Spike has been shipwrecked in Transylvania, along with several of his Viking mates, who are now locked up in the dungeons of the King’s castle. Fortunately, Spike hasn’t been captured, but he now has to rescue all of his comrades. This is an arcade adventure in which you must find the right objects to solve puzzles and progress further in the game, as well as dodging the guards, rats and bats who will drain your energy. It’s all rather easy, though, and it shouldn’t take you too long to complete the game. However, I still think the game is a good one while it lasts, despite the monochrome graphics. The music is fairly good as well, and so is the animated sequence when you lose all your lives!

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Rating: 8/10

Winter is closing in, and Harold the hedgehog has to find food for him to last through his hibernation. Starting above the ground, you have to venture underground into a network of tunnels full of other wildlife, and you will lose a life if you touch any of them. Believe it or not, you get twenty lives, but you’re going to need every one of them! Squeezing past many of the monsters requires the utmost precision, and it is very frustrating to lose several lives in this way. I don’t mind the game too much – Harold is really cute – but most people will find it too difficult.

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Rating: 6/10

Spindizzy

(Electric Dreams, 1986)

GERALD is on Hangworld, and he has to explore all 386 locations and collect more than 200 jewels in his mission. There are all sorts of puzzles to solve – you’ll need to hunt for the right switches to open doors and cross chasms, for instance – and tricky terrain to negotiate, and you’re battling against the clock, too! What makes this game so truly irresistible is that urge to explore a little more of Hangworld with each go. It’s one of the all-time classics, and yes, I think it is one of the best games ever to be released for the CPC.

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Rating: 10/10

The planet Fungii 7 contains lots of barrels of plutonium, and it’s your job to guard them. However, the green alien Kermatoids are intent on getting their hands on it and have launched an invasion. You must shoot them and prevent them from stealing the barrels – once they’ve got them, it’s too late! If all 27 barrels are stolen, then the game is over. There are three screens, and while you’re guarding one screen, the Kermatoids are taking advantage on the other two, so it’s quite difficult, although you have a radar to show you where the aliens are. Basically, it’s a mediocre space shoot-’em-up which won’t interest you for long, although the graphics are brilliant and the Kermatoids are quite cute!

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Watch a YouTube video of this game by: GameHammer Classic Gaming.

Rating: 5/10

There’s a really nice touch at the beginning of Spirits where the credits fade in just like you’re about to start watching a film. There’s some nice music as well. Then the game begins and you notice colour clash and slowdown – never mind. The game at least has a unique concept of splitting the screen in two, which allows you to see the location of the items you need to obtain in this arcade adventure. The graphics are nicely drawn but the gameplay is only accompanied by the slightest of sound effects. There are quite a few arcade adventures on the CPC, to say the least, and this is a solid example.

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Rating: 6/10

Take to the skies in a Spitfire fighter plane and shoot down as many German Me 109 and Ju 88 planes and destroy as many of their bases as you can. A display at the bottom of the screen warns you of incoming enemy planes, and then you can engage in a dogfight with them, manoeuvring your Spitfire and weaving around the screen in order to take it down. Your plane isn’t armed with bombs, so enemy bases and ships need to be destroyed by swooping downwards and firing your guns continuously while trying not to crash. First impressions are good; the graphics are average but your Spitfire is well animated, and the sound of gunfire is fairly realistic. However, there isn’t much variety and there are no real goals to achieve, and it soon becomes repetitive.

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Rating: 6/10

An early, yet surprisingly accurate, flight simulator on the CPC. In terms of gameplay it treads the fine line between simulation and arcade shoot-’em-up well. Strap into your World War II Spitfire plane, select a pilot and shoot down the enemy fighters. You’ll be asked to take off and land, as well as use your instruments to judge speed and height and a map to find your prey. Having to toggle between the instruments and cockpit view can be tricky at first. There are more ambitious-looking CPC flight simulators but the instruments look particularly nice and the cockpit view is good enough. On the aural front the music tries to invoke the Battle of Britain spirit, while the sound effects are to be expected. Dogfighting is enjoyable and good fun in this but perhaps the game lacks a little depth.

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Rating: 7/10

The greatest war the world has ever seen is about to commence. It’s so great that even the Swiss are getting involved this time! This is a beat-’em-up based on the British TV show of the same name, which lets you match six of the world’s leaders against each other – Maggie Thatcher, Ronnie Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paul II, Ayatollah Khomeini, and P. W. Botha. Of course, each of them has their own ways of fighting. You select an opponent and a champion, with you playing the opponent, and if you defeat the champion three times, it’s on to another one. The graphics are brilliant and there are some jolly jingles to be heard, but it is after all a novelty game, and although it’s funny at first, the novelty will wear off before long.

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Watch a YouTube video of this game by: ChinnyVision.

Rating: 5/10

Zippy the spider is stuck in a maze which is constantly scrolling within a section of the screen, and if he touches the edges of the screen, he loses one of his three lives, which can happen if you’re trapped within the walls of the maze and there’s no escape! It’s probably not easy to understand this explanation, but it is an original idea, although the aptly named Zippy can be a little bit too fast, for you can sometimes run into the edges when you didn’t mean to. The graphics are very basic and the colour scheme is garish, and there are no sound effects worth talking about, but it’s still a fun game to play every now and then.

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Rating: 7/10

This game was originally entitled Splitting Images, but its name had to be changed for legal reasons. This is a variation of those sliding tile games, although in this game, the board is initially empty. The tiles are stored at the top left corner and you can release them as necessary. The aim on each of the ten levels is to recreate the face of a famous person shown elsewhere on the screen – but with a tight time limit and numerous hazards to face, it really isn’t easy. Many famous faces of the 1980s are in the game – Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Neil Kinnock, Clive Sinclair (boo!) and Alan Sugar, to name a few. The caricatures are well drawn and very colourful, and even though the constant white noise is irritating, it’s still a thoroughly enjoyable game.

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Watch YouTube videos of this game by: Novabug, Xyphoe.

Rating: 9/10