A very nice text adventure,  Wednesday, 29 November 2006 I had completely forgotten about this game until I entered it into the site. I originally obtained the Atari ST version free when i purchased Dungeon Master for the Atari ST so probably wouldn't have played it had it not been the case.

Compared to Dungeon Master itself this was quite primative as it is basically a text adventure where you type commands and read the story. But they added some nice additional touches and interactivity to the game that made it more interesting than the standard text adventures of the time.

Much like many of the later Level 9 text adventures this adventure includes static images of each location and illustrations of key events and actions within the game. This always adds a lot to a text adventure and helps better realise the game world.

In addition to this there were many other nice touches and additions that other text adventures didn't contain. To begin it had an interactive map that filled itself in and plotted your journey as you progressed. You could also click locations on the map to quickly travel. The auto map feature was something sorely missed in many other adventure and RPGs of the time (including Dungeon Master), with players having to resort to graph page to manually map the levels as they went.

As well as the interactive map the game screen also included many other interactive elements. A compass that highlighted the directions you could travel so you didn't have to keep typing "go North", and instead just clicking the direction on the map to travel. And also Up/Down and In/Out indications with the image of a door so you could quickly tell the game to go through a door or up or down a ladder.

These interactive elements really helped to speed up the gameplay and made the whole experience much nicer. If you like text adventures then you will really like this game.

 Polished shooter,  Tuesday, 24 October 2006 Over the years hundreds of shoot 'em ups were released on the Amiga, many with brilliant gameplay and long lifespans. When Project X was released its graphics blew everyone away. They were of the high polished quality everyone had come to expect from Team 17, and the animation and game movement was smooth and looked amazing.

The gameplay wasn't quite as innovative as the graphics though. Whilst it was a really good side scrolling shooter it's format was very similar to many other games before it including the likes of R-Type. Its powerup system had also been seen before, whereby you collected powerups and each unused powerup would push you up to the next ability until you reached the one you wished to activate. I definitely prefer this system over ones where you just collect specific powerups a set points within the games levels.

The big problem with Project X was it's difficulty level. Many people found the game way too hard and never saw past even the first level as they gave up before they even reached that far. For more skilled gameers Project X was more enjoyable as it gave them a challenge, but for the rest it was just too hard.

Therefore I only gave it 6 for the gameplay as many will find it too hard to play very far and will give up. But it is worth learning the levels and progressing as the later levels look even more amazing than the first.

I also only have it 6 for the lifespan because, just like every other shoot 'em up, the gameplay is very linear and once completed it's unlikey you will want to play it right through again.

If you are a shoot em up fan you will really like this game. It's not quite up there with R-Type but the graphics and atmosphere, not to mention the great firepower once you have built up enough powerups is great. Great looking and polished shooter with some tough gameplay.

 Mixed Reaction,  Friday, 20 October 2006 This demo was widely known and most people who owned an Amiga had heard of this demo. It was due to its MTV like visuals and breakbeat soundtrack. And if you haven't ever watched a Demo then you would probably enjoy this.

For the rest of us, this demo isn't anything special. It's got some nicely done seemless transitions from one mod to the next, but the actual FX in this are nothing special and they have all been seem before.

So at best I would say this demo is average. It's also very long and starts to drag after the first couple of minutes.

 Real Time Strategy,  Thursday, 12 October 2006 Based on the books by Frank Herbert, Dune II is a real time strategy game set on the desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. Arrakis is a barren world populated by desert people known as Fremen and dangerous giant sandworms which can grow over 400 metres long, however, it is also home to the extremely valuable spice melange only found on Arrakis which can give people good health and an extremely long life. The Emperor has proposed a challenge to the houses. Whichever house produces the most spice will control Arrakis, and therefore the spice. Three houses arrive on Dune to take up the challenge, Atreides, Ordos and Harkonnen.

Dune II is the very first real time strategy game ever made and despite this, is still a lot of fun to play even 10 years after it was released. A few years ago, Westwood Studios released Dune 2000, it was basically an update of Dune 2 except for the obviously improved graphics and sound. Dune 2 plays basically the same as Command & Conquer, you build tanks, train infantry and build superweapons such as Harkonnen's Death Hand missile. To purchase these troops, like in Command & Conquer, you construct a refinery (or several to gain money quicker) and send the harvester out to a close-by spice field. There are however several differences in Dune 2. Firstly, the only place you can build structures are the few rocky areas inside the sand, secondly, before building anything you have to place concrete foundations on the rock or the structures will slowly deteriorate and be at half health when built.

Dune 2 is a lot of fun but being the first ever real time strategy game, it DOES have a few annoying problems, mostly with the game's controls. In Command & Conquer and Dune 2000, the available structures that can be built are located at the right side of the screen in a scrollable side bar, in Dune 2, they're not as easily accessable, when you build a structure it appears to the right when the Construction Yard is selected along with what percent its construction is at. To build another of the same structure, all you have to do is click it again when the Construction Yard is selected but in order to build a different structure, you have to enter a menu from the Construction Yard. The same happens with the Barracks and vehicle factories.

Controlling units is also a lot more awkward than with recent real time strategy games. Units must be selected one at a time rather than being able to drag a box around them. Also, in order to attack an enemy unit, Attack has to first be selected from a unit's command menu before clicking on an enemy. The same must be done for moving a unit. This can be very annoying and confusing at times but it doesn't take that long to get used to it and if you can't stand having to click Attack and Move all the time, there is an alternative, pressing the first letter of the command on the keyboard works like pressing the command on the menu and is a lot quicker when ordering several units to attack.

The missions involve typical RTS objectives such as destroying enemy bases. For the first 2 or 3 missions, you just have to collect a certain amount of spice, sometimes with an enemy base in the area. But, as with Dune 2000 and Dune 3, after a mission you're shown a territorial map of Arrakis and can choose what area to attack next which seems to make the game less linear.

Review by SeanIRL

 Wings Of Fury - World War II Flight Game,  Monday, 09 October 2006 Wings Of Fury is a World War II flight game where you control an F6F Hellcat aboard the heavily damaged aircraft carrier the USS Wasp. It's set in the Pacific theatre, and the missions involve bombing Japanese islands, shooting down enemy planes and torpedoing enemy ships. Your plane has 3 different weapons, bombs, rockets and torpedos, to change your weapon and repair your plane you have to land on the carrier. The plane also has a front machine gun which can be used to shoot down enemy planes or mow down fleeing enemies. The 3 weapons all have different uses, bombs are the best for destroying enemy buildings and killing fleeing troops, ships can only be destroyed with torpedos and rockets are the only way to destroy concrete pillboxes besides ramming them with the plane.

It's always fun to play Wings Of Fury if you're bored and it never really gets old, despite the repetitive gameplay. The hardest thing to do is shooting down enemy planes, as soon as you turn, they turn which makes it difficult to get behind them, and if you start shooting at them they'll turn and get behind you but it's fun when you actually do manage to shoot one down, and if you can't you can just begin to turn and then don't and the enemy plane turns anyway which can be a useful thing to remember when being attacked. One of my favourite things about the game is its sound, especially the funny screams from the enemy when you're mowing them all down with the plane's gun and the music at the title screen is cool.

Review by SeanIRL