Star Mouse (Saga Systems)

A sturdy, quick-moving mouse combined with an excellent icon-controlled drawing package.

Kempston Mouse (Kempston Micro Electronics)

It's well designed, but there's little software for it, either bundled or available.

AMX Mouse (Advanced Memory Systems)

The best mouse around. And the most stylish. The snag is its excellence is reflected in the price!

Star Mouse For The QL (Saga Systems)

Asterix (Melbourne House)

Clever graphics keep the spirit of the cartoon and the gameplay is refreshingly unusual.

Firelord (Hewson)

Looks like Ultimate circa Sabre Wulf but is vast, well designed and not without original ideas. Lots of fun.

Galvan (Imagine)

This is hardly the most original game in the world. But it is fast, smooth, and surprisingly vicious.

Hardball (Advance)

An on-the-ball sports program. Clever use of graphics and the thought given to gameplay make it a superior simulation.

Conquestador (Melbourne House)

Utterly awful in every way. It's the kind of thing that loses good software houses hard-won representations for quality.

Captain Kelly (Quicksilva)

A sorry tale of flat graphics, mechanical animation and dull plot. One of the poorest Quicksilva titles ever.

TT Racer (Digital Interaction)

Excellent as a simulation though not graphically as astounding as expected. If you're into accuracy, it's got it.

Room Ten (CRL)

It's simple to play, and simple to look at. But turns out to be a deceptively entertaining and difficult game.

Dandy (Electric Dreams)

Astonishingly authentic conversion of what is effectively 'that game'. As a two player game it's an astounding experience.

Druid (Firebird)

Frenzied, spell bashing, otherworldly mythological violence on a grand scale. A bit reminiscent of Gauntlet in fact.

Nightmare Rally (Ocean)

Four-wheel fun with an accent on fantasy. Easy to score but difficult to progress past stage two.

Prodigy (Electric Dreams)

Abstract, surreal, utterly odd 3D maze/arcade/adventure game. Very inventive and very irritating but still brilliant.

Uridium (Hewson)

A superb arcade game. Smoother, faster, slicker and more challenging than almost everything else you can currently buy.

Scooby-Doo (Elite)

An ancient platforms and ladders idea regenerated somewhat by some excellent cartoon-quality graphics.

Strike Force Cobra (Piranha)

A vast 3D arcade strategy game. Big on complexity but partly spoilt by jerky animation and inferior graphics.

Sound Sampler ()

Captain Slog (Alpha-Omega)

Witty title, shame about the game. Low on invention, style and entertainment.

Kai Temple (Firebird)

A kick in the teeth for all fans of the martial arts. Flat graphics and flimsy plot. A let down even at budget level.

Bump, Set, Spike (Mastertronic)

An above average budget title. It matches up favourably with some of the full-price imagine Konami conversions.

Bombscare (Firebird)

Excellent graphically, with smooth 3D graphics... The budget tag more than compensates for lacklustre plot.

Olli And Lissa (Firebird)

A graphically good but dull pot boiler with cute characters. Very predictable. Lousy plot. Well executed.

Olympiad '86 (Atlantis)

Back to the age when graphics were miraculous if they didn't look like Space Invaders and scrolling was hip.

Video Poker (Entertainment USA)

Plays a one-sided game - you versus the dealer. An expert system this is not, but at the price you can't lose.

Video Olympics (Mastertronic)

Smartly produced six-event sports game that works up a sweat. Great value for money.

Sbugetti Junction (Bug-Byte)

A simple traffic control game - suffers from terminal boredom..

Outworld (Durome)

An involved management simulation that puts you in the hot seat running a mining company.

HRH (8th Day)

An opportunity to create an inventive satire, missed. It's just not funny enough.

After Shock (Interceptor)

Excellent adventuring for the dedicated, combining great graphics (from a master of his art) with challenging problems.

It's A Knockout (Ocean)

Six games in one; five of them absolutely dreadful. One of them not too bad. Therefore I doubt if the whole thing's worth it.

Pub Games (Alligata)

Several games, some very familiar some unique, nothing good or bad. Not very exciting but a twist on the decathlon style.

Zarcaron Mystery (Players)

Budget adventures can be very variable. And this is one of the better efforts - quite a challenge and well worth the dosh.

Shrewsbury Key (Players)

Cheap and not cheerful. Very disappointing - a rainy day adventure at best. Enough to put you off Shrewsbury for life.

The Artist II (Softechnics)

Perhaps the definitive artist program. Easy to use but with incredibly powerful features.

Front Page (Gap)

Qats (Cope)

Basic Compiler (HiSoft)

If you ever write anything in Basic or machine-code this program is a must. It works like magic. Buy it.