A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

	Altered Beast (Activision, 1989) Reviewed by Javier Sáez The master of all Gods, Zeus, commands you to rise from your grave and rescue his daughter. How could you refuse? After all, Zeus will send you some power-ups to increase your fighting abilities. Whenever you collect a few of them, your character will turn into a beast – either a werewolf or a dragon, depending on which level you are playing. This is quite a bad coin-op conversion. You'll see graphics close to the original game, although the sprites lack definition. Apart from that, your character moves slowly, the scrolling is awful and hitting the enemies requires patience most of the time. There's a tune playing throughout the game, but it doesn't improve the overall impression of it. More information on CPCSOFTS 4
	Alternative World Games (Gremlin, 1987) Reviewed by Pug Eight wacky world events await you in this game – a sack race, plate balancing, river jumping, boot throwing, pole climbing, running up a wall, pillow fighting, and last but not least – pogo. Each event can be practiced, and believe me, if you want to get anywhere with this one, you'd better do that. The controls for each game are different, sluggish and add a high degree of confusion. The graphics are very detailed with good animation, but the rate at which everything moves, mixed with the hard to understand controls, just ruins everything. More information on CPCSOFTS 3
	Amaurote (Mastertronic, 1987) The city of Amaurote has been invaded by a plague of giant insects, but instead of getting out a can of fly killer, you have to eradicate them by using bouncing bombs – and with 25 districts of the city to clear, that's some task. The first thing you should try to do is destroy the Queen insect with a Supa Bomb. The isometric view is impressive, but the use of bouncing bombs makes it very difficult to aim them at the insects, and you can't unleash another one until the first has exploded. The game is too difficult and takes much too long to play, but the music is arguably the best of any CPC game! More information on CPCSOFTS 3
	AMC (Dinamic, 1989) You're the best marine in the Astro Marine Corps, and you've been sent to the planet Dendar to rescue some of your fellow marines. Dendar is host to all manner of horrible monsters and robots, but fortunately you're armed with a huge gun that'll sort most of them out, and you've got a supply of grenades too. There is also a healthy range of power-ups to collect. In short, it's your usual sci-fi shoot-'em-up, but this one is good. The graphics are absolutely luscious, the scrolling is fast, and the explosions when you kill monsters are great. It would get a higher mark if the levels were shorter. More information on CPCSOFTS 8
	Amélie Minuit (ERE Informatique, 1985) Reviewed by Guillaume Chalard Amélie is a young woman who works in a skyscraper. She figures out that she has forgotten an important file and decides to return to her office. But it's 11pm and she's got only one hour to find it. At midnight, the building will be closed and the power turned off. There are 29 floors and 224 rooms to explore, and the lift randomly stops, wasting precious time. Amélie must find her glasses, keys, and other items to reach her goal. Now, I doubt you'll have the patience to help her. The graphics are dull; every room looks like the previous one. Amélie looks like she's made of matches and even at the fastest speed, the game is desperately slow. To make things even worse, you have to be exactly in front of a door to open it – and there are 336 doors to open! More information on CPCSOFTS 3
	American Turbo King (Mastertronic, 1989) Drive your car around six obstacle courses while avoiding other cars, as well as the bombs that are dropped by 'planes and helicopters. You'll have to memorise each course thoroughly – if you don't, you'll probably reach a dead end and have to reverse your car, which costs so much time that you'll have to start again anyway. The graphics are average and while the tune is excellent, there are hardly any sound effects, and your car is totally silent. It's quite a slow game as well and not really worth bothering with. More information on CPCSOFTS 4
	Amsgolf (Amsoft, 1984) Reviewed by Pug After the traditional Amsoft loading screen you are presented with a very bland-looking display. Instructions are offered and it's vital that you read them to learn how the game works. When you're ready to play, you're asked for your handicap, which also requires a password. Simply put, Amsgolf asks the player which club to use, the direction to aim the ball, and then the strength of your swing. After pressing the appropriate keys the action begins. A line is drawn that indicates the direction and destination of your ball, with redefined characters representing the scenery. Each screen or hole is simply another mish-mash of drab-looking hazards with pointless audio. It's a game that you'll try once and never touch again. More information on CPCSOFTS 1
	Amsoccer (IJK, 1986) Amstrad Rovers take on IJK United in the worst football game that has ever been released on the CPC. There are only four players in each team, and none of them can run fast enough to catch up with the ball, which bounces around the pitch like it's on ice; it doesn't have any friction at all! Every time the ball moves past the edge of the screen, you have to wait for several seconds while the screen scrolls to reveal the next section of the pitch. Scoring goals is more or less impossible, and the graphics and sound effects are abysmal. How on Earth such an awful game was ever released is beyond me. More information on CPCSOFTS 0
	Amstrad Shuffle (Alpha Omega, 1986) This is a collection of eight card games, with two separate parts containing four games each. The first part contains the traditional game of patience, where you arrange cards in columns in descending order and alternating suit colours, as well as clock patience (a bit boring), row patience (much more interesting), and pairs (a memory game). The second part contains the more complex games – carpet patience (much too easy), raglan patience (a much harder variant of traditional patience and very hard to get anywhere), sultan patience (which uses two packs of cards and is quite challenging), and blackjack. If you're familiar with patience, you should be able to learn the rules easily and enjoy some of the games a lot – I certainly did. More information on CPCSOFTS 7
	Anarchy (Rack It, 1988) Shoot all the blocks on each level whilst avoiding the monsters, and then when you've done that, find the exit block with an inability to fire! You also can't shoot blocks if you're next to them – you have to get a run at them, if you see what I mean. The graphics are a bit simple but they do the job, as do the sound effects and the music. It's still a good game to play with some tight time limits, although the keyboard controls are really awkward. More information on CPCSOFTS 7

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