Monument
(Zeppelin Games, 1991)
Somewhere within the ruins of a city lies a monument which you must reach. However, the city is filled with robots and mines, both of which will kill you if you come into contact with them, losing one of your seven lives. Most of the robots don’t shoot at you, but occasionally there are some larger robots which will fire at you and will take several shots to destroy. The graphics are very nicely drawn, and the colours reflect the sombre mood; the silhouettes against the setting sun in the sky are particularly good. On the other hand, there isn’t much in the way of sound, and the gameplay is so frustratingly difficult that you’ll want to throw your keyboard or joystick against the wall.
Moon Blaster
(Loriciel, 1990)
Every year, a battle takes place on the Three Moons galactic system. Whoever wins the contest obtains the rights to exploit the resources of the moons. Last year, the Cyruls won, so this year, you have been chosen to beat them. Yes, you must take on the might of the Cyruls single-handedly; it’s not a fair contest, is it? The game is really simple; shoot the Cyruls while driving around the arena trying to avoid them, since the Cyrul vehicles are suicidal and try to crash into you, losing you energy. An alarm will sound if you reach the edge of the arena, and if you stray outside it, the game is over. The 3D graphics are very fast, and the music and presentation are very nice as well. The gameplay, however, is limited, and rather difficult.
Moon Buggy
(Anirog, 1985)
Drive your moon buggy across the lunar surface, avoiding craters by jumping over them, and shooting rocks that stand in your way, as well as the planes which fly over you and occasionally fire bullets at you. It’s a really simple game which doesn’t stand the test of time any more. The graphics aren’t that good, although the scrolling background featuring volcanoes and craters works well to create an impression of movement, and the sound effects are awful. As for the gameplay, it’s too repetitive and there’s not enough to do.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Metr81.
Moon Cresta
(Incentive, 1986)
A space shoot-’em-up based on the coin-op of the same name. Just shoot the waves of aliens and don’t crash into them; that’s easier said than done, though, because by the third wave, there are a lot of aliens to shoot and they fly around the screen very fast indeed! Your spaceship is divided into three parts, and each part represents one of your three lives. The first part only has a single laser, but the second and third parts are more powerful. The graphics are fairly good, and I really like the colourful twinkling stars in the background; it’s a very nice effect. The explosions are noisy, too. However, it’s such a difficult game that you need extremely good reflexes, as well as luck, to get past the fourth wave of aliens.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Novabug.
Moonmist
(Infocom, 1986)
Your friend, Tamara Lynd, has asked you to come to Tresyllian Castle to investigate a ghost. Arriving at the castle at 7:00pm, you meet Tamara and the occupants of the castle and have dinner with them – but you also have to take part in a treasure hunt while trying to identify the ghost. Where the treasure is, what the treasure is, and who the ghost is changes in each of the four variations of this text adventure, depending on what you enter as your favourite colour (red, yellow, green or blue). Some of the variations are very interesting... This is one of the easiest of Infocom’s text adventures; it’s so easy that even I completed it quickly, and I’m not a big fan of text adventures. As a result, there’s little else to merit the game.
Moontorc
(Atlantis, 1991)
Princess Lalena has been captured by the Dark Lord, and you have to rescue her by battling through four levels of platforming action and collecting the three parts of Moontorc on each one. Each level has three shops where you can buy the parts of Moontorc, as well as keys – a lot of extra objects are hidden behind coloured doors, and making a map is almost essential since you may well have to restart the game if you don’t have the right key – very annoying! Despite this, the game is actually very good (especially the graphics) and probably the best game that Atlantis has released.
At the height of his stardom, Michael Jackson was so popular worldwide that he made a movie called Moonwalker. Later, in 1989, there was a computer game. The first two levels are top-down maze-style screens, exploring and locating objects to make up MJ’s clothing and motorcycle. The third level is a side-scrolling affair; here you must find ammo and a machine gun in order to shoot bad guys in a club. On the fourth and final level MJ morphs into a robot, shooting soldiers as well as some type of ray cannon by controlling a crosshair. Although you get heaps of lives to complete each section, it’s rather hard and very frustrating. The graphics, while colourful, are quite blocky and flicker while MJ moves. It must be noted this home computer version is not in any way like the arcade version which is rather good and fun to play.
This is Othello or Reversi by another name. If you’re not familiar with them, it’s a classic strategy game that involves placing counters to enclose your opponent’s pieces between your own. The counters are dark on one side and light on the other. A line of counters of one colour that becomes trapped between two or more counters of the opposite colour is turned over and claimed by the other player. The winner is the player with the greatest number of their colour counters exposed once the board is filled. This version is simple but effective and actually plays a decent game, although it is a bit slow.
More Than a Prison is a maze game that genuinely represents the early- to mid-1980s games. You take control of an inmate and you must guide him to escape from the prison. Fortunately for us, the gamers, it is quite challenging and entertaining trying to do this. You need to grab the keys, open the doors and avoid some enemies that look like wheels with blades, but one type of enemy homes in on the poor prisoner until it kills him. Precision is essential if you are to escape! The levels are cleverly designed and the difficulty level rises reasonably from screen to screen. Both the tune and the entire game feel like they were written 30 years ago! I think the game deserved a better rating than it received in the 2015 #CPCRetroDev Game Creation Contest because I really enjoyed its overall presentation and gameplay.
Moritz on the Autobahn
(Team Moritz, 2022)
Moritz’s cousin has invited him to come to Portugal to meet him, but instead of flying from his home in Germany, Moritz has decided to travel across Europe in his Sinclair C5. You must guide Moritz around fourteen single-screen levels and collect hearts (or gold once you reach Ireland). This is the third in a series of games featuring Moritz the dog, and the level of presentation is a significant step up from the previous two games, with excellent graphics (including a map of Europe) and several renditions of songs by the German group Kraftwerk, although this also means it will only work on CPCs with 128K of memory. However, all of this is marred by the ridiculous, rage-inducing difficulty of the third level. It’s a real shame, because I had high expectations for this game and I wanted to enjoy it.
See also: Moritz the Striker, Pink Pills: Manic Moritz and the Meds.