Chef's Mate (Dominic Morris)

Considering it's BASIC, and a rip-off, you wouldn't believe how hideously suspenseful Chef's Mate gets as your little egg dodders towards the exit, while in the corner the timer clicks down towards zero.

DJ Puff's Volcanic Caper (Codemasters)

The levels are jolly big but the colour clashes horribly.

Hero Quest (GBH Gold)

Tasty presentation, up to four players in a game, and a slew of tricky levels, all ruined by the reliance on little flashing digits and gameplay based entirely on chance. It's quite sad, really.

High Steel (Alternative)

High Steel is like an early-'80s arcade game - a sparkling game design with billions of features sprinkled on top.

Hired To Kill (Tom Powell)

There are four sub-plots that go to make up the whole quest, and they'll take a good bit of time to play through.

Impact! (Zenobi)

A well-paced game, with several twists in the tale before you reach the end.

MQM: The Trilogy (MQM Team)

Music demos are notoriously tricky things to rate - personally I like a little more action in my programs... but MQM's trio deserves a whoppingly huge mark.

Magician (Dominic Morris)

Magician is crap. Dodgy effects (except for the vertical attribute scrolly), ripped music and a dull message - three strikes and it's out (or something).

Out Of ZSL (Tad)

Packed with funky effects and some pretty good music, but Tad has committed a capital offence in demo land by having unreadable scrollies.

Quark (Dominic Morris)

Far better than Magician and with at least one completely original effect, so worth looking out for.

R.B.I. 2 Baseball (The Hit Squad)

Baseball on the Speccy... File under 'If you like'.

The Shoe People (GBH Gold)

A staggeringly good collection of educational games, with a so-so paint prog chucked in as well. It's just about perfect.

Smash 16 (Codemasters)

A selection of Codemasters' cheap and nasty games. Then again, sixteen games for under a quid each seems quite appealing whatever their standard. It's a bargain, whatever way you look at it.

Spy vs Spy III: Arctic Antics (Wicked)

Once you've got past the slow speed, the confusing graphics and the unfriendly trapulator (far trickier to use than before) the game is a lot of fun. You find yourself enjoying it in spite of itself, if you see what I mean.

Supersports Challenge (Codemasters)

A little disappointing. Cue Boy is ace; International Speedway isn't. The rest are dandy enough and worth your pennies.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (The Hit Squad)

Two good levels out of seven doesn't really make much of a game. Ignore T2 and put the money towards a copy of the video instead.

Toy Bizarre (Ricochet)

There's tonnes of racing around with no particular place to go and rather too much retracing your steps.