Toobin'
(Domark/Tengen, 1989)

Biff and Jet are the Tube Dudes, preparing to go toobin' down the rapids in their inflatable tubes. The game can be played by one or two players, and the journey takes you through many different types of scenery. Of course, there are the usual assortment of enemies on the banks of the river which you must avoid, but you can also throw beer cans at them. You've got a very limited number of them, although more cans can be found along the river. Other obstacles include branches and logs which will burst your tube – and if you're too slow, the alligator will catch you! This is a reasonably good game, especially with two players; the music is absolutely marvellous, but the graphics could have been a lot better – and don't play the game using the keyboard!

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Top Cat
(Hi-Tec, 1991)

Top Cat has offered Benny the Ball to a wealthy millionairess, but when she dies, her butler realises he can get the money if he can get rid of Benny. Top Cat decides to thwart the butler's plan. This is a game with three parts. The first part is set in the alleys, where TC (as he's also known) finds the four gang members and has to get past the dog guarding the exit. The second part is set in a leafy residential area, and you must find a way to get past Officer Dibble, before entering the mansion and finding and rescuing Benny. Like most of Hi-Tec's games, the graphics are colourful, although there are few sound effects. The playing area is quite big, so making a map will be helpful, but the game is hardly exciting and action-packed.

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Strap yourself into the seat of an F-14 Tomcat fighter jet and fly into the danger zone! Your aim on each mission is to destroy three enemy fighters in a straightforward dogfight. Initially, this is relatively easy, but on subsequent missions, the enemy fighters become more manoeuvrable and will use their missiles against you. The game is a mixture of a flight simulator and a shoot-'em-up, but it lacks some of the necessary elements of both genres. As a flight simulation, the vector graphics are impressive and fast, but that's because there's no scenery at all! As a shoot-'em-up, there's very little variety, as each mission has exactly the same aim as the previous ones. The two-player game may offer more long-term enjoyment, but the one-player game won't.

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It's 1930, and in two hours' time there will be a total eclipse, bringing about the effects of an ancient curse which will annihilate the Earth. You have to reach the top of a pyramid and destroy the statue there before the eclipse. This is one of the Freescape games and the 'true' 3D is quite impressive. Making a map of the pyramid is quite difficult, though! There isn't much sound – mainly gunshots and the constant beat of your heart – but it seems to make the tension that bit more realistic.

See also: Total Eclipse II: The Sphinx Jinx.

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Total Eclipse II: The Sphinx Jinx
(Incentive, 1989)

There's going to be another total eclipse soon! Twelve parts of the Sphinx have gone missing somewhere in the catacombs, and you have only one hour to find them. The gameplay, graphics and sound effects are all much the same as the original game, although there are a few new puzzles; try fathoming your way through the Jinx section, for instance! This game was originally only available as a bundle with Total Eclipse through the Home Computer Club, and it would be just as good as the original, but for one incredibly stupid room which contains an invisible maze, which is just impossible. You'll still have fun with the rest of the game, though.

See also: Total Eclipse.

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Total Recall
(Ocean, 1991)

Doug Quaid isn't sure who he really is, and after visiting a company called Rekall Incorporated which can implant memories into people, he goes to Mars to discover his true identity. The game consists of five levels which are based on the film of the same name. Three of them are platform games which also contain puzzles, where you must flick the correct switches to gain access to some areas. There are also some men (armed and unarmed) which you must kill. The other two levels are driving games with a shoot-'em-up element. The graphics are very good, particularly on the platform levels, and the two pieces of music are simply wonderful. However, the gameplay is rather difficult for my liking, particularly on the second level.

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This game is a version of the Sega classic Columns with a distinctly Egyptian theme. Columns of three blocks, each engraved with a symbol, fall from the top of the screen, and you must create horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines of three or more matching symbols. It's a simple concept which is quite similar to Tetris. The graphics are beautifully drawn using the CPC's four-colour mode, and several playing modes are included – classical, stage mode (achieve a score within a set time limit), time attack (score as many points as possible within three minutes), and a two-player 'versus' mode. This is an excellent game and is much better than ESP Soft's previous version of Columns.

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There are a lot of snooker simulators for the CPC and this is one of the earlier ones, which was later re-released by Codemasters as Professional Snooker Simulator. The first thing you'll notice about it is that it's in four colours, which is a bit strange when you need at least eight. Even though it says which ball is which on the screen, it is still confusing, and not only that, the method of aiming is awkward; instead of pointing a cursor at your target ball, you must rotate the cue about the white ball, and the strange controls make this tricky to get right. From all of this, you'd think there wasn't much reason to rate this game – and you'd be absolutely right.

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Take part in a cycling race held over four stages, and try to amass the shortest time possible over all the stages. The first and last stages are viewed from the side and require a lot of joystick waggling to build up and maintain your speed, while the second and third stages are viewed from overhead, and don't require any joystick waggling. You have to finish within the top six to go to the next stage, although a training mode is also available. The graphics are brilliant and really colourful – I like the animation of the crowd cheering the cyclists – and there's a jolly tune to accompany all of the action if you have 128K of memory. You don't have to waggle the joystick really hard, though, and all in all, the game is good fun.

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Based on Konami's 1983 coin-op game, the Amstrad CPC version by Ocean was released as part of their Game, Set and Match 2 compilation and comprises six sporting events to compete in – the 100-metre dash, the javelin, the long jump, the 110-metre hurdles, hammer throwing and the high jump. You can start at an easy level and progress through the events rather smoothly, hurdles probably being the hardest of the lot. Every time you reach a new world record, you are rewarded with it being shown up in lights. The qualifying times or distances are very reachable and when you complete all six events you start back at the first event and the qualifying times and distances become more challenging. I quite enjoyed playing the CPC version; the only problem is that it's one of those infuriating joystick waggling type of games.

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