Tír na nÓg
(Gargoyle, 1986)

The name means 'land of youth' in Gaelic, and as Cúchulainn the Great, your aim is to find the four parts of the Seal of Calum which have been scattered across the land, which is vast – you'll just walk in circles if you don't draw your own map! However, they are closely guarded, and you'll need to solve a lot of very abstract puzzles. The graphics are very detailed and the animation is stunning, but there is little action; you'll spend most of the game just walking around and doing not much else. If you're a real fan of adventures, then you should find this game very absorbing, but stay well clear if you're not.

See also: Dun Darach.

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Titan
(Titus, 1989)

In the year 2114, Professor Hybrys has created a puzzle which taxes even the mightiest brains, and he has offered a prize of 1000 kronurs for anyone who completes it – which isn't much for the hell you have to go through. There are supposed to be 80 levels to conquer, although the cassette version only has 16. On each level, there are bricks to be destroyed by bouncing your ball off them using your racket, but most levels have skulls, and if the ball or the racket touches them, you lose one of your nine lives. There are several other special bricks as well. The graphics are amazing, and the scrolling is something else altogether; I've never seen any game scroll as fast! It's such a simple concept and it's so addictive.

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A new diving suit which can withstand enormous pressures has been invented, and what better way to test it than exploring the wreck of the Titanic? This is an exploration game which is divided into two parts. In the first part, you must find the Titanic by travelling through a network of caves. In the second part, you explore inside the ship itself, trying to find a way of opening the safe which is located somewhere within it. Contact with some plants and fish depletes your oxygen, although other types of fish will kill you instantly and send you right back to the start – an annoying aspect which mars what is otherwise a reasonably good game with great graphics and a beautifully haunting piece of ambient music.

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The prequel to this game, Blinky's Scary School, was sadly never released on the CPC. A wealthy businessman has paid lots of money for the Titanic to be raised, but it's infested with all sorts of creepy crawlies, and Blinky has to get rid of them. Starting on the outside deck, you must shoot all the whelks and collect notes (represented as flashing letters), and throw them down the ship's funnel to access the interior of the Titanic, where you must collect the diving gear to go underwater and reach another section... and so it goes on. The graphics are OK but blocky, but there are only two or three sound effects in the whole game; the silence is unnerving! Nonetheless, it's a reasonable little platform game, although it can sometimes crash.

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Titus the Fox
(Titus, 1992)

Titus has to travel all the way from his home in the suburbs of Paris to Marrakesh to rescue his girlfriend who has been kidnapped; that's a long way away. Titus, if you're not aware, is the official mascot belonging to the software house of the same name, and this game was released as Les Aventures de Moktar in France, but using a different character in place of Titus. Anyway, it's the usual platform fare with eight levels. Titus hasn't got any weapons of his own, though; he'll need to use the various objects lying around to kill some of the enemies. The graphics are truly gorgeous, but all that is outweighed by the annoying music, and the fact that the game frequently slows to a snail's pace when there are more than two enemies on the screen at the same time.

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Toadrunner
(Ariolasoft, 1986)

The Toadrunner has been turned into a toad by the Stone Master, and he must find his Princess before he can regain his human form. You can carry up to four objects at a time, each of which is stored in a pocket, but only the object in the fourth pocket can be used. Most of the rooms are blocked by various creatures who can only be defeated with the right object – and in some cases, two objects are required. It's a matter of trial and error as to which object(s) to use, and if you get it wrong, you are killed instantly. Worse still, there 'triple exits' where you must select one of three exits to go to another screen; choose the wrong one and you are again killed instantly! There are small clues to be found in the scenery as to which exit to use, but they're easy to miss and difficult to interpret. I couldn't really get anywhere in this game; it's far too frustrating.

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Toi and his girlfriend Zoi were visiting a disco, dancing the night away to 1980s rave music, when the nasty Dr. Acid took her away. Obviously, Toi must now rescue her. This is a very dull game consisting of four parts, in which you collect smiley tokens and shoot lots of smileys in order to reach other areas of each level; collect enough of them and you can go to the next one. This game really immerses itself in rave culture and doesn't take itself too seriously. After leaving the disco, Toi visits a beach, a pirate ship, and a vampire's castle! However, the levels are very large and Toi walks very slowly, so the game quickly becomes boring. The graphics and colour scheme are truly awful, and this is a game to avoid. Actually, that's not quite true; the girl on the loading screen is a hot babe!

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A vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up which sees you flying a fighter jet over four levels, shooting targets in the air and on the ground. The playing area can also be scrolled left or right, since the area that you can see is rather small. Unfortunately it's annoyingly difficult; the bullets are large red circles which are hard to avoid, especially when they appear without warning from either side of the screen. The collision detection seems to be poor, and so are the graphics. The scrolling is slow and the sound is also lacking. There are better shoot-'em-ups available and it's best to avoid this one.

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Toobin'
(Domark/Tengen, 1989)

Biff and Jet are the Tube Dudes, preparing to go toobin' down the rapids in their inflatable tubes. The game can be played by one or two players, and the journey takes you through many different types of scenery. Of course, there are the usual assortment of enemies on the banks of the river which you must avoid, but you can also throw beer cans at them. You've got a very limited number of them, although more cans can be found along the river. Other obstacles include branches and logs which will burst your tube – and if you're too slow, the alligator will catch you! This is a reasonably good game, especially with two players; the music is absolutely marvellous, but the graphics could have been a lot better – and don't play the game using the keyboard!

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Top Cat
(Hi-Tec, 1991)

Top Cat has offered Benny the Ball to a wealthy millionairess, but when she dies, her butler realises he can get the money if he can get rid of Benny. Top Cat decides to thwart the butler's plan. This is a game with three parts. The first part is set in the alleys, where TC (as he's also known) finds the four gang members and has to get past the dog guarding the exit. The second part is set in a leafy residential area, and you must find a way to get past Officer Dibble, before entering the mansion and finding and rescuing Benny. Like most of Hi-Tec's games, the graphics are colourful, although there are few sound effects. The playing area is quite big, so making a map will be helpful, but the game is hardly exciting and action-packed.

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