Hooray! It's Postman Pat and his black and white cat! You get to drive around the twisty lanes of Greendale and deliver letters and parcels to the village folk – but Pat has to do more than that. Along the way, you'll have to get Miss Hubbard's prescription and round up Peter Fogg's sheep. It's a tough life being a postman! This game has 'cute' written all over it. It's wonderful, albeit rather easy. The graphics are bright and jolly, and you have to play the game just to listen to the excellently rendered theme tune.

See also: Postman Pat 2, Postman Pat 3.

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8

Pat's van has broken down so he has to deliver his letters on foot. He's going to need some refreshment along the way, though, so you must make sure Pat doesn't run out of tea. He can get more tea by performing errands for the local people of Greendale and finding things they've lost. Some things may be broken, though, so you'll have to find Ted the farmer to fix it. Watch out for the birds who might steal your letters! It's unfortunate, then, that this game is nowhere near as good as the original. The theme tune is only played once, right at the start of the game, there are few sound effects, and the dull, monochrome graphics give the impression that it's going to rain at any time.

See also: Postman Pat, Postman Pat 3.

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5

In the last of the Postman Pat series of games, Pat takes to his van again to deliver some letters. Mind you, he's got to dodge all those roadworks, not to mention reckless nutters driving at 60mph and on the wrong side of the road. You'll also need to stop at the garage on each level to fill up the van with petrol. On the easy mode, all the hazards are in the same place and it's just a question of memorising when they occur. On the hard mode, things become more taxing. The graphics are colourful, but the tune isn't up to the same standard as the one in the original Postman Pat, and since the game moves as a rather slow pace, it's likely that interest will soon wane.

See also: Postman Pat, Postman Pat 2.

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6

When they are asleep, Potsworth the dog and his friends – Rosie, Nick, Carter and Keiko – become the Midnight Patrol and enter a dream world, but to stay there, the Grand Dozer must be asleep, and the Nightmare Prince is trying to wake him. The gang must find objects on each of the five levels and stop the Nightmare Prince. You control one of the characters on each level, and each character has different powers. As well as collecting objects, you also have to activate lifts by pushing heavy objects on to the appropriate buttons. The graphics are cute and colourful, and the music on the menu is a joy to listen to. Unfortunately the levels are very big and take a long time to complete, which makes the game rather tedious to play.

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7

Nimiane, the treacherous lady of the lake, has captured Merlin the magician. You play his son Gareth, and you must cross plains and forests to reach your father and rescue him. However, Nimiane has sent various warriors and demons that you must fight. As well as using your fists or a sword, you also have five types of offensive spell at your disposal which are more powerful than using physical weapons. If you lose all your energy, it may also be possible to resurrect yourself, if you have sufficient magic remaining. The graphics are very colourful and the sprites are huge – but the disadvantage is that the game moves quite slowly. It also doesn't help that the controls can be unresponsive and awkward, especially when you're trying to select a spell when there's a lot of action on the screen.

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5

Race a catamaran or a speedboat along five levels of action, dodging other speedboats, watching out for mines, and trying not to crash into the scenery! Your boat uses a lot of fuel, so you'll need to collect extra fuel regularly. You can also collect mines which you can use to blow up other boats, although it's not necessary to do this at all in order to complete the course; it merely allows you to obtain a few extra points. The first course is very easy indeed and is a simple introduction to the game, but it becomes a bit harder from the second level onwards. There's also a 'night level' in which you can only see part of the course at any one time. The graphics are very good indeed, although there's no music. Overall, though, this is a great little game.

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8

Choose from twelve wacky drivers, and rev through some stomach-churning circuits. Watch the dust fly and the wheels spin as you screech over a rollercoaster track and wave goodbye to your opponents. Roar over mounds of mud, drive through the desert, slip and slide on snow-covered tarmac and race your way through the night to face the final lap and take the chequered flag. Your choice of driver affects your sprite's look and a nice display shows your position by shifting the characters' portraits. It possesses nice, colourful sprites, pretty backgrounds, and some detailed scrolling landscapes and competent gameplay to boot; the tracks become exponentially trickier while you dodge your opponents. A better conversion than Sega's more famous Out Run.

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8

This is a mixture of a board game and a quiz game for between two and four players; unfortunately, the computer can't control any of them. Each player has four men, and they move them around the board and answer questions; which category depends on the colours of the tiles. If a man can answer enough questions correctly, he mutates into a monster and becomes more powerful, which is useful when you move on to the same tile as an opponent and challenge him. If you succeed, your opponent will lose some of his power, or disappear altogether! The aim is to eliminate all four of your opponent's men. The graphics are absolutely wonderful, although a game can go on for a really long time. There are four banks of questions, and you can also create your own if you wish. (The answer to the question in the screenshot is "November", by the way.)

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8

Cash-in from the highly tongue-in-cheek Schwarzenegger action film. Guide our musclebound hero Arnie through the American tropical jungle, shooting the never-ending number of guerillas, while avoiding getting killed by the Predator alien that has its sights firmly set upon you. Sadly the game isn't as half as amusing as the film itself and if anything is particularly tedious; as a rule of thumb, almost any Schwarzenegger film conversions (barring Terminator 2 perhaps) are well worth avoiding.

See also: Predator 2.

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3

The Predator is back, and this time he's come to Los Angeles, where there is a battle between rival drugs gangs. Out to get all of them is Lieutenant Mike Harrigan, which you control in this dull shoot-'em-up. As the screen scrolls horizontally (and very slowly), you must aim your crosshairs and shoot all of the gunmen before they fire on you and drain your energy. The gunmen leave behind ammunition which you will need to pick up, as you will use a huge amount of it during the game! You can also collect better guns and energy packs, but avoid shooting the Predator and any innocent bystanders. The slow scrolling is the main reason why the game is poor, but the graphics are messy, and the sound effects are both minimal and awful.

See also: Predator.

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