Ticsoft 1994
Genre: Sport, Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

How could this game's concept be described most accurately? Yeah, right - by telling which classic game it's a clone of! Two problems with this though: Nobody will know the original and (even worse) even I forgot the title! It was a sports game by Lucasfilm on the C64 (at least I think it was on this system). Edit: In fact it was Ballblazer by Lucasfilm on the old Atari. Thanks to Chris for reminding me!

Crack dot com 1996
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

You are the last chance against the abuse, a virus that transforms people on horrible monsters, a creation of illegal experiments being made on the prison where you were yet another prisoner. Everybody is now infected, except you, and stopping the infection from spreading to the world won't be easy. I mean it, this is really hard, an action game that is not so much about blowing up enemies as it is about escaping and avoiding being blown up by the ants, your enemies who like flooding the places with their assaults and their shots.

Glen Cumming / Myles Jeffery 1995
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Freeware
System: Amiga

"Yeah ok so its a routine plot". This refreshing honesty welcomes you to Alien Bash II, the sequel to an equally unknown freeware game. In the predecessor, the protagonist escaped from an alien prison ship - or rather he would have, in case anyone actually finished that not-very-good game. Now, he wants to end the alien threat once and for all by committing genocide on the aliens' homeworld. Routine indeed.

Apogee 1994
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

Alien Carnage, also known as Halloween Harry, is a sidescrolling action platform game. The story is that the earth is being taken over by aliens and the alien leader tells the goverment that if they do not surrender the planet in 24 hours, innocent civilians will be taken hostage and turned into zombies to help take over the planet. Harry is called upon to help save the people held captive by the aliens and to destroy the alien menace.

Ybarra Productions / Sierra 1993
Genre: Strategy, Adventure
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

The seedship Calypso arrives to the Beta Solaris system, where the colonists of the more advanced Tantalus seedship are awaiting. Only that they are not there, just leftovers of their colonies spreading around all the planets and moons, mixed with hints and references to a hidden danger.

Inner Circle Creations / Softdisk Publishing 1996
Genre: Puzzle, Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

While nearing the planet Untharia your ship is shot at and damaged forcing you to land. The ship now requires repairs, but as you do not carry spare parts you are stuck on the planet. Annoyed at this situation you swear an oath of revenge against the Untharians. In an effort to fulfill your oath you plunge into the nearby jungle to search for their base.

Interplay 1990
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

An energy experiment has gone wrong and a scientist now finds himself in another world, an unknown and dangerous place where he quickly ends as a captive of an advanced alien culture. With the help of an alien captive now he must find the way out to freedom.

Imagic 1982
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Atari 2600

Alien Invaders, the Gorgons, are running their final assault on the city of Atlantis. The last line of defense are three guns, two positioned at the sides of the screen and one in its centre. Their lines of fire are fixed: the middle one shoots straight up, the ones on the sides fire diagonally towards the centre of the screen. The player can select which gun to shoot with by moving the controller to the left and right.

Micromagic / Origin 1988
Genre: RPG
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Autoduel is one of the few classic games that don't deserve as much attention as it is getting. It may sound ironic that I review a game just because I don't consider it worth a review, but it isn't so. Autoduel is a very original piece of work, which is seriously flawed by inferior graphics, awkward interface and an extremely steep learning curve. Autoduel is simply the result of applying arcade principles to a pen-and-paper roleplaying game.

Core Design 1994
Genre: Action
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

Banshee is a very late arrival in the genre of shooters. In 1994, the gaming industry started moving everything towards 'three-dimensional' games, and classic concepts like this one slowly died out. Thankfully, this genre (at least the subgenre of 'vertical shooters') got one final hit with this game.