Consoles and Home Computers 60-80 / 1036

Urban Strike is an isometric helicopter action game published by Electronic Arts in 1994 as the third part of the Strike series for the SEGA Mega Drive, with ports for the SNES, Game Gear and Game Boy following in 1995 and 1996. This time the Mohican gunship flies neither into the desert nor into the jungle but over Hawaii, San Francisco, New York... 151

Jungle Strike is a 1993 action game by Electronic Arts and the second part of the Strike series. The player is back in a gunship, this time a Comanche, flying over Washington, the South American rainforest and snowbound mountains in an isometric view. The enemies are Ibn Kilbaba, son of the general from the first game, and the drug baron Carlos Ortega,... 93

Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf is a 1992 action game and the first part of the Strike series by Electronic Arts. The player sits in an AH-64A Apache gunship and flies over a desert emirate seized by a self-styled general named Kilbaba, seen from an isometric view. Besides shooting there is fuel and ammunition to watch, supplies scattered across... 61

Dark Seed is a horror point-and-click adventure from 1992 and the first title released by the Californian studio Cyberdreams. The dark half of its world was built from the work of Swiss painter H. R. Giger, who licensed his art on one condition: the game had to run in a high resolution of 640x350 pixels and 16 colours instead of the then usual 320x200... 65

Blue Force is a police point-and-click adventure released in 1993 by Tsunami Media. It was designed by Jim Walls, the author of the first 3 Police Quest games, shortly after he left Sierra. The player is rookie motorcycle cop Jake Ryan of Jackson Beach, whose parents were murdered when he was a child. Points are awarded for correct police procedure,... 21

Nitemare-3D is a horror first-person shooter from 1994 by David P. Gray and his company Gray Design Associates. Gray sent Hugo, the hero of his shareware adventures, into the mansion of Doctor Hamerstein, who has kidnapped his girlfriend Penelope. The mazes in the style of Wolfenstein 3D are slower paced, packed with secret panels and puzzles, and... 58

Nippon Safes Inc. is the debut of the Italian studio Dynabyte, a cartoon point-and-click adventure released in 1992 for PC and Amiga. It is set in Tokyo and puts the player in charge of 3 characters who each got tangled up in the same case differently: the safe-cracker Doug Nuts, the boxer Dino Fagioli and the dancer Donna Fatale. Their stories can... 20

The Big Red Adventure is a point-and-click adventure by the Italian studio Dynabyte, published by Britain's Core Design in 1995. It follows on from Nippon Safes Inc. and brings back the same trio of heroes: the thief Doug Nuts, the boxer Dino Fagioli and the dancer Donna Fatale. The story is set in post-communist Russia shortly after perestroika, where... 8

An action game based on the 1984 film, released by Mindscape for the Super Nintendo in April 1993. The platform levels were written by the Canadian studio Gray Matter, and it shares only its name with the NES game from the same publisher. The player is Kyle Reese and works through 6 levels following the film, shooting Terminators in 2029 and street... 209

An action game based on the 1984 film, written for the NES by the Canadian studio Radical Entertainment and released by Mindscape in December 1992 under a sublicence from Bethesda. It shares only its name with the other The Terminator games for the PC, the Sega consoles and the SNES. The player is Kyle Reese and works through 6 missions following the... 176

The Elder Scrolls: Arena is the first-person RPG with which Bethesda Softworks launched The Elder Scrolls series in 1994. A prisoner of the imperial dungeon travels across the whole continent of Tamriel to gather the 8 pieces of the Staff of Chaos and unseat the mage Jagar Tharn, who rules in the likeness of the imprisoned emperor. The world holds... 72

They Stole a Million is a strategy game about planning robberies, made in 1986 by the British firm Tigress Marketing and published under the 39 Steps label of Ariolasoft. The player is the boss: you hire a crew of specialists in locks, explosives and getaway driving, buy the plans of the chosen building, and then write out the whole job on the floor... 86

The Clue! is a burglary simulator made in 1994 by the Austrian studio neo Software of Hirtenberg, and a fully Czech edition followed in 1996 as Zlodej, licensed by Logus of Malacky. The player takes the part of Matt Stuvysunt, a young man from the country who arrives in London in 1953 with no money and a dream that reaches all the way to the Crown... 27

Whizz is an isometric platformer released in 1994 by the British Flair Software for the PC and the Amiga. A rabbit in a top hat and tailcoat, whose balloon has been shot down by the rat Ratty, has to reach the end of every level across 4 worlds, from grassy plains to the casino world of Gambleland, before the sand clock runs out. His way is blocked... 42

Whizz is an isometric platformer released in 1994 by the British Flair Software for the PC and the Amiga. A rabbit in a top hat and tailcoat, whose balloon has been shot down by the rat Ratty, has to reach the end of every level across 4 worlds, from grassy plains to the casino world of Gambleland, before the sand clock runs out. His way is blocked... 15

Oscar is a 1993 platformer by the British company Flair Software, built from its earlier Trolls: when the troll licence lapsed, a hero of Flair's own, Oscar, took over. He is trapped in a cinema and has to work through 7 film worlds, from horror and the western to a TV game show, collecting a set number of Oscar statuettes in every scene. He picks... 56

Oscar is a 1993 platformer by the British company Flair Software, built from its earlier Trolls: when the troll licence lapsed, a hero of Flair's own, Oscar, took over. He is trapped in a cinema and has to work through 7 film worlds, from horror and the western to a TV game show, collecting a set number of Oscar statuettes in every scene. He picks... 46

Elvira: The Arcade Game is a 1991 side-scrolling platformer by the British company Flair Software, which used the Elvira licence in a completely different way from Horrorsoft's horror RPGs. The player controls Elvira herself across two large worlds, an underworld of fire and a frozen land, in order to unlock the third one, the castle in Transylvania.... 68

Starquake is a 1985 arcade adventure written for the ZX Spectrum by a single programmer, Stephen J. Crow, and published by the British label Bubble Bus Software. A small artificial being called BLOB has to rebuild the core of an unstable planet from 9 pieces before its explosion wipes out the universe. The caverns span 512 screens, and BLOB climbs... 113

Starquake is a 1985 arcade adventure written for the ZX Spectrum by a single programmer, Stephen J. Crow, and published by the British label Bubble Bus Software. A small artificial being called BLOB has to rebuild the core of an unstable planet from 9 pieces before its explosion wipes out the universe. The caverns span 512 screens, and BLOB climbs... 17