Glider Rider
(Quicksilva, 1986)

The Abraxas Corporation has created a very heavily fortified artifical island. Your mission is to bomb ten nuclear reactors on the island within half an hour. Initially, you use a motorbike to get around, but by running down a slope, it's possible to change to a hang-glider and bomb the reactors. However, they're heavily guarded by lasers; running into pylons will confuse them for a while, though. The graphics are in dull monochrome and I think it's too difficult; the lasers drain your energy very rapidly if they shoot you, and there's nowhere to replenish it. In fact, this game is more famous for its music, which is excellent – if you haven't heard it, then listen to it now!

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Gliece Security is a very interesting puzzle game in which you have to match the proper coloured keys to their corresponding locks. Sounds easy? Well, it isn't. This mind-boggling game requires precision and patience to be completed. The game begins with a well drawn image. The graphics are basic and not too detailed. A nice tune plays throughout the game, but there are no sound effects. The gameplay is challenging, interesting and addictive. There is definitely a very strong grab factor. The CPC has great puzzle games and this is no exception. Overall, a fine piece of art and a must for puzzle game lovers. For the rest of you, just make sure you try it at least once.

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G-LOC stands for "loss of consciousness through G-force", which is what pilots can experience when performing manoeuvres in fighter jets. Taking the controls of one such jet, you must simply destroy as many enemy 'planes as you can. Your jet is armed with twin cannons and a limited supply of missiles. The action is non-stop as enemy formations approach you from in front and behind, and you will need to dodge their fire by rolling your jet in a 360° spin. However, there are only two types of enemy in the entire game, there is no scenery, and the gameplay soon becomes a little repetitive. Considering that this game requires 128K of memory, I expected a bit more from it.

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7

Ingrid Bottomlow has returned from her studies at the Institute of Gnome Economics to her family's home, Gnettlefield Farm. However, in her efforts to apply her new knowledge, she causes chaos, and the family banish her using a magic scroll – which is not very nice! Can you help Ingrid find her way back to Gnettlefield Farm? This is a three-part text adventure which contains lots of humour and gnome-like spelling – for instance, changing 'north' into 'gnorth'. Many of the locations in all three parts are very similar to each other, which reflects badly on the game as a whole. The pictures are very nice indeed, but the first part is lacklustre and only uses one picture. Once you've completed it, you'll find the other two parts to be rather better.

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Somewhere deep within the forest lies an old castle that is rumoured to contain vast amounts of gold and jewels. Many adventurers have set off in search of the castle and never found it. Those who did find it were never seen again. Goblin Towers is a short text adventure that's better suited for beginners. The game world isn't too large with location descriptions that are mostly brief. There are some intense battles though – so it may take many sword commands to slay your foes! The adventure does offer a small collection of puzzles that you will soon solve without much difficulty. So, if you're a novice to text adventuring, Goblin Towers is a good place to start.

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5

A strange creature called Gogly needs to collect keys in order to unlock doors. This moves him to the next screen. Each screen becomes more maze-like, while bouncing projectiles aim to hinder your progress. This is a hard game that sends you back to the beginning each time you die! The graphics are colourful and well drawn with some good sound effects included.

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5

Golden Axe
(Virgin, 1990)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

Free the King and Princess who are being held by your nemesis Death Adder in his castle. Play as either Ax Battler the Barbarian, Tyris Flare the Amazon or Gilius Thunderhead the Dwarf and take your revenge as you hack and slash your way past his evil servants and guardians who block your path. As well as a variety of mean moves, each individual character has his or her own exclusive elemental magic that varies in strength. This is an excellent and faithful conversion of the arcade hit with some of the best graphics ever on the CPC.

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You are a Buddhist monk in the Orient, who must achieve enlightenment by lighting incense before the statue of Buddha in a golden temple. Your journey starts with you as a young monk, and as the game progresses, you become older, eventually dying at the age of 100. The game sees you meeting various characters who may be friendly or hostile. You will find objects – but one of the big problems with the game is that I simply could not figure out how to make use of any of them! Another problem is that it accesses the disc all the time and this slows everything down a lot. The backgrounds for each room are well drawn, but a potentially interesting game is ruined by poor design and implementation.

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2

This general knowledge quiz emulates the final round of the popular TV game show Blockbusters. This in itself is a little odd; why offer the player only the final round? Game-wise, it more or less matches the TV show's challenge but it does feel incomplete without the first and second rounds of the game. Good typing skills are required to overcome the harsh time limit on some of the harder difficulty levels – one spelling mistake and you've lost a section of the grid. A very poor offering from Macsen.

See also: Blockbusters (Macsen).

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Fly your spaceship along a long corridor, shooting the obstacles and hazards in your way. Once you've reached the end of the corridor, you fly along another one. The corridor sections are viewed in isometric 3D reminiscent of the classic coin-op game Zaxxon. If you can complete both corridors, you then play a short section viewed through the cockpit of your spaceship, in which you must shoot aliens as they fly erratically towards you. The graphics are colourful, but there is a lot of flicker and the action is a bit slow, which makes the game too easy and repetitive, and therefore not much of a challenge.

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