Scalextric
(Leisure Genius/Virgin, 1987)

The slot-car hobby that many of us spent our childhoods with is somewhat badly recreated here. Either a computer or a friend can race on a track. There are lots of pre-designed tracks available, or you can create your own. However, the racing itself is dull; the track is too narrow and overtaking is therefore extremely difficult, and if you crash into your opponent, the race is over instantly. The graphics are average, but there's hardly any scenery on the track edges. The sound effects are very limited as well, and the drone of the engines becomes irritating. Indeed, creating your own tracks is probably the best part of this game!

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Alan Chance was falsely accused of bungling a police raid on a drug gang which led to his death, and as his ghost, you have three days to clear your name. This is a three-part text adventure, starting in the graveyard as you witness your own funeral, and then moving on to gather evidence at the scene of your death in order to locate the gang at their new hideaway and allow the police to arrest them. This was Level 9's last text adventure and a great way to end their legacy. The 28 pictures are wonderful and really add to the atmosphere. Some rather elaborate commands can be understood, too, and the plot is also highly original. This is one of the best text adventures I've played.

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Two completely different types of game – a quiz, and a Centipede clone – are mixed together to produce one rather awful game. You control a spaceship that can only move left and right, and you must shoot all of the blobs that move from left to right, and gradually down the screen towards you. However, every few seconds, and after completing a level, play is interrupted and you are asked a question or two about maths or history. If you don't get it right, either you lose a life, or you have to restart the level. These interruptions are frankly annoying and make the game very irritating to play. Why should anyone be asked such questions while playing an arcade game, anyway?

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3

Scooby and Shaggy have been captured and are being held in a castle cell, so Scrappy must rescue them. This is a platform game with four levels, lots of ghosts and other nasty creatures, and bonuses to collect. The monsters can be killed by using some 'puppy power' (i.e. punching them), although this requires some practice; time it wrongly and you will lose one of your three lives (and they are easy to lose). The graphics are really colourful and excellent, but there are few sound effects and no music, which is a shame. The game itself is enjoyable to play but suffers by being rather difficult, and you really need more lives to make the game a bit fairer.

See also: Scooby Doo.

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7

Scooby's friends are being held in a haunted castle belonging to a mad scientist, so Scooby enters the castle to rescue them. Originally, this was meant to be an interactive cartoon adventure, but this proved to be too ambitious for 8-bit machines and a completely different game was released, after a very long wait. You must explore the castle, climbing stairs and jumping over holes and skulls lying on the floor, while punching the ghosts and other strange creatures. Extra lives can be obtained by collecting Scooby Snacks, and you'll certainly need them. The graphics are Spectrum-like, and there's no music or theme tune to sing along to! The game itself is very repetitive and quite frustrating, particularly when you reach the third level.

See also: Scooby and Scrappy Doo.

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Scoop
(Generation 5, 1990)

Gather your French-speaking friends around the computer to play this quiz game. This quiz can be played by between two and five players, and it features a strange nose-shaped cartoon character as your host, who is very nicely animated. On each turn, you can choose one of seven categories, and each player stakes some points and then guesses the correct answer to a question. If they answer correctly, they gain the number of points they staked, but if they don't, they lose it instead. The first player to reach a certain target score wins the game. This game isn't bad at all and makes good use of pictures and music with the questions, and there are 'junior' and 'senior' versions of the game as well. (The answer to the question in the screenshot is "Taureau (the bull)", by the way.)

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7

In September 3020, the most powerful computer in the world, known as Silice, has gained control of the Nuclear Arms Centre of the Terra Federation. The only way to stop Silice from destroying Earth is to play a deadly game of pinball against it – but no one has beaten it so far. What's more, pinball in the 31st century is a very dangerous affair, as the bumpers, ramps and targets have been replaced with tanks and guns – and the ball is radioactive as well! However, as a pinball game, this one is mediocre. Although the graphics are colourful, the movement of the ball is jerky, and you have very little control over it. The ball can become stuck on a screen for ages, and while there are 20 screens, it's unlikely that you will see most of them. As pinball games go, this one is mediocre.

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4

All of the Scout troop's award shields have been stolen, and you have to find them all. Like a good Scout, you've also got to do some good turns – cleaning the windows of the pensioners' flats and gathering sealife for the nature class, and mushrooms for the Scouts' meals. There are only about a dozen screens, but clearing them all is a tricky task with all the nasty creatures about. The graphics and sound effects are fairly simple, although there's a catchy little tune on the starting screen that you can whistle to! It's worth a look, but don't expect much out of the game.

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6

Take on the might of 21st century fighter 'planes in your outdated World War II era 'plane. The odds don't sound great, but this vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up gives you five lives and five credits, which is extremely generous; I managed to reach the fifth level out of six on my first attempt. Unfortunately there are no power-ups apart from mini-'planes which act as smart bombs which attach to either side of your 'plane and can also be used as shields; the disadvantage is that your 'plane becomes wider and therefore easier for the enemy to hit. Graphically, the game looks very Spectrum-like, and the sound effects are mediocre as well, and although it plays well, it is a little on the slow side and not very challenging either.

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6

This is a clone of the arcade classic Q*Bert, where you jump around on the squares to make them change colour. Here, you control a worm, and the monsters you have to avoid are black bugs. You have 60 seconds on each level to change the colour of all the squares. The difficulty increases as you progress – the bugs move faster and there are holes which restrict your movement, although the bugs can move over them! You also get an extra life when you complete each level. I've never liked this type of game because the controls always seem to be very awkward, and this game is no different. The graphics are mediocre and the sound effects are useless, but at least it's not that hard, despite the annoying controls.

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