If you want to play a good action game with some good character graphics then Rosen's Brigade is for you.
    In Rosen's Brigade you are the pilot of a jet fighter, which looks something like the space shuttle Columbia. Your mission is to try and rescue fellow pilots who are parachuting to the ground, while fighting off enemy jets, helicopters, battleships, and tanks. The parachuters, which are scored too high, don't have much to do with the game but are good for easy points. While fighting the enemy you have to touch the parachuter falling from the sky to get your points.
    After destroying all of the enemy forces you then advance to a new level of difficulty. As you increase in levels the play becomes much harder. With the planes and helicopters becoming faster and more abundant, so do the tanks and the battleships(which look like tugboats).
    Rosen's Brigade includes some very excellent features in the game,    like sensitive-controls, which are great for maneuvering your jet in and out of tight spots. Plus the explosions are very colorful and vivid. The screen scrolls from left to right depending on what direction your fighter is flying. But when fighting, the screen remains constant unless you move your fighter more one way or the other to get 'the scroll'.
    One thing that makes this game difficult is that you can't move your jet all the the way to the center of the screen when battling the tanks because the tanks keep firing up at you, this in turn makes it hard to shoot the helicopters. I felt the scoring should be different for the battleships, parachuters, and planes because each of these are quite easy to destroy. The helicopters and tanks are much more difficult but are given about the same points for destroying them.





    There are a few flaws that I found after playing the game for a while. One of these is; after the game is played for about fifteen minutes the computer tends to jam up making it impossible to continue the play. This causes me to become very frustrated and makes me want to throw the joystick through the T.V. screen. Another, flaw, I feel, is, after shooting all the planes one can just sit at the top of the screen and catch parachuters for 1000 points a piece. Isn't that a little easy? One more thing that I noticed; at the higher levels the planes and helicopters tend to slow down and even stop, making killing them quite easy. This game would be much better if these shortcomings were overcome.


    The Earth is suffering from a severe energy crisis. Nuclear reactors have experienced numerous failures and catastrophes. Oil wells and coal mines have been depleted. In order to survive, people must have a new source of energy. During a mission in space, some scientists find on the Planet Croga, an alternative source of energy. This energy is some crystals that greatly amplify solar energy. The Crogans, not wanting to give up the Crystals, have hidden them deep within Croga's surface.
    That is just a brief explanation of what the basic layout of the game is. This game begins with yourself in a spaceship that can fly in all eight joystick directions. This ship can also fire bullets left or right, depending on what direction the ship is faced.
    First, I'll describe the first screen. From the top of the screen meteors fall individually or in large showers. If a meteor happens to hit you, your ship is destroyed. These meteors can be destroyed by shooting them with your ship for 10 points a piece. At the bottom of the screen is a green radiation zone. Your ship cannot withstand more than three seconds of radiation without being destroyed. You must enter this zone to hit the Crogan ship which is moving form one side to the other.





    Once the Crogan ship has taken a hit it must return to the Crogan base station, located in the center, for repairs. This base station has an invisible force field around it that only goes down when the ship returns to it. With the shield down you are able to fire at the round ball that moves up and down inside the station. Once you have done this procedure ten times you then move onto the next screen.
    In this next screen you must guide your ship safely through the caverns to pick up the crystal. You must avoid hitting any of the walls, or your ship will be destroyed and you'll return back to the first screen without any crystals. Besides avoiding the walls, you must also avoid being hit by the lasers that endanger your descent downward to the crystal. Once you have the crystal, you fly your ship back through the lasers and out. This returns you back to the initial screen where the Crogan's ships get even tougher. The Crogan's ships begin to fire at you and even fly toward you making the game very difficult.
    This game has a few very neat features. One of these is when your ship first comes on the screen, it starts out small and spins around to give a really excellent graphic effect. The music at the beginning also adds a neat touch. Overall this game is enjoyable but tough!


    To begin with, "Juice", is another challenging maze game from the author of "Kid Grid", Arti Haroutunian. As each level is encountered the difficulty also grows.
    The object of the game is to fill each square with a piece of circuitry and when every square is filled the maze is completed, and this lets the Juice flow. That sounds simple doesn't it, well it is, but too bad you can't just stay on level one. Level two is where the fun begins. Instead of just jumping on the square once to get a circuit you must jump twice; first to make a box then secondly to make a circuit. Then comes level three where it really starts to get crazy. You must do the same as in level two except if you jump on the circuit after it has been already set the circuit becomes blank and you have to start all over again. Level four, five and six each become more difficult and impossible to master.
    You want to complete the maze as quickly as possible because the slower you do it, the smaller the bonus is that you receive. If you take too long your bonus will run out and your game will be over. When you complete a maze the whole board will light up and your bonus points will then be accumulated.
    Edison is the character which you control with your Joystick, moving it in four directions;Up, down, left, and right. Nohms appear out of thin air from the top of the screen and begin to bounce down the maze. Nohms have no point value but they will kill Edison if they touch him. Killer-watt is the deadliest of them all. He also appears out of thin air from the top of the screen but instead of just bouncing down off the end of the maze he bounces down to the end and just sits there. Ater a few seconds he comes back alive following poor Edison wherever he goes. The only way to kill Killer-watt is to jump onto a teleport square which is along the side of the maze. This square teleports you to another square usually on the other side of the maze. When you jump on this square and Killer-watt is following you he will fall off the edge, to his death.





    One of the most frustrating characters is Flash which is shaped like a lightning bolt. The reason he is so frustrating is because once you have connected all the squares he jumps down and starts to disconnect them. To kill him all you need to do is run into him but this is usually before he has done a lot of damage. Recharge is the only friendly character that jumps on the maze. When Edison touches him he is recharged and is able to pass through any of the villianous characters for a few seconds to help complete the maze.
    Free men are received at every 10,000 points. The select key can be used to skip to higher levels(That is the only way I could play them). Another excellent feature in this game is the ability to save your high score to disk. This feature really enhances any game giving it the arcade feel.
    Overall, the game is similar to Q-bert(TM) with a bit of a twist. The mazes are always different and the graphics are good. This game is also original in the concept of using a character called "Edison" to connect up the electric circuits.