Richard Garriot 1980
Genre: RPG
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Even after the evil has been vanquished, there are still many foul creatures plaguing the land. It is your task to get rid of them. This rather unusual premise is the basis for the first roleplaying game ever. Selling only eight copies, it wasn't a commercial success either, but is spawned one of the most successful computer RPG franchises ever.

Blue Byte 1996
Genre: RPG
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Today is the great day, today the Toronto arrives at its goal, a mineral rich planet where to start a colossal mining operation finishing a multimillionaire travel. Everything looks great, until an accident during leaves the exploration crew stranded on the deserted lifeless planet, to discover that it isn't a desert, and much less lifeless.

Mindcraft 1993
Genre: Strategy
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

Siege & Ambush At Sorinor & Walls Of Rome: A series of games very similar to each other. The screenshots look almost identical. And all the games are quite similar in fact They're all pioneers of the RTS genre. That means much action is in them. But in contrast to current titles, the strategy- component is stressed. This becomes clear when you discover that you can give orders to your army when the game is paused.

Thomas Biskup 2002
Genre: RPG
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

If there is one game that professional developers and publishers hate, it's Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM). The final version (1.0) released in late 2002, this freeware role-playing game that fits on a single floppy offers an unprecedented depth of character development and a length of gameplay that easily matches the longest games ever released. In fact, ADOM offers more replay value than any game released in the 21st Century, and unlike many of those games, it remains fun no matter how often you replay it.

Farrware 1993
Genre: RPG
Rating: 3/6
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

It is very rare to find a shareware first-person roleplaying game. Ancients I: Death Watch is just that. Clearly copied from Bard's Tale with a few minor improvements and a much weaker story, Ancients is a second-tier game at best, but still interesting and entertaining enough to keep you playing for a few days. The game is designed in first person, where a group of four adventurers explores a city and various dungeons that are accessible from the houses. Featuring graphics comparable with the first Bard's Tale, mapping the city is quite difficult, and it does not get much better in the dungeons.

Farrware 1993
Genre: RPG
Rating: 2/6
Licence: Shareware
System: PC

It is very unusual for a relatively unsuccessful game like Ancients I to have a sequel. Ancients II: Approaching Evil simply increases the scope of the original game, but offers little else.

Ancients II is a shareware first-person roleplaying game, where you take charge of a group of adventurers and travel the land, vanquishing the monsters. As is the case with the first part, I could not find a coherent story or the ultimate goal in this game. It is as if the designers were creating only a demo for a game engine and forgot to fill in a story. Or maybe the engine did not allow a quest system. Either way, the lack of the story makes the game very repetitive and boring.

Dreamforge 1995
Genre: RPG
Rating: 3/6
Licence: Commercial
System: PC

This is a little dungeon crawler where you embark on a quest, as usual. A quest for what you say? A quest for something big to help against the invading evil warlord. It’s the usual deal: you get a weapon, a few spells and many enemies to kill and corridors to crawl around, only this time it occupies a CD.

Palace Software 1987
Genre: Action
Rating: 2/6
Licence: Commercial
System: C64

To get the story over with: Evil wizard has captured the princess, oily muscleman carrying a huge sword tries to free her by first confronting the sorcerer's soldiers and then the evil master himself.

Various 2004
Genre: Strategy, RPG
Rating: 5/6
Licence: Freeware
System: PC

Even people who don't really follow the development in this 'scene' will know that there are countless 'open source game projects' floating around the Internet. Many of them remakes of classic concepts, some highly original. Most are nowhere near a finished state. What you can see on their homepages is usually a 'roadmap' outlining what still needs to be done (pretty much everything), and a few early screenshots. Sometimes, you can even download some kind of 'alpha engine' which doesn't really do anything so far. Experience tells that more than 90% of these projects are abandoned before they've achieved anything.

Image Works 1991
Genre: Action
Rating: 4/6
Licence: Commercial
System: Amiga

When a game takes more than two years after the announcement to be released, it usually means something. Gamers who are waiting for the game to come out get pissed off. And the publisher almost certainly has a good reason to hold the game back. What this reason was in the case of Blade Warrior is unknown.