Also known as Capitán Sevilla in its native Spain, the basic premise of this platform adventure is that you, as Captain S, must make your way to the evil scientist's planetary HQ and stop him from taking over the world. The twist is that you start the game as a normal guy, pretty weak and feeble, but eat a sausage (there are several strewn about the levels) and you mutate into the all-powerful Captain S, capable of many cool superpowers, including flight. Beware though, because the sausages' effects don't last forever, and usually wear off as you're whizzing through the air! The graphics are excellent – very cartoony and well-drawn – and the sound is pretty good too. The game is also very challenging but not impossibly so. A hugely fun and addictive game; one of my favourites.

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In this rally simulator you are Carlos Sainz, once the winner of the World Rally Championship, driving his awesome Toyota Corolla. As in many other simulators, you can adjust several parameters of your car regarding tyres and suspension. You can also practice the course before attempting to qualify. With regard to the game itself, you'll find nice and colourful graphics and good scrolling, even when your car goes at full speed. Nevertheless, this is a simulator, which means you'll have to practice quite a lot to be a good driver. Apart from the intrinsic difficulty of this game being a simulator, Carlos Sainz has two main drawbacks. Firstly, your car gets stuck quite easily when you drive out of the road, even with very small bushes, which is annoying, and secondly, the controls should be a bit better in order to make steering easier.

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The legendary 18th century author and seducer Giacomo Casanova is in Venice. Wandering the streets and buildings of the famous Italian city, you must collect all the items of women's underwear (!) on each of the three levels, while avoiding various men and women who are jealous of your exploits. This platform game suffers from being a Spectrum port with its detailed but rather bland graphics; even the Spectrum's beeper seems to be emulated! As for the gameplay, it's annoyingly difficult. To ward off enemies, you have a supply of musical notes to fire at them, but you will use them all fairly quickly and you often can't replenish your supply when you need to. Another frustrating thing is that when you lose a life, you are always sent all the way back to the start of the level. This is a poor game that you definitely won't fall in love with!

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Some awful games were released in the early years of the CPC, and this is one of them. Reach the top of the castle by jumping across the pits and avoiding the monsters, climbing ladders, and jumping on to the moving platforms and trying not to fall off. The graphics and sound are almost laughably bad, and the controls are strange, too – getting the man to jump correctly is extremely frustrating. The levels don't even vary, either, but then again, it's best not to bother attempting to reach the second level!

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Find and return a mysterious orb to the Lady Artemis from Castle Blackstar in this very early text-only adventure. Limited by a poor parser, Castle Blackstar is also hindered by the decision to have a number of key early locations incorporate a confusing forest maze that, although only a few screens in size, loops back on itself. Mapping is essential if you want to get anywhere in this game; after working your way through the forest, you're later presented with another maze in the dungeons later in the game. After toiling around the forest and the outer castle long enough, you'll eventually stumble across the bow and arrow that you need to bring the drawbridge down and enter the castle. Once inside, things do pick up thanks to some pretty atmospheric descriptions and the game presents a tough but not impossible challenge. Worth persevering with for text adventure fans.

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This is another of the Freescape games, and this time, it's set in a castle where you have to rescue your twin brother/sister (you can play either a prince or a princess). You have to search the castle and kill twenty spirits before confronting the dragon. There are lots of puzzles to work through and keys to find, and you must also make sure you don't get yourself trapped, or get lost in the catacombs; it's essential that you make a map! The 3D graphics are great, but like all the other Freescape games, there's not much sound.

See also: Castle Master II: The Crypt.

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This was the last Freescape game to be released, and you could only buy it either bundled with Castle Master or as part of the Virtual Worlds compilation. After rescuing your twin brother/sister in Castle Master, you are now held captive in the dungeons and have to escape. You start on the sixth floor below the ground and have to work your way up to the first floor. It uses the same formula as the first game, although some doors are padlocked and can't be opened with keys; you'll need to find another way to enter these rooms. It's a rather nice game requiring a lot of brainwork and careful movements, although in my opinion, it's more difficult than its predecessor.

See also: Castle Master.

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You have got the contract to build on a remote island in the middle of the North Sea. A small tanker brings building blocks that your trusty helicopter must lift and place upon the island. Each block adds wages to your bank balance. A certain amount of construction must be completed each day or you lose the contract. Bad weather and natural disasters hinder your progress and reduce your bank balance. This is a simple but addictive game with clear and colourful graphical effects and imaginative sound.

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Cauldron
(Palace, 1985)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

Collect the six ingredients of your most powerful spell in order to defeat the evil Pumpking and thereby claim the powerful Golden Broomstick which is sought by the best and cleverest witches in the land. Fly across the landscape on your broomstick finding the coloured keys to the six doors, behind which lie each one of the reagents you require. As you peruse the skies, you are attacked by all manner of things; witch-eating bats, cloak-scorching fireballs, murderous pumpkins and badly behaved seagulls are just a few of the hazards facing you. A large, engaging game that is highly enjoyable in spite of its difficulty.

See also: Cauldron II, Super Cauldron.

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Having defeated the evil Pumpking, seized the Golden Broomstick and become Witch-Queen, the Hag no longer lives in her dilapidated cottage but has moved to a huge castle at the edge of the forest. You play the part of a small pumpkin, who was in fact the Pumpking's guardian in Cauldron, and must recover the Golden Broomstick from the clutches of the oppressive Hag. In what is some respects a similar game to Wizball, you must bounce around the Hag's castle avoiding her supernatural minions. It was always going to be hard following up to Cauldron, and while this is a good enough game, its prequel is superior.

See also: Cauldron, Super Cauldron.

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