Quite an unusual football game, this one, as it is split into two sections – an adventure-style game and an arcade 5-a-side soccer match. As Roy Race, you must rescue the other members of your football team, Melchester Rovers, who have all been kidnapped. You scamper around the town to find as many members of your team as you can before the 7:30pm kick-off of a vital fundraising match; the number of team members you find is how many you will play with in the match. You can play both sections or just the football match. I found the football match to be ridiculously hard as the player selection is rather frustrating. On a funny note, I think it's the only CPC football game with no throw-ins, as the ball bounces off when it should be a throw-in! Graphically it's nothing special, and the actual gameplay is quite poor as well.

More information on CPCSOFTS

6

Easter Egg writes its letters with gold on the CPC scene, delivering this outstanding remake of one of the most legendary shoot-'em-ups of the 1980s. The game is not just an enhancement of the previous Spectrum port, but a brand new game. The game starts with a fantastic cinematographic introduction along with an atmospheric tune. The graphics are fantastic, with precise colour selection, excellent sprite design and effects, while the scrolling is very good. Everything moves smoothly and fast. There are plenty of sound effects and the music changes from level to level. The gameplay is fast-paced and the game is challenging. Collision detection has also improved. The grab factor is very high. Overall, a state of the art CPC experience.

See also: R-Type (Electric Dreams).

More information on CPCSOFTS

10

Lead mankind's fight against the evil Bydo Empire in this conversion of the greatest side-scrolling shoot-'em-up of all time from Irem Corporation. Fly the elite R-9 fighter destroying all manner of weird alien creatures using the variety of power-ups available at your disposal, including the all-important special weapon – The Force. Often imitated, R-Type redefined the genre when it was released with its faultless gameplay. Sadly, this is probably the worst conversion of all, as the graphics are clearly ported from the Spectrum and there's no sound to speak of.

See also: R-Type (Easter Egg).

More information on CPCSOFTS

6

Ruff and Reddy have landed on another planet which is inhabited by small beings called Lilli-Punies. They are holding Reddy captive and have ordered Ruff to find some missing Lilli-Punies before the pair are allowed to leave the planet. As Ruff, you have to rescue all the Lilli-Punies on each level. It's a simple platform game with the usual mix of monsters to avoid. Unfortunately you can't kill any of them, which makes the game frustratingly difficult to play. Some of the Lilli-Punies are in awkward places, and it's seemingly impossible to reach them without being hit by a monster and losing one of your three lives. The graphics are nice and colourful, but the difficulty of the game lets it down.

More information on CPCSOFTS

4

Can you manage a Division 2 rugby team and take it to the top of Division 1? This management simulation sees you assuming responsibility of a team picked at random from the twenty available, which seems rather unfair to me; why should I not be allowed to choose which team I want to manage? The game itself doesn't have a lot of options – all the players have just one skill number associated with them, and can play in any position – although some people (including myself) may think that this is not a bad thing. The match highlights progress at a reasonable pace, and you must be careful with your finances; you can't get a loan, so if you run out of cash, you're sacked. It's text only as well, but that doesn't bother me too much, and speaking as someone who doesn't like rugby at all, I don't think this game is too bad.

More information on CPCSOFTS

6

There aren't many running simulations for the CPC, but this is one, and it's actually rather good. You take on the role of a coach who trains two runners. Your ambitions are to get these runners to win Olympic gold medals and break the world record in the 400m, 800m and 1500m events – but who said this was going to be easy, with 39 other runners sharing your aspirations? You start off by running in local meetings, then hopefully you will qualify for Crystal Palace, the European Championships, the World Championships, and finally, the Olympics. Fortunately, this does not involve lots of joystick waggling (and breaking); instead, you must pace the runners by moving a bar up and down, so that they have sufficient energy to last throughout the run. It works quite well, and the animation and graphics are really good too.

More information on CPCSOFTS

7

In 2019, the United States of America is a totalitarian state. Ben Richards was convicted for refusing to fire on a group of protesters and has been selected to take part in a deadly TV game show, The Running Man, where contestants must fight a series of armed opponents known as Stalkers – and no contestant has ever emerged alive. You must defeat four Stalkers and then confront the show's creator, Damon Killian. Once you defeat a Stalker, there is a mini-game where you must match symbols; if you succeed, your health is restored for the next zone. Most of the Stalkers are fairly easy to beat, and there are no other opponents to fight before you reach them. The graphics are disappointing and there are very few sound effects, but arguably the worst aspect of the game is the annoyingly fiddly and unresponsive controls.

More information on CPCSOFTS

3

Run the Gauntlet
(Ocean, 1989)

In the TV series, contestants from four teams faced gruelling land and sea challenges and assault courses, and it's the same here. After choosing which country you want to be (Great Britain, the USA, Holland or Australasia), you're given a random selection of events to tackle. In the land and sea races, it's a matter of steering your boat or vehicle round the track, but the assault course (also known as 'the hill') is an arm-busting, joystick-waggling frenzy. It's a nice game, although some events (e.g. meteors) will take time to be mastered. The graphics are great as well.

More information on CPCSOFTS

8

Rygar is on a mission to defeat an evil tyranny, battling through ten stages in this horizontally scrolling platform game. All the usual assortment of aliens and monsters are there, and most of them can fly. However, you'll have to jump over waterfalls and chasms a lot as well, although it is possible to bounce on monsters' heads. Stones also appear out of the ground, and shooting them will reveal one of several types of bonus. The graphics are pretty good although they're not terribly sophisticated, and during each stage, there's no time to relax at all – but fortunately, the game isn't all that difficult. And as for the music, it's also excellent, and strangely familiar...

More information on CPCSOFTS

8