Star Wars - shoot 'em up (Atari)
Now here's a rarity: a big-budget tie-in that thoroughly deserved its success. Star Wars was a pioneer in the use of wireframe graphics, providing a convincing three-dimensional environment. The final level - a death-defying flight through a trench in the Death Star - was a design masterstroke too.

Sensible Soccer - football game (Sensible Software)
It may seem obvious now, but once upon a time, no football game - no matter how distinctive or innovative it might be in other respects - featured genuine 'passing to feet'. In short, you kicked the ball at pre-set angles. Sensible Soccer changed all that and somehow managed to communicate a greater sense of realism than all but a handful could attempt to rival.

Mercenary - adventure game (Paul Woakes)
In a sense, Mercenary deserves at least as much attention as the more celebrated Elite. Admittedly, it offered a mere planet while Elite offered galaxies, but it could also provide detail. Long before other developers had cottoned on to the idea of 'secrets' in games, Paul Woakes created one of the greatest intrigues of an age: how to unlock a hangar with a super-charged craft inside? A classic in every sense of the word.

Knight Lore - platform adventure (Ultimate)
As Anglocentric as this feature may be, it's a simple fact that many old Spectrum games don't make the grade. Knight Lore, though, was special in a number of ways, and its groundbreaking use of 'forced' isometric 3D was astonishing for the time. It shifted the metaphorical goalposts a few yards off the pitch of popular expectations and encouraged other developers to push gaming hardware to its limits.

Ghostbusters - arcade hybrid/film licence (Activision)
Shorn of its Unique Selling Point, Ghostbusters just wouldn't be here. Its C64 iteration, however, used the SID sound chip to create one of the most revelatory moments in gaming history. With superbly crafted, multi-channel sound, it played an excellent instrumental mix of Ray Parker Junior's theme song. And, get this, it even printed the lyrics on the screen, with a bouncing dot - it was amazing!