This is an unofficial clone of the 1983 Star Wars game from Atari (from the days before they started clamping down on such copyright infringement). The developers Realtime games actually did a phenomenal job at recreating the 3D vector game for Spectrum, with their version not only appearing much earlier than other ports, but also being much more accurate than most of them! The game has four distinct sections lending it some variety, and follows the final scenes of the first film brilliantly. Shoot at Tie Fighters, skim the Deathstar and take part in the famous trench run all for yourself.

The programmers at Elite did a pretty good job with this port of the top down run n' gun arcade game. Though pretty ugly, unlike some of the home ports this actually controls well (including a HOLD button that locks the direction of fire, allowing an experienced player to move and fire independently) which is really important in a game like this. The game itself has one or two players walking up the screen shooting at the enemies, and throwing grenades. One especially cool element is that you can commandeer a tank and go on a rampage of destruction! Its a fun blaster that really shines when played cooperatively with a friend.

License games generally have a bad rep, but Batman stands out as the character who consistently stars in hits, possibly more so than any other. The Caped Crusader carries on his great run. Where most Batman games have a focus on action, Caped Crusader puts a lot of emphasis on the character's detective work, requiring you to pick up objects and use them to solve puzzles. The game is actually two separate scenarios in one, both have rational puzzling and pretty fun beat-em-up action. The game was made by Spectrum stalwart Jonathan Smith, with the Spectrum being its native version, and it shows as whilst lacking in presentation compared to other versions the gameplay is much more polished.

This is a pretty good port of the all time C64 classic. The game has you running and jumping through a flick screen maze avoiding robots and searching objects for puzzle pieces that are used to decrypt a password. This version is lacking a bit in presentation compared to the original, but is still colourful without being messy and very much retains the excellent gameplay of the original.

Driller is a very early attempt at true 3D graphics, it introduced a new graphics engine called Freescape, one of the most advanced of the era. The game has you exploring an unstable planet searching for gas build up, each area has one of these pockets and the aim is to find it (by looking for clues and solving puzzles and such) and then call down a drill to bore into the ground and relieve the pressure. The game was originally released for Spectrum and Amstrad, but later ported to many other computers. Its a bit slow these days, but was incredibly ambitious and important in the history of 3D gaming, and had unparalleled atmosphere for the time in which it was released.

Popular flick-screen shooter with rock-hard gameplay and some of the best graphics on the system. The game has you navigating intricate layouts filled with hazards whilst collecting power-ups and unleashing death and destruction. You are given a variety of different secondary weapons from the outset (chosen with the keyboard's number keys, used by holding the fire button), and learning how to use these weapons properly is critical to the gameplay (eg you can use the temporary invincibility to pass tricky navigation sections, and you can fire off the bounce weapon as covering fire if the screen is packed with enemies). I've picked the second game here because I feel it is fairer than the original (though it does require you to play smarter with your secondary weapons), and because this is to my mind the best version of the game, whilst the original Cybernoid was better on the C64.

Excellently ported sports game that is a collection of events (a la Konami's Track N' Field), but with a Winter olympics theme. It expands on the gameplay set out in the earlier event-based arcade games, with more focus on timing your button presses, (as opposed to just mashing them as fast as possible), and tries for a more varied selection of game styles.

One of the first fully formed action adventure games, Pyjamarama was the pioneering second game in the Wally Week series. The game has you navigating one of Wally's fevered dreams in an effort to wake him up in time for work! It carried on its forebear's mechanic of picking up objects and taking them to where they were required, but made this now centered around puzzle solving, with each correctly placed object opening up a new area in the environment. The simple two-screen levels of the original were also replaced with a large non-linear mansion to explore, filled with surreal touches and odd foes. The Dizzy and Magic Knight series' owe a lot to this early gem.

Quazatron is a sort of remake/sequel of the very popular C64 game Paradroid. When charged with porting the game to Spectrum the coders wanted to change the game to make better use of the Spectrum, so they transferred the 2D graphics of the original into an isometric 3D environment. The aim of the game is to dispose of all the other droids, you can do this by zapping them or by grappling with them. Grappling starts up a mini-game which, if you are successful allows you to dismantle your opponent and use his parts to improve your own robot and take on more advanced droids on other floors. Its an original concept that makes for a very addictive game.

This is a memorable license game based on the popular British children's animation. Trap Door is a hard game to classify, I guess it's sort of an puzzle/cooking hybrid! Basically your boss orders you to make him meals and you have to work out how to prepare these meals within a time limit. Your faithful friend Boney (the skull) gives you clues on what to do. Don Priestly, the game's creator was famous for his huge character graphics style, of which Trap Door is a good example. This method helped him to put in a lot of colour to his games whilst largely avoiding clash. The style fits well with Trap Door and recreates the look and charm of the source material very closely.