QikServe

If games were measured by how fondly you remember them, QikServe would have its fans. This game from 1988 offers you a simple premise: you play a server in a restaurant or bar where you must serve customers before they run out of patience. It's a combination of management casual and action game against time—all with the flavor of simulating a real business.

Despite what you might expect, this isn't a casino in the traditional sense. The mechanics are primitive—you try to serve as many guests as possible in as short a time as possible. Characters appear in a window, you click them or give commands to fulfill their order. The longer they wait, the worse your score. Controls are of the simplest kind, keyboard and mouse in DOS sometimes dragged, but it works. Game pace accelerates until it gets to your nerves, which is clearly the point.

In the context of its time it was an interesting idea—no gambling here, it's more about reflexes and quick decision-making. Graphics are primitive, sounds even more so—that typical PC speaker sound that half the neighborhood heard in some homes. It aged pretty unpleasantly, and if you're looking for deep experience, you won't find it here.

Today you can play it in a DOS emulator in your browser and it's actually pleasantly spent time. It fits if you like minimalist relaxing games and want to spend a few minutes back in an era when game was fun in itself, without story and without big ambitions. It's not much, but it's a clean, simple piece from when computers were just learning to play.