10 Games

  '10 Games', not 'top 10 games'. This list contains games which I think have qualities that make them unique and interesting. There are many others, but these are the ones I thought of first. Games like The Settlers, Railroad Tycoon, Starglider 1 and 2, Populous, Diablo and Elite should perhaps be in there too. Notable games companies are:

Cinemaware for It came from the Desert, Rocket Ranger, Lords of the Rising Sun, Wings
Bitmap Brothers for The Chaos Engine, Xenon1 and 2, Speedball1 and 2, Gods
Argonaut for Starglider 1 and 2

You may also want to see these sites:
Amiga games database for reviews of old Amiga games
Your Sinclair Rock n Roll years for reviews of old Spectrum games

  And now, my list of 10 games, in alphabetical order:

Atic Atac Spectrum, by Ultimate Play the Game (now Rare)

Atic Atac is a fast paced action/exploration game, you can read more about it at the site listed above. As you can see from this screen, it is viewed from above, though the sprites are drawn from the side. Despite its irritating controls (the QWERT keys) it is very playable which is why it is in this list. There are lots of nice touches, like different character types that can use different secret shortcuts, and pits which let you fall down to a lower level (you have to do this in one instance to get a key).

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Buggy Boy Amiga/ST, by Elite

This arcade style race against the clock has nice cutesy graphics, good plinky sound effects and music (Amiga) and, of course, is great to play. There is no two player, but there are lots of interesting bits during play, such as logs that bounce the buggy into the air, bonus gates and flags, and 45 degree banked bends. Lots of people got this game in the '10 star' games bundle with their machine. The only gripe is that you can't really make any mistakes if you want to complete a track (there are five) within the tight time limit.

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Head over Heels Spectrum, by Ocean

I have chosen Head over Heels to represent the best of the Isometric games, as it had lots of good features, as the character 'Head' you move slowly, but can jump high and guide your decsent with your wings. As 'Heels' you run fast and can pick things up. You can join Head to Heels and get the benefits of both. Head also has a jam doughnut launcher. To learn more, why not try this Head over Heels review.

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Heroes of Might and Magic 3 PC, by 3DO and New World Computing

Not to be confused with the Might and Magic games, The third of the Heroes series just improves on its predecessors by having higher resolution graphics (800*600*16), more units, more... everything. Also, the levels are smaller which removes a lot of the tedium, though it can still sometimes be a chore to play. The object is to recruit heroes and armies to achieve the level objective, this is not done in 'real time', each player (which can also be a computer controlled player) can do a certain amount each turn, then the next player has their turn. This is good as you can ponder your move in your own time.

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Lords of Chaos Amiga/ST/C64/Amstrad/Spectrum, by Blade (now Mythos Games)

Although it has a complicated interface, LOC is near perfect. It is turn based, and you control a wizard (which you can design) who can summon creatures and cast spells to help defeat the opponent on each of the 3 scenarios. Nice features are line of sight, fog of war, invisibility and the ability for some creatures (eg a dwarf) to ride others (like a unicorn). As with other games of this type, the action is slow paced. This game is similar to Laser Squad.

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Salamander Arcade, by Konami
This is a 'scrolling space shootemup', a genre that includes Gradius (the prequel to Salamander), R-Type (which was made a year later), and countless others. None of them are as good as Salamander though. The gameplay is perfect, music and sound effects/speech are superb, words cannot describe this game. There is a good review of this game here.

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Star Wars Arcade, by Atari

This is a vector graphic 3D game, which meant the monitor beam drew lines from point to point rather than top to bottom, clever. There are 3 stages which repeat over and over getting more difficult. The first is in space where you must battle tie-fighter craft, you then fly to the surface of the deathstar shooting towertops (why?), then the trench run, avoiding the catwalks to hit the exhaust port. The Star Wars music and speech from the film add atmosphere, but I don't really know why its so playable.

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Turrican Amiga, by Rainbow Arts/Factor 5

At first glance, this is a rather standard platformer, however it contains a lot of surprises, excellent music and effects, and good gameplay. One of the best bits is World 3 where the game turns into an upwards scrolling shooter. Bad bits are the 'platform ladders' and finding your way round Worlds 4 and 5. Turrican 2 is like a rehash of Turrican rather than a sequel, Turrican 3 is horrible. Factor 5 also did the Amiga conversion of R-Type.

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Virus/Zarch Archimedes(Zarch) Amiga/ST(Virus), by David Braben

From the guy who co-wrote Elite, this is possibly a genre defining game and two separate companies licensed the code to make separate games (Conqueror and Zeewolf1 and 2). What makes this game great is the mouse control system, which is beyond simple explanation, suffice it to say your first 10 goes will be over very quickly as you crash into the ground. After a lot more practice it becomes intuitive and lets you have absolutely fantastic control of the craft. Of course, this was wrecked when the sequel, V2000 was made. Shame.

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Wicked Amiga/ST, by Electric Dreams/Binary Vision

You are 'good' and must defend the good portals (red) whilst destroying the evil portals (blue). Each portal emits growth which can engulf an enemy portal, you can destroy evil growth by shooting it, but it can grow back. An evil guardian tries to stop you, and it can only be hit by day. To help you, various powers fly out of a door in the middle of the screen some good, but some are bad. This game is legally downloadable from Back to the Roots but that version is slightly bugged (only one life).

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