Join Kim Kimberley, secret agent extraordinaire as you attempt to save the interstellar transport Snowball 9 from certain disaster. Waking from hypersleep you literally begin the game in the dark – but escaping your coffin is only the beginning of your problems... Level 9's first foray into science fiction is a difficult but atmospheric text adventure thanks to some well crafted descriptions. Working out how to deal with the syringe-wielding nightingales will be your first major stumbling block, but that pales in comparison to the maze (a highly frustrating piece of coding that exists seemingly to allow Level 9 to boast of the game having over 7,000 locations). Originally text-only, Snowball was reissued as part of the Silicon Dreams compilation boasting graphics, but it loses part of its mystique in the process. Overall, it's still a highly polished adventure that you can easily lose a couple of hours playing.

See also: Return to Eden, The Worm in Paradise.

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Rating: 8/10

Despite the name of this game, you don't actually play a proper game of football; instead, the game concentrates on training. There are four types of training – dribbling, tackling, passing and penalties. When you have completed all four courses successfully, you can then go on to the assault course. The courses are all self-explanatory, except for the dribbling, in which you have to kick the ball around some cones in the direction highlighted by the arrow shown on the screen. There aren't many football training games around, mainly because they're just not as exciting as actual football games. This is no exception; the graphics are OK, but the gameplay is really dull.

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Rating: 3/10

There are lots of football management games on the CPC, but this game instead sees you as a crooked businessman trying to buy at least 501 shares in the top ten clubs in the 1st Division. Starting with £200,000, you buy some shares and watch their value rise and fall as each team's fortune changes. Each week, you are paid a dividend through your ownership of the teams, and you can use that to buy more shares. You can also bet on a team to win the league or be relegated, and you can also call meetings to demand pay rises, ground improvements, or a new manager. There is no excitement to this game at all, mainly because it takes ages to build up enough money from your dividends, and you are forced to look at screen after screen of information after each turn. It's also written entirely in BASIC.

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Rating: 2/10

The French version of this football game is known simply as Foot and was endorsed by Marius Trésor, a great French footballer who played for France in the 1982 World Cup. You can select two of four teams (Great Britain, France, Germany or Italy) and choose the level of each of your players (from 0 to 20) and your opponent's players. However, there are no differences between the different teams, save for the colour of their shirts. You automatically control the player that is closest to the ball, although pressing the fire button allows you to change the player you want to control. Once you are in possession of the ball, your speed is reduced by half, which favours a very collective method of play! In summary, it is a fast and really enjoyable game, though it isn't realistic at all.

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Rating: 6/10

Soccer and pinball – when you think about it, it almost makes sense. As you'd expect, the pinball table is laid out in the form of a football pitch, the aim being to get rid of each of the defenders blocking the way, and then scoring three goals to go on to the next table – which has exactly the same layout, but with more defenders. Whether you'll actually be able to score three goals seems to be a matter of sheer fluke; the game is too difficult and the goalmouth is too small, letting down an otherwise novel concept. Out of interest, it also uses the cassette motor as a sound effect... bizarre!

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Rating: 6/10

A football management game combined with a board game – it sounds interesting, but after a few goes you begin to realise its limitations. Three players, which can be human or computer-controlled, choose to manage one of 32 teams and take it in turns to move around the board. Each square on the board triggers an event; one type of square lets you buy new players, another lets you set up a youth team and coach, or to make improvements to your stadium, while another lets you train your players. There are also 'chance' squares which may win or lose you money. The problem is that you can only perform actions when you land on the right square, which may take one turn or ten turns. Football management games should be based on skill and not luck.

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Rating: 5/10

What's it like to be the manager of your own software house and release some games? This game lets you try this out. Your aim is to survive for five years, but you start out with a budget of only £2500, and if you go more than £25,000 into debt, it's all over. In each quarter (which counts as one turn), you can select one or more games to buy, and then it's your job to organise the duplication of tapes and the artwork, packaging, price and the number of advertisements to place in magazines. After each turn, you then read the Games News magazine which has news of how well you're doing and how good or bad they think your latest game is. It's all good fun, although it can be frustrating and unpredictable most of the time.

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Rating: 7/10

You're a games programmer at a software house, and you want to achieve the title of Software Star. Games are developed and released, and each month you get to see how well they're doing in the software charts; getting in the top three is crucial if you want to be known, and good reviews count, too! Other tasks you have to perform include booking adverts, removing old games from your catalogue, and whether to use hype or honesty to sell your games. Any initial excitement about the game begins to wear off; even on the beginner level, it's too difficult.

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Rating: 5/10

Yawn – it's yet another Galaxian clone. This one has only four levels; three of these feature a formation of aliens hurling laser beams at you, while the fourth sees you fighting against the aliens' mothership. We've seen it all before. The graphics are actually not too bad and are quite colourful, but the sound effects are nothing special. The game itself is a bit difficult; while the alien ships whizz about the screen and fire at you (and those lasers seem to home in on you), your spacecraft moves rather slowly – but practice makes perfect. Even so, there are better games than this out there.

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Watch a YouTube video of this game by: Xyphoe.

Rating: 4/10

The evil Dargons have enslaved the galaxy, and you must free as many planets in the galaxy as you can. How do you do this? You must find an asteroid and shoot it, allowing you to steer it in a particular direction. Captured planets will be liberated if you manage to crash an asteroid into it. It seems like an extremely drastic method of liberating a planet, but I'm not responsible for devising this game! Obviously, you have the usual aliens to contend with, as well as the fact that your spaceship is very snake-like in both appearance and manoeuvrability. There are also several dials that tell you the nearest location of various objects. The graphics are quite good, although the screen is mostly empty space. However, for some reason, I don't really warm to this game much.

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Rating: 6/10