In the niche genre long dominated by extremely challenging epics such as Graham Nelson's Curses and clever games such as Andrew Plotkin's Spider and Web, 9:05 is a refreshing breather.

A Crimson Spring, Robb Sherwin's entry in the 2000 IF Competition is, by far, my pick for #1 underdog of that competition.

A Whole New Ball Game is a solid Windows remake of the Spectrum ZX game of the same name, designed by Pete Cook in 1988.

Another solid entrant to the relative obscure world of fanmade RPGs, Abaddon is a fun anime-style, top-down RPG similar to console hits such as Dragon Warrior, with many notable differences.

One of the cleverest IF you'll ever play, Nick Montfort's Ad Verbum is a masterpice of wordplay puzzles that has more puns than you can shake a stick at.

AeroStyle is an excellent freeform aerial combat shooter that sports a very intuitive mouse-driven interface, crisp SVGA graphics, and fun gameplay.

Agharta is a good example of a game that is long on form, but short on substance.

AI Wars: The Awakening is an innovative and very underrated FPS that requires a lot of effort to learn.

Air Offensive: The Art of Flying is a decent 3D shooting game from Inca Gold.

Airfix Dogfighter is a fun flight simulator that is perfect for the kid in all of us.