The European computer game market of the early eighties to mid nineties was a thing of terrible beauty. Crazy ideas and potential profit were at the front of publisher’s minds. And quality control was often at the back of their minds, hidden behind a vague memory of that time they fell off their bike and lost their door key.

In my previous book Terrible Old Games You’ve Probably Never Heard Of I showcased a bevy of amusingly awful titles. And now I’m going to do it again, because what the world needs right now is to know exactly how bad Domain of the Undead for the Atari 8-bit computers was.

And because I like to confound expectations, the book will be larger than the previous volume yet cost the same! This second excavation of gaming’s buried past will not only unearth more appalling excuses for digital entertainment, but also feature several special interest chapters not based around single specific games. And more guest contributors will be telling us about their most disappointing gaming purchases, so we can feel a bit better the next time we pick up a cheap game on a whim and discover it’s about as much fun as banging your face against a fridge door.

The core criteria of the games eligible for entry will remain the same. They must have been:

Released between 1980 and 1995 inclusive

Released commercially, i.e. sold for money

Released on a home computer format, not a dedicated games console

So incredibly poor that it would be almost impossible for a reasonable person to enjoy playing them

That way we keep out all the ones you’ve heard of a million times in YouTube videos. These are truly obscure and truly dreadful games – the very worst the industry ever offered up. We may have all been disappointed with Aliens Colonial Marines, but it doesn’t seem quite so bad when you’ve spent a few minutes wrestling with the controls of Cisco Heat on the Commodore 64...

If you’d like a copy of Attack of the Flickering Skeletons: More Terrible Old Games You’ve Probably Never Of , pledge now and we’ll be on the way to making it a reality. Let’s not let these games slip under the radar just because they’re terrible, they’re old and... well... you’ve probably never heard of them.