Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure was one of the Apogee jump'n'runs where I have played the shareware episode in my childhood. When I played it again – maybe one or two years ago – it came clear that the gameplay itself is still incredibly fun, but one factor hasn't aged well: The screen. See the next paragraph, but let me explain the gameplay first. You control Cosmo trying to evade enemies and at the same time trying to collect items that mostly boost your score. I don't remember if you get extra lives by the score, but I think you had unlimited lives. You have - as seen on the screenshot - three health bars that can fill up by finding certain items. If you lose all health, you die. Cosmo's special ability is to hang on walls, essentially being able to wallclimb. He also has explosives that he can use to for example destroy poles with bonuses or plants that give a bomb each. The game uses the typical engine of the Apogee games at that time, I think, but in contrary to those the screen is to my taste just a tad too far zoomed in. If you play this game, you will need to advance carefully, and that is something you have to keep in mind while playing. There is no stealth element, but the pace of the game makes it so that if you advance too quickly - especially also up and down - you might run into enemies, costing you health. It is partially remedied by the ability to press up or down to look up and down, but still the screen feels too small. The graphics have a small amount of "real" action on the screen in their graphics like color-changing health molecules, but animations are few. More often than not the game shows its age. Would I recommend this game? I would recommend the game to your children, and that is no joke. For a child the gameplay is a nice introduction to jump'n'runs and teaching them to be careful. Otherwise if you want a small nostalgia trip, get it also. Just wait for a sale, since the current price seems too high in comparison to what else you could get.
Many series had their highlight in the third part, for others the third part sucked horribly. Settlers is of the former kind. After the first two parts (only parts starting from 2 are available on GOG also) had you build up your small town with roads, originally I was very skeptical when it was announced that the settlers would create their own roads. This, however, was a misunderstanding, as the roads concept was scrapped, buildings could be placed almost freely, and what ensued was goodness. But what is Settlers 3? When my aunt gifted me a few games at one of my birthdays, they included "One Step Beyond" - a forgotten small game - and three games I completely loved: Dungeon Keeper 2, Settlers 3, Might & Magic VII. Settlers 3 later got two expansions, I bought them both later. They are included on GOG. Settlers 3 is an "Aufbau sim" in German style. The American style Aufbau sims like Caesar and Pharaoh have you built a complex city, the German style sims are more about building a basic economy, then getting some resources to build up the military and overwhelming the opponent with this. Knights & Merchants is a clunky gem with that idea, but the Settlers series might have been the origin of this style. And it is one that takes its time. You have four kinds of buildings: Basic resources, food, military, society. So you build at first woodcutters, sawmills, possibly foresters, and stonemasons, to get planks (made from logs cut by woodcutters, processed in the sawmill) and stone (directly cut from stone by masons, a finite but usually plentiful resource, like mine resources). Then you build a food production (feeds miners only, others need no food), and mines. With the resources from mines you create morale-lifting gold (or gems as Egyption) and weapons. And then you attack. Miracles by priests, and rarely used siege weapons can help you. Each of the 3+1 civs is different, but basic gameplay is the same. [see comments for the continuation]
