 1986)

A giant artificial asteroid called Talos, controlled by Cyrus T. Gross, is wreaking havoc across the galaxy, and the Nemesis Organisation has hired a droid to penetrate the asteroid and destroy Gross. The asteroid consists of long, tortuous mazes filled with guns and missiles - a tricky combination, made even more so by the control method used to move your droid; getting it to go where you want is irritating. The graphics are good, but the sound effects are just white noise and the game is too difficult; you need more than three lives.

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Becoming a knight has never been an easy task in computer games. In this one, you have to find your way out of a castle packed with monsters, carrying no weapons at all. You character moves through long corridors and rooms, getting to other floors helped by ropes scattered around the castle. The problem is that your character movements are a bit slow and jerky, and the enemies seem to come up from nowhere. Nevertheless, Nonamed has nice and colourful graphics, although a bit simple and small. This means that, although the game is reasonably enjoyable at first, it's too difficult to keep the player interested.

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5

That's a difficult word to spell (it means 'neither of the earth nor the sea'), and the game is even more so. The citizens of the planet Nonterraqueous have sent a robotic seeker to destroy a computer which is currently in control. Getting started requires you to convert your seeker into something that can shoot lasers, and you also have to blow up a barrier with a bomb to enter the main complex. However, if you touch any of the photon thrusters, you die instantly - and since they're usually tricky to avoid, this ruins the game. The maze is also far too big; I think there are over 500 locations!

See also: Soul of a Robot.

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North and South
(Infogrames, 1991)

If you're French, you might know of a cartoon called Les Tuniques Bleues. This game is based on the cartoon and re-enacts the American Civil War. You can start from any year from 1861 to 1864, and this affects the amount of units and territory you own. The aim is to gain as much territory as possible and to wipe out all the enemy units by going into battle with them, where you and the enemy fight it out with cannons, infantry and horsemen! The graphics are nothing short of excellent and there's a great introduction sequence with an amazingly catchy tune. The fort and train attack sequences are a bit slow but that doesn't stop the rest of the game being fun, especially with a friend.

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The North Star project involved building a gigantic food factory, orbiting above Earth and feeding its population. However, just as the project was nearly complete, aliens took over the factory - typical, huh? You have seen sent to the factory to kill the aliens and restore the life support systems. The action takes place over nine horizontally scrolling levels, each filled with platforms and aliens. It's standard fare, really, and the levels are rather short, but the aliens are just too hard to avoid, and the merest contact with any of them costs you one of your four lives. The graphics and music are both unbelievably spectacular, but the difficulty level severely mars what could have been a rather good game.

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Earth has been reduced to a barren wasteland, and humans now live in underground cities that are powered by uranium. However, aliens from the planet Taroid have learnt about this and have come to invade Earth in order to steal the uranium. This game is a very simple shoot-'em-up where the aliens move from right to left across the screen, and you must shoot them with your helicopter before any of them reach the left of the screen and hit the barrier. Shoot enough aliens and you enter hyperwarp, where you must dodge the flying debris for a short while. The graphics and sound are very rudimentary indeed, and after a few goes, you'll want to play something else.

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Number 1
(Bug Byte, 1986)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

An original, if not slightly weird, game in which are a rollerblader who must collect a certain quota of jewels as you traverse the passing scenery in order to get to the next level, while taking care to avoid any passing obstacles and enemies out to harm you. Set out from the same perspective as Space Harrier and Eliminator, it can be quite hard at times as everything is generated randomly, so a fair amount of luck and skill is required - particularly in the later stages when the game is running faster and there are ever more objects on the screen. The music is quite irritating and the graphics are also somewhat limited.

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