This game was an attempt to recreate the flavour of good old adventures, but adding better gameplay and some fine details. The plot is simple – recover the sacred sword to your tribe (by the way, the English translation of the game's name is 'the sacred sword'). La Espada Sagrada is divided into three stages. The first two are 100% pure adventure. The third one is a jump and shoot arcade game, which is less amusing than the other stages. There's little more I can say; the graphics are good and so is the sound. Give it a try and you'll have fun for a long time.

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Play against other European football teams in this abysmal game. You can play against a friend or the computer, but unfortunately the computer is very good, even on the easiest skill level, and your players are very difficult to control. There are very few options that can be modified; the matches always last 15 minutes, and it seems to make no difference what team you choose to play against. The graphics are absolutely horrible, although the loading screen is rather good. Finally, there is some mediocre music on the menu, but the main game features no sound effects at all! This is one of the worst football games on the CPC, and should be avoided.

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The FA may not be at all keen on the idea of a breakaway European superleague, but this game will give you a little taster. You can choose one of eight teams from Europe, and there are three difficulty levels, too. All the usual management options are there – training, transfer markets and scouting, and there's an excellent choice of match tactics you can look at. The graphics vary throughout the game, from the garish choice of colours of your office to the beautiful cartoons as your team tries to score goals in the matches. You should also listen out for the 'phone ringing – it's so realistic! Overall, this is actually one of the better football management games on the CPC.

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Everyone's a Wally
(Mikro-Gen, 1985)

Wally and his friends (Wilma, Tom, Dick and Harry) have to open the safe by collecting the five letters of the combination – but to do this, they have to earn some money performing various tasks around the town, and their wages are in the safe. You'll have to work out by trial and error which characters to use for each task, which objects should be used, and what the tasks actually are. To help you out, Wally is the odd job man, Wilma is Wally's partner, Tom is the mechanic, Dick is the plumber, and Harry is the electrician. The graphics are nice and the characters are really well drawn; it's quite funny to see them walk! The little tune at the start of the game is great as well, and the game is actually a rather nice challenge.

See also: Pyjamarama, Three Weeks in Paradise.

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Remember this quiz show from the 80s, which was hosted by the magician Paul Daniels? The show consists of five rounds, all of which are based on general knowledge questions, although in three of the five rounds, you are allowed to choose from a selection of categories. The points you win in the first four rounds represent the amount of time you get in the fifth and final round, hence the name of the quiz. Unfortunately, each game can be very short indeed, since if you get a single answer wrong in the first or third rounds, you're not allowed to answer any more questions. The graphics and music are quite good and the game is well presented, but I can't see myself coming back to play it again, and it's not a game you can really play on your own.

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A sorcerer known as Elric has cast an evil spell over the realm of Sir Frondebeuf. The only way to restore normality to the land is to collect several phials which can be found within the Evil Keep (or Evil Donjon if you're French). This is a simple platform game in which you must collect the phials on each level while avoiding the monsters. They always try to close in on you, but after a few goes, you can learn how to use this to your advantage. You can dig holes in some of the platforms to kill some of the monsters temporarily and retrieve any phials which they may have picked up. The graphics are very good indeed, and I love the chimes of the bells! However, there isn't much room on the screen to avoid the monsters, and digging holes can often be a bit awkward.

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EXIT
(Ubi Soft, 1988)

Your spaceship has crashed on a strange planet, and in order to leave, you must repair it. You will also have to find several golden objects, and for some reason, these are obtained by playing a rather nice shoot-'em-up sub-game in which you must shoot all the blue bricks without shooting any of the red bricks. Then there is a sage who must be found, and there are a lot of other puzzles to solve... The graphics are really beautiful and colourful, but there is no text to accompany any of the locations or the objects, so it's often very hard to know what you're supposed to do with the objects you can collect. Another big problem is that the locations are linked together in an extremely confusing and illogical manner, so that you become disoriented really easily.

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Exolon
(Hewson, 1987)

This is one of the classic shoot-'em-ups on the CPC. You are Vitorc and have to blast through five levels consisting of 25 screens where you walk from left to right. You'll encounter all sorts of guns, rockets and other strange monsters as you try to shoot them all, although you can use some of your grenades to shift the bigger ones. The graphics are amazing, but this is offset by the game being a bit too tough; you'll definitely need all of the nine lives that you are given! It's still a very good game, though.

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Text adventures are rarely as surreal and bizarre as this one. What exactly is the Experience? You start the game trapped in an attic with no exits, and the entire game takes place within this single room. A text adventure with only one room, I hear you say? Yes, it's true! In the attic are a few random items on the floor, a headless tailor's dummy, a wardrobe and a bed. What do you do? Well, you can examine the items closely, but they are nearly all useless. In fact, it is possible to complete this GAC-created adventure in just five turns! The author is clearly insane, and while it's, er, different from most other text adventures, it's certainly not going to offer a lot of enjoyment.

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Fancy a game of Breakout – but with a playing area that's bigger than the screen? That's what you get here. The usual fare is present, although there are only four types of bonuses to collect. You also have to keep track of the ball at all times – it may well go off the screen. The graphics are very impressive and the scrolling stars are a nice effect, but the game is slow, and unless you have rockets (one of the collectable bonuses), it'll take aeons to complete a level.

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