Eye^Game^Candy: Shadow of the Beast II

Age hasn't been kind to Shadow of the Beast II's gameplay, but its aesthetics and visual successes have lost none of their original qualities. Psygnosis' arcade adventure hit remains beautiful and evocative to look at, a highly atmospheric 16-bit offering, and a game with a truly brilliant soundtrack. Actually, it's something that simply shines on YouTube, and is definitely worth checking out on MobyGames.  

Eye^Game^Candy: Where Time Stood Still

There were but a few games that really took advantage of all the extra RAM the 128k ZX Spectrum provided, and even fewer that attempted to craft beautiful, isometric open worlds populated by rule-based AIs, and the odd Tyrannosaurus Rex. Actually, Where Time Stood Still by Denton Designs (published by Ocean Software), a follow up of sorts to the already groundbreaking The Great Escape, is the only game that managed to really pull off such an impressive feat on the humble Sinclair 8-bit. It is still a beautiful, ambitious, and engrossing survival horror, exploration, RPG-lite action-adventure that has aged remarkably well. Its crisp and fluidly animated black-and-white graphics look as beautiful as ever, and its exotic The Lost World-esque setting remains properly fresh. Interestingly the game also got MS-DOS and Atari ST ports.

Find out more, download a copy, or even play Where Time Stood Still online on World of Spectrum, and then read a bit more about it over at Hardcore Gaming 101. 

Eye^Game^Candy: Wonderland

Being one of the most ambitious text adventures ever created, and making a brave attempt at thoroughly modernizing interactive fiction interfaces, Wonderland by Magnetic Scrolls is one of those few games that should be considered important. It also happens to be one I really do love. Somewhere between the fact that I never managed to finish it, the childhood memories of opening its big box with all those 5.25" floppies, the amazing little visual vignettes, and those incredibly appropriate and very whimsical puzzles I absolutely struggled with, I may have created a mental image of Wonderland that might just be too good to be true. I know. And even though I don't want to spoil the memories, I know I'll eventually have to revisit it.

You can play the game online here (albeit not in its full glory; you'll be needing DOSBox for that), and find out more about it on Mobygames and the Magnetic Scrolls Memorial. 

Eye^Game^Candy: Life and Death

It may have been released across all major computer gaming formats and may have looked impressive on the Amiga, but it was always the CGA, MS-DOS version of Life and Death I considered the more appropriate. Its garish colours had an uncanny ability to make the subject matter just a little bit more disturbing to turn each operation into an exercise in bloody horror, whereas the PC beeper powered scream was simply unparalleled in its other-worldliness. Oh, yes, and this was actually the version I've always owned and loved complete in its magnificent box with the surgical mask and that brilliantly written The History of Surgery book. 

Find out more about Life and Death on MobyGames and Abandonia.

Eye^Game^Candy: Lionheart

Released late in the Amiga years --during the far too recent 1993-- Lionheart by Thalion didn't really receive the recognition it deserved for years, until people finally saw it for the beautiful (stunning even) fantasy epic that it is. So, after marveling at the excellent pixel-art posted above, I suggest you read about Lionheart over at HG101 and IndieRetroNews. You'll probably discover new ways of playing through the thing too. 

Eye^Game^Candy: Cruise For A Corpse

Though largely forgotten today, Cruise For A Corpse was a stunning, triple-A adventure game back in 1991 that launched on the Amiga, Atari ST and MS-DOS and was probably the first Agatha Christie inspired game I truly loved. Granted, the colourful graphics, unique setting (spoiler: everything happens on a posh boat), stunning backgrounds, interesting plot and rotoscaped animation were all I cared for, as I did resort to using a walkthrough and can't really comment on the quality of its puzzles. As for the good news, well, if you still have the game's files you can properly play through it via ScummVM.

Eye^Game^Candy: Little Computer People

It might have inspired The Sims and that happily forgotten Tamagotchi craze, but David Crane's Little Computer People was far from a commercial success back in 1985. Surely the atrocious cover art couldn't have helped much... The game itself though remains fresh, unique, innovative, pretty brilliant and beautiful in a way only those chunky Commodore 64 games can be. And did you know that its complete title is Little Computer People Discovery Kit and that it was also known as House-on-a-Disk? Oh, I see...

Eye^Game^Candy: Perihelion

Post-apocalyptic RPGs weren't particularly common on the Amiga, though I'm pretty sure that post-apocalyptic RPGs created by a team of three must have been as rare as, well, an incredibly rare thing. Perihelion, a 1993 Psygnosis release, was not only such a game, but  an incredibly polished and downright stunning RPG too, with striking 32-colour visuals, excellent atmosphere, interesting plot, unique mechanics and a lovely chiptune soundtrack. It has nowadays been sadly more or less forgotten, but one of the people behind it is kindly offering it as a free, ready-to-run download. Get it, play it.

Eye^Game^Candy: B.A.T.

B.A.T. was released for much more powerful platforms than the humble CPC back in 1989, but it was this brilliant 8-bit version of the game that wowed me enough to eventually grab its DOS-VGA counterpart along with my first 286 PC a few years later. B.A.T., you see, was a dark sci-fi thriller sporting mature themes, excellent graphics that wouldn't feel out of place in a graphic novel, a fully programmable in-game digital assistant thingy, action scenes, tons of French quirkiness and one of the earliest point-and-click adventure interfaces ever. Mind you, the chunky 16-color Amstrad graphics still look lovely.

Eye^Game^Candy: The Dig

The Dig was released -after many a delay- in 1995 by Lucasarts and, despite failing to be a spectacular critical and commercial hit, should be considered one of the company's most impressive offerings. Actually, I'd easily classify it as one of my all time favourite adventures and one of the few truly successful attempts at proper video game science fiction. What's more, it still looks stunning and even has a whole museum (which, among other things, details The Dig's incredible development history) dedicated to its glorious, digital self.

Eye^Game^Candy: Oil's Well

Having just received my beautifully boxed Oil's Well copy, I thought I'd let you know just what a visually stunning, additively fun and mostly forgotten little gem this 1990 Sierra production is. Well, it is, and its VGA version for our ageing DOS boxes is most probably the best arcade/puzzler this developer ever came up with, though admittedly they did have to remake its earlier 1983 version. Oh, and it would be fair to call this one abandonware. Have a play/look.

Eye^Game^Candy: Agony

Agony, quite possibly the most beautiful Amiga game ever, was released by Psygnosis in 1992 and made sure jaws dropped all over the place. Its fantasy loading screens, animated backgrounds, parallax scrolling, impressive palette and truly breathtaking art have kept its beauty young, fresh and actually quite perky. Oh, and Agony also remains a decent and very enjoyable -though tough- shmup. As for the music... Ah, the glorious music. Better have a look at this video I suppose.

Eye^Game^Candy: Alien 8

Ultimate Play the Game, the game developer now known as Rare, was one of the most secretive and brilliant teams of people creating games for the ZX Spectrum. They were also responsible for the 1985 hit Alien 8; a beautiful, isometric arcade adventure that came in a pretty lavish box. Do find out more about it and play it online over at the excellent World of Spectrum.

Eye^Game^Candy: 3D Deathchase

3D Deathchase or simply Deathchase was released for the humble 16k ZX Spectrum back in 1983 and remains a rather excellent and incredibly addictive game to this very day. Unfortunately and despite its impressively fast 3D graphics it never featured an Ewok.

Eye^Game^Candy: Dracula the Undead

Dracula - The Undead (1992, Handmade Software) for the Atari Lynx was a truly unique game, as it was both the only proper graphic adventure released for the handheld and a game that wasn't afraid to use stylish monochromatic graphics. Shockingly, it remains unique to this day.

Eye^Game^Candy: Alone in the Dark

1992, the year the original and -by far- the best Alone in the Dark game was released, was also the year the modern survival horror was born. It even was the year that gave Lovecraft fans that were sick of text adventures something else to play with: a dark, atmospheric, skillfully paced, smart game with odd angles, atmospheric sounds and terrifying geometry. Looks brilliant and surreal to this day too.