Shiver me timbers, ye hearties, hoist the Jolly Roger with a yo ho ho and a bottle of rum [if you're that way inclined - Ed]. The compilation kicks off with Skull And Crossbones, a game that scored 81% in issue 73. But is it still worth your pieces of eight?

Phil and Stu deserve a black spot for giving such a high mark to this load of tosh [Fancy walking the plank? - Ed]. It's just a button-basher, with no skill or tactics whatsoever! Stand in front of a baddie, keep hitting the fire button until he dies, find the next baddie, stand in front of him, etc, etc. If he approaches from behind, you have to swing your sword backwards - you can't even turn round and face him!

The sprites are fairly well drawn and look the part when fighting, but the backgrounds are disgusting! Blocky, unimaginative, and the pukey colour scheme has you searching out those Blues Brothers sun-glasses you bought on holiday last year, just before they went out of fashion. Skull And Crossbones's slow, boring gameplay makes you want to throw your C64 overboard. Arguably one of the better games on TNT II, but only 'cos the rest are so dire!

It's the 21st century, and the world leaders seem to have lost their marbles!

Not only have they allowed a terrorist called The Shadow to take control of the skies and seas, but when an important package needs transporting through territory held by the baddies, who do you think they send? An army? A fleet of warships with a fighter escort? Postman Pat? No, just you! Either the package wasn't so important after all, or your boss found out about the incident with his wife, a garden hose, and the jelly baby at last year's Christmas party and wants you killed!

Unfortunately the game's just as bad as the plot, but you won't be laughing. Although set on a river, no attempt has been made to create a water effect - it's just like playing Roadblasters on a blue track! The graphics are awful - the river is just a solid strip of blue, the scenery blocky and boring, and the sprites are so poorly defined it's hard to tell the baddies from the power-ups! Also the game is cursed by a horrific multi-load that has you returning to your tape deck every few minutes - even presentation screens are multi-loaded!

Corky said if you remove the word "lands" from the title, you get a fair description of the game. Me, I'm not so sure.

A multi-player overhead-view racing game, Badlands is basically a Super Sprint clone, even down to the spanner powerups. The only attempt at updating gameplay is the car-mounted cannons to temporarily slow down opponents.

Control is via standard left/right rotation, with the fire button as an accelerator. This is always awkward until you get the hang of it, though Badlands handles far better than many Super Sprint variants. The game lets itself down badly in the graphics department though - dull, boring backgrounds and poorly defined sprites. The sound is nothing to write home about either.

Badlands pales next to the brilliant Iron Man, but isn't *too* disastrous. The 41% scored in issue 68 seems harsh.

Is this the worst coin-op conversion ever? It was great in the arcades, with sooo much character and atmosphere! Trouble was, it featured one of those space-consuming sit-on cabinets, so few arcades bothered to stock it.

The C64 version is a disaster. The main sprite looks like a curling stone with water wings, and the tunnel effects give no feeling of speed, or even movement - the screen looks more like a backdrop from a badly filmed Sixties rock concert than a computer game. Playing it for more than a few minutes makes you feel physically sick.

STUN Runner is a dire game that should never have re-emerged on compilation. Scoring an overgenerous 48% in issue 70, the only consolation for C64 owners is that the Speccy version was even worse!

With its B-movie plot and ridiculously long title, Escape is one weird game. The reptilions have invaded 'Synthetic Industrial Planetoid X' and enslaved the human inhabitants, forcing them to build robots tor the planned invasion of earth. Your task is to shoot them and rescue the humans.

An eight-way movement shoot-'em-up in the Commando mould, Escape plays fairly well. The small sprites are suited to the gameplay, even if some of the robots do look like the Weetabix Proper Breakfast Crew.

Scoring 68% in issue 62, the gameplay has really dated since then, well executed but too samey to hold your attention for long.

TNT II comes highly recommended to programmers who want an example of how not to write computer games! Ordinary gameplayers should avoid it.