Philip Winterberg 2001
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: 3/6
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

Blödtris - or Dumbtris as it's called if you install it in english version (the game can be installed in english or german) - is a game that can be sorted into the Tetris-category. Well... at least the name of it claims that sort of kinship. Now it's a bit difficult to write a proper review about it I have to admit. First of all - this game is not really... well... serious. The goal of it is the same as you have in Tetris - you have to build whole lines, they vanish, you get points and after a certain amount of points you go up one level, which means things go faster and so on and so forth.

Avalon Hill 1984
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Pong...the game that ate my nights . Indeed, I had a hard time playing PONG, I even tried to make my own. Some years ago, after playing Elite, I was even more curious to see a Pong game in 3D. After playing Doom, I thought at a first-person Pong.

Inner-Smile.com 2000
Genre: Puzzle, Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

I had to notice that The Good Old Days do not feature a single Tetris-game. So I went and asked Mr Creosote if there was any reason for it, suspecting he might have some sort of hidden hatred for that game or something like that. But well no, no real reason - just doesn't seem to be his genre. It's mine though. Those very very few of you who remember my own old site The Keep might also remember I had a good number of Tetris-clones up there. So I thought which of those might be the best to be THE Tetris-game up here. I'm not saying there won't be any of the other ones around here anytime, but one has to be the first.

Anssi Raisanen 2001
Genre: Adventure
Rating: 3/6
Licence: Freeware
System: Interpreter

It's every player's nightmare: An aspiring IF author (to make matters worse, one who is related to you) asks you to beta test his game. This can be fun, but if the game is really, really bad and if you can't really tell that to the person in question, things get ugly. Bugged is about you playing your cousin's first attempt at writing a game, and not only is it a completely linear set of boring rooms, located in a castle of a bog-standard fantasy kingdom, but pretty much everything imaginable went wrong technically - the game is bugged to the extreme. Most of the puzzle solutions don't work as expected and imagined by the author. So you have to find ways around those bugs. I.e. you exploit other bugs in order to progress.

Loriciel 1992
Genre: Puzzle, Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Here you have a platformer, you know, a game that is about jumping around. Only this one is all just about jumping and bouncing your way across puzzles filled with dangers and death. Oh well, that is all the game has, really, but it’s something to see.

Sierra 1991
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

If you want to become Dr Brain's new helper (and you want if you are playing this) you have to solve all the puzzles that wait on his castle, placed to test your skills resolving problems of all kinds.

Dregenrocks 2001
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

Catch the Kreis is a simple, yet fascinating arcade game. It resembles the huge coin-ups of the 70's and that where it draws its fascination from. You're an 'X' (controlled by the cursor keys) hunting a '0' on a board divided into squares. Very hectical - be sure to pump up enough adrenaline! But let's hear what the author has to say about the developement of the different versions (comments from Dregenrocks are in italics):

GCE 1982
Genre: Action
Rating: 3/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Vectrex

A Pacman clone with a twist or two.

You are a bank director and your bank has just been robbed. The robbers have blown up your safe and the money is now lying everywhere in the bank. You are collecting it, but the bankrobbers are trying to get you. And when they do...you're history.

Jobline 2000
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

Okay... first off, this game is in swedish... or norwegian - you can switch between these languages... and it's completely irrelevant. This game is a Coloris/Columns clone - and a very good one! Concept is simple - get 3 gems in a row, vertical, horizontal, diagonal - and they vanish. The original was usually referred to as a "Tetrislike game" although that kind of reduces the concept to less than it is. Coloris (or Columns ...or gemline) requires a different set of tactics and strategy. You cannot make long term plans as you can (try to) do in Tetris, you have to build and let vanish fast - you CAN prepare a larger collapse, but the game doesn't let you this room, you'll run out of space faster than in Tetris. Some might argue it's not as challenging as Tetris - maybe it's not, but it requires a different kind of thinking, not necessarily easier or harder...

Radarsoft 1984
Genre: Puzzle
Rating: 2/6
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

Herbie, the lovable Volkswagen Bug whose whacky adventures everyone has been following in the 60s and 70s, is back on the big screen with 'Fully Loaded'. Haven't seen it, and don't plan to, but I guess it's bad. However, legends can't die, no matter how awful this new version might be. We'll always have the original.