Serpentine

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Broderbund

I initially wasn't interested in Serpentine…then I saw screenshots, and I still wasn't interested…then I played the game. And then I couldn't stop playing the game. That gaul darn Serpentine done got me hooked. And it made me talk like a southern hillbilly for some reason too, bless my little pea-pickin' heart. Anyway, the concept of Serpentine is simple, but it's surprisingly addictive. You control a snake (or ride one, according to the back of the game's box art) and your goal is to navigate a maze and grow large enough to eat the other snakes lurking in the same maze. Getting your snake large enough can be done two ways. First, you can eat the frogs that randomly hop into the maze…and you're encouraged to go out of your way to eat these frogs. Why? Because the other snakes can eat them, too and you don't want those varmints to get even bigger, do you? The other way to increase the size of your snake (man, that sounds like a line from a dirty advertisement) is to chomp away at the other snakes. You can do this by approaching a larger snake from behind, which allows you to eat their tail. You can continue to eat away at them until they become smaller than you, and at that point, you don't need to try to catch them from behind, you can simply slither right into that small snake and devour it. While all of this is happening, your snake may also lay eggs. You want to try to protect these eggs - the frogs and other snakes want to eat them. But, if you successfully rid the stage of snakes, any eggs left in the maze will hatch and join your stable, which is basically another way to say that you gain extra lives. It is worth noting, though, that when your snake lays an egg, it loses a segment and becomes smaller, which can turn some of your prey back into predators. Likewise, if your snake is already down to two segments (out of a maximum snake length of seven segments) and it lays an egg, the poor snake will die in the birthing process, since "no self-respecting snake can survive unless it is at least two segments long," according to the manual. Anyway, Serpentine Is a simple game that is addicting, fun, and at times chaotic and frantic…it is exactly the kind of video game that made me so fascinated with video games when I was a child. And now, over 40 years later, it has done a great job of fascinating me as an adult.

Review added: 07/31/2026

SexVersi

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Doomsday Developments

Man, those Poland folks sure are perverts. What? I can't just judge a group of people like that? Sure I can. What if people did that about the United States? Well, what could they possibly say about us?.......oh……..well that's not very nice…..but only some of us are like that…..really? They think that poorly of us? Well, now I've got egg all over my face. I apologize to you, Poland. You shouldn't be judged by the perverted actions of a small group of individuals. Those individuals, however, created this dumpster of a game known as SexVersi. Published roughly a decade after the Atari 8-bit series of computers had hit their peak, a developer in Poland decided to release an adult game on the computer named SexVersi. The concept of this game is that are twelve tiles on the screen. Your goal is to flip these tiles to reveal a perverted picture of a young woman….or possibly an old woman…it's a picture of a female in some age range between 18 and 70, how about that? To flip each tile over, you need to play a game of Reversi or Othello against the computer. If you win, the tile gets flipped over. I'm a novice at Reversi, but I still managed to beat the computer with relative ease, so I can't imagine that this would be too hard of a task for most folks, especially if they're more skilled at the game than I am…which is likely most of the people reading this, honestly. The game is also in Polish, but not hard to figure out what to do and what words mean which…like Gracz 1 is you. Magda is the computer. Wygrales, like in the screen with this review, means that you won. I also want to make note that I fought with the controls a bit to flip over the squares that I wanted to, which made an already boring game frustrating as well. And, quite honestly, when it comes to looks, this game wouldn't have looked good in 1983, let alone in 1993 when it came out. Ultimately, SexVersi seems to be yet another example that if you create an adult-oriented game, but focus more on the adult aspects than the gameplay, you'll wind up with something awful. I think that the Versi in SexVersi is actually referring less to the game that it attempts to present here and more to the skin condition known as Versi, otherwise known as Pityriasis Versicolor. It's a fungal skin infection that causes small, discolored patches. Playing SexVersi was like a fungal infection in my brain that caused several patches of disappointment in my thoughts. Yeah, I'll end this on a poor dermatology joke…to do so is no skin off my back.

Review added: 07/31/2026

Sneakers

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Sirius Software

Sneakers isn't really what I expected. The box art almost makes it look like a falling block puzzle game…even though falling block puzzle games didn't exist in 1981. In reality, though, Sneakers is an interesting third-person shooter that was inspired by various shooters of the time. The gimmick here is that you've got eight waves of enemies to battle against, with each wave being a unique type of enemy, both in looks and behavior. The first wave is against the Sneakers, white-legged creatures that roam around the screen, but don't actively try to hurt you. Wave two is against the Cyclops army, a group of olive-looking ships that move across the screen from left to right. Each time you fire a shot, they increase in speed and decrease in latitude, so if you miss too many shots, you'll find yourself losing a ship. Wave three has you shooting at Saucers, which are a group of ships that drop a constant supply of bombs down at the player as they fly back and forth. Wave four is the Fangs, which are insect-looking ships that sway back and forth. Wave five are the H-wings, which I think are supposed to be those ships in Star Wars, and they both weave back and forth, while steadily making their way down towards the bottom of the screen. Wave six has the player blasting through a field of meteoroids and asteroids. If you destroy enough of the big 'uns, you'll receive bonus points at the end of the wave. Wave seven contains the Scrambles, which are triangular ships that fall towards your ship. To complete the wave, you've got to shoot the ships, which causes them to deflect backwards. Do this enough times, and you'll find yourself in wave eight - the Scrubs. The Scrubs shoot down the screen diagonally, but after you shoot them, they drop straight down the screen…so if you're too close when connecting with a shot, you may find the Scrub ship immediately crashing into yours. After completing all eight waves, you'll start back at wave one to do it all over again, but at a higher difficulty. While Sneakers isn't an outstanding game, it has enough variety to make this worthwhile for fans of space shooters of the time.

Review added: 07/29/2026

Space Invaders

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Atari

When Atari ported Space Invaders to their Atari 2600 console, they went above and beyond, providing a slew of new variations and gameplay options to essentially make the home port even better than the arcade original. With more space to work with and stronger hardware to display the game, Atari could have added so much more and made this port even better than the Atari 2600 version. Instead, Atari decided to take Space Invaders to the next level by adding….a giant spaceship that the aliens come out of….and that's it. You don't battle the spaceship…you just see it take up a large portion of the screen and watch the aliens slowly make their way out as you try to pick them off as they exit. In fairness, there are some game modes here, so it's not just a straight port of the arcade game with a fancy mothership. These modes aren't quite as fun or customizable as the modes on the Atari 2600 cart, though. There are twelve game modes here in total, and vary in the number of lives the player has, how fast the alien laser beams are, and if the laser beams can "home-in" or not. If you owned an Atari 8-bit computer, and not an Atari 2600, then this is a decent port of an all-time great arcade game. However, if you're able to play the Atari 2600 version instead, then I'd head in that direction.

Review added: 07/29/2026

Starbowl Football

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Gamestar

For anyone that knows me, or has read my reviews of football games, knows that I'm not a fan of the sport. I've never understood the appeal, I don't think I ever will understand it. However, when done right, it can make a good video game. In the case of Starbowl Football, it was done right. While it looks a bit basic by today's standards, back in 1982, this was a pretty advanced game of pigskin. There are 196 play possibilities here, which means that unlike some other football titles that came before it, where many games felt largely the same, each game in Starbowl Football can feel quite a bit different than both the previous game that you played and the next. There are also two difficulty modes - College or Pro. And College mode isn't a guaranteed win for you, either. So, there's enough of a challenge here to keep you coming back for more. I also like how the entire field is not visible in this game…you see a portion of the field and it scrolls as a player advances towards the endzone. By making the field seem bigger, it feels like a bigger accomplishment when you're about to score that touchdown. While Starbowl Football is a solid game, it's not perfect. The amount of plays in this game is nice, but selecting those plays with the joystick can take a little while to get used to….especially with the volume of options that you have at your disposal when selecting a play. There's a 30-second timer when making these selections, so unless you just plan to pick random plays, don't be surprised if you get hit with a few "delay of game" penalties while you try to figure everything out. Still, with how deep Starbowl Football can be, I think that football fanatics will fall in love with everything here. Non-football fans, or casual fans, may appreciate the quality of game here, but also may be hoping for something a little more simplistic after playing a game or two.

Review added: 07/29/2026