OBSIDIAN

For us adventure gamers, the huge popularity of Myst is something of a catch-22. On the one hand, we had some amazing games that used the formula to great effect. On the other hand, it also spawned a huge number of quickly produced copycats that flooded the market that did nothing but sully the genre's name. Rocket Science's expensive 1996 effort, Obsidian, failed in the marketplace perhaps suffering from the expectation that it could be the latter. It is, in fact, the former and has since gained a following for being a shining example of what storytelling in video games can achieve.

DIZZY: 30TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION

Let's celebrate Easter this year by talking about the world's second most famous egg: Dizzy. Not only was he the unofficial mascot of the Commodore 64, but he's also the poster child for bedroom coders everywhere. So that begs the question: after a plethora of sequels and spinoffs why did Dizzy disappear?

BOMBUZAL COLLECTION

Bombuzal, also known as Kablooey or Charlie Blast's Territory was a great little puzzler. The bomb-busting blue blob seems to have been forgotten since it's 1988 debut, but if there's one puzzler that tugs the nostalgic heart-strings for me, this is it.

HYPERBLADE

If popular culture is anything to be believed, the future is going to be a sadistic place. Case in point: HyperBlade, Wizbang! Software's ultra-violent vision of Ice Hockey circa 20xx.

DARK EARTH

When a pen and paper RPG gets adapted for a video game, you'd expect it to follow certain conventions such as a complex fighting mechanic, character stats and the like. Based on the short-lived French series, Dark Earth by Kalisto Entertainment doesn't do that. It was released in 1997, the same year as the first Fallout, but by contrast, it ignores its stat-heavy origins and follows the formula of another one of its contemporaries: Resident Evil.

INNOCENT UNTIL CAUGHT 2: GUILTY

The crude grifter Jack T. Ladd returns for another space adventure. This time he's Guilty! Released in 1995, this sequel to Divide By Zero's Innocent Until Caught adds an unwitting companion by the name of Ysanne Andropath: Space Cop. Does this extra playable character add to the experience or just Jack's innate sexism?

LOTUS ESPRIT TURBO CHALLENGE TRILOGY

In the age before polygons were able to give us fully realised environments, I wasn't too keen on the racing genre. Back then, I felt the limitations of 2D weren't able to adequately recreate the sensation of driving a car, at least not in games that positioned the camera behind the vehicle instead of a top-down viewpoint. The one exception (at least in my collection) was Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge.