It's readily available, it's incredibly cheap, it's damned fast and it looks great in a dinner jacket. Simon takes a look at another selection of funky EDOS games.

Welcome to the start of a new series. Here we'll be reviewing all the games to be found on the EDOS system. You'll find these machines in your local John Menzies (or other similar stores). For details of your nearest shop, phone 0782 566566.

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The standard practice here would be to start slagging off Dizzy, continue with a few personal attacks on the Oliver twins, bundle it all in a magazine, and sell it to you for 3.95. Maybe I don't want to rip you off.

When Dizzy first came out, it received a fairly reasonable response - it was a flick-screen puzzle game involving the player as an egg wandering round this odd egg joke orientated world, solving various puzzles and things, and trying to defeat the evil wizard Zaks. It was fun (a thousand reviewers gasp at the blasphemy!). What wasn't fun was Treasure Island Dizzy, the sequel, which boasted identical gameplay, as did the many thousands of other Dizzy games to follow that. If you're only planning to play one Dizzy game ever, make sure it's the original - it didn't rely on the general egg hype to get itself sold, and actually has some elements of original gameplay in there. 75%

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It's all very well to get excited over Street Fighter 2, but it's boring, and you're sad. Probably the best new wave beat-'em-up to hit the arcades in years past was Double Dragon - the two player arcade game enabled players to kill, maim and disfigure bad guys with a nice selection of bars, chains, barrels, oil drums and just about anything else that came to hand, until finally they get round to rescuing the princess they're been battling for.

At this point the two players proceed to kick the crap out of each other to determine who gets the girl, and who gets the floor. But then, life's like that. 85%

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It's another Spanish Dinamic game, and what would you know - it's difficult. At least it follows the theme, then. Just like every other Spanish game, it involves lots of lovely chrome-coloured graphics, and a blokey travelling, for most of the time, from left to right, killing things.

The second part involves a slightly more complex theme - I can exclusively reveal this brand new playing tip to the world - to defeat the baddies you have to travel from left to right.

I think it must just be me - it'd be unimaginable that anyone would release what seemed like at least a thousand identical games that all play in the same way - why would anyone want to do that? It's not as if they vary at all - why couldn't they do anything else?

The Dinamic game, then, is nob. It's too difficult too soon (there's nothing wrong with difficulty, it's just got to increase gradually), and it's no fun. 40%

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Oh wow - it's an original Oliver twins game, and to prove they do have a fibre of originality between the two of them, this one's got quite a nice gameplay style. Unlike most Codies games, this platform romp needs two players, one of whom controls the blokey who spends his time jumping around a set of platforms, while the second player moves the gun sights around the screen, gunning down anything that might be posing a problem.

As far as the Codemasters are concerned, this has to be one of the more playable (and definitely more original) titles in their collection, so I'd advise you to get hold of a copy not only because it's good fun, but also because the odds are you won't have anything all that similar in your collection already. 75%

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They're original games, there are unoriginal games, and there are games that become original by combining two older gameplay styles. Glider Rider is definitely a good example of what happens when you start melting other games together. You play the part of a blokey on his bike, zooming around an isometric enemy island, with the intention of blowing up a series of reactors placed on said island. The fun really begins, though, when you get your chap to unpack his portable hang-glider, and fly around bombing things, avoiding gun towers (which, funnily enough, don't like you bombing them) and generally making a nuisance of yourself. If you want a game with a strong, original idea behind it, this is a definite buy, but the fun factor does tend to wear off after a while. 70%

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It's Spanish. You fly around. Yay.

That's right, folks - in an attempt to break away from the standard Dinamic "bloke runs from left-to-right shooting things"-style game, they came up with the awesomely original 'ship flies from left-to-right shooting things concept'.

Amongst other things, this did give them the chance to employ their horizontal scrolling routines (God alone knows why they waited this long).

Having said all this, there's lots of variety in the evil swarm sent out to stop you, and a hell of a lot of new and interesting weapons to try out (all of which are incredibly good at blowing things up). It makes for a snazzy little shoot-'em-up, but it's nothing you haven't seen before in the bargain bin at Boots. 75%

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Every now and again, a game comes along that exhibits a true originality and style. The idea of this game is to build a car in the garage, by finding the parts that have been littered around the house. [Like you do! - Hutch]

The game takes the form of a flick screen platformer (the screens don't flick though - you have to go through doors), with so many lovely little distractions (such as telephones that you can use to call for help, in the form of directions), plant pots to look behind, a candle for those dimly-lit corridors, and just about everything else you'd want to find in an impressively good platform romp type fing. 85%

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It's all very well loading up a game and being able to run around with a gun blowing people away, but it's all a little impersonal, isn't it? Surely, in the nineties we should have a more interactive, caring fight, and actually get right up to the victim, so he or she feels a little more like an important cog in the machine of life as we clobber them over the back of their head's with a large stick?

Saboteur, I'm very happy to say, follows this example, and features you in the standard 'prime the bomb and escape in the helicopter on the roof' affair. Except that you've got to do this without a gun - you fight with what you find, but you do have the ability to sneak up behind people and hurt them in unimaginable ways before they get the chance to turn around and blow your brains out.

As far as this little number's concerned, it plays a vital role in my collection as the best form of stress-relief since thrash music - maybe you need a little brutal violence in your life? [About these pills you've been taking, Simon... - Hutch] 90%

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If you've never heard of Spindizzy, I pity you. When it comes down to after-hours arguments over classic computer games, it always comes into the limelight. If you've never seen an isometric game, where have you been for the last ten years. Anyway, you play the part of GERALD, a name that actually stands for something, but I can't for the life of me remember what.

Anyway, as Gerald, you are destined to spend the rest of your days wandering round the lonely, baron isometric landscape, flicking switches to do things to the surrounding blocks and lifts in an attempt to collect every single diamond on the map - at least the concept's simple. [Bit like Gerald then - Hutch]

Apart from the occasional bad guy and death-not-quite-defying drop, your main energy is inertia - you have no way of jumping other than finding a ramp and building up a lot of speed, and no way of stopping once you're on the move other than powering in the other direction (you do have a brake, but after several failed sessions, you'll realise not to use it as it saps vital time).

Spindizzy is a wonderful little game, that definitely deserves a look. 90%

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Though these three games are all sold separately, they're all coming under one review, because people would start to freak out if we went through a recursive nightmare style rendition of all three identical releases. Well actually, that's a bit of a lie - Spy Vs. Spy 1 was a lovely little game, based on the antics of MAD Comic's two secret agents, out purely to kill each other with various devices, traps, bombs, snares, and other tricks.

The only problem was that Spy Vs. Spy 2 was just the same, with no real modifications as far as the gameplay was concerned.

Spy Vs. Spy 3 wasn't much better either, so I think overall the mark should be 70%.

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Snooker - what a hideously dull game. Nice conversion though. Nice, but dull. 70%

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These Epyx games are a laugh. The best way to play them is to get as many mates around as possible and have a bit of hugely competitive joystick waggling. The events are the usual mish-mash of the convoluted and the bizarre.

You've got your standard skiing events - dodge the flags and cut into the corners. Then there's the cross country skiing which combines shooting and walky skiing in an odd manner. The best event's probably the ski jump in which you wrestle with the joystick just to keep your flier upright.

Games like this can't really date. Especially when you see them being re-released (looking exactly the same on the Megadrive) again and again. Great for deliberate face plants. 83%

The CF reviews team put a new batch of EDOS games through the grinder.