Games from 1993

Trade goods between ports all over the world, in this economic simulation game, by Austrian design team Max Design. As a 17th century merchant wanna-be, you need to buy a ship, find a crew, load a few goods on the ship, and sail into the horizon, untill you reach a port with a demand for your goods. Eventually you will have the money to buy more ships, create regular trade routes, and become the head of a regular trading company. 1869 focuses on management and economy, rather than action. Actual sailing is done by plotting a route and then watching the days go by, interrupted only by the occasional random event. Basically you'll be planning routes, watching out for special assignments (that pay well if completed on time) and generally trying to steer clear of the shores of bankruptcy. The game offers a multiplayer mode (Hot-seat) which can be quite entertaining. Just make sure your friends are also into this particular genre.

Sequel to Aces of the Pacific, Aces over Europe takes place in the Western Theater of Operations during WW2. Fly fighters and fighter-bombers for either England, Germany, or the United States, escorting heavy bombers, attacking ground troops, or just taking control of the skies over Europe. Aces over Europe features improved graphics over its predecessor, including smoother models and individual squadron markings on planes. Terrain graphics have also been slightly enhanced to aid in navigation. AOE features campaign modes for all three sides. Although not truly dynamic, the campaigns feature random missions based on your plane type and squadron, making each campaign different. Player controlled planes include American Lightnings, Thunderbolts, and Mustangs, British Spitfires, Tempests, and Typhoons, and German Bf-109's, Fw-190's, and Me-262's.

Guide a team of up to four soldiers through 72 levels of combat in this innovative top-down action/strategy hybrid, best thought of as Lemmings crossed with Commando crossed with Dune 2. The characters are controlled indirectly using the mouse, as you activate each soldier or group of them by highlighting them, click the left button to move them to a particular spot, and the right button for them to fire guns at an enemy. You can also pick up grenades, which can be used to destroy groups of enemies or buildings. Each mission has a specific objective, and some feature vehicles such as tanks to make things easier. Your troops can cross water but can't shoot within it, so finding and controlling bridges is often crucial, as is using the arrangement of trees to find hiding places to emerge from (unfortunately the computer AI can do the same thing).

A Game based on the successful UK TV Show of the same name. You have a team of six which you lead around the maze. There are four zones: Ocean, Aztec, Medieval and Futuristic. There are four types of game, Physical, Mental, Skill, and Mystery. Every game you win earns you a time crystal worth 5 seconds in your final destination, the Crystal Dome

Darksun: Shattered Lands is an AD&D game based off of the Darksun campaign pack from TSR. In the beginning of the game, you control a party of gladiators. It opens up with you in a fight with a multitude of monsters in an arena. After the battle you are sent back to the slave pens to wait for your next match. You talk to some of the other gladiators in the slave pens and escape (if you can) to help the free villages established by other escaped slaves to fight back against the totalitarian city-state of Draj and the large army they will soon send to wipe out all of the slave villages. The game has a mouse interface and is basically point and click to move around, equip your party, talk to people, pick up things, etc. The gameplay is faithful to AD&D's rules in most cases.