Forget Solitaire - Nigel Ellis, our host for this fanzine's location reviews Doctor Who games on all formats.
A lot of computers have or have had some form of computer game based on Doctor Who. Below is a list (not definitive) of Doctor Who games available for computers, and a little bit about them.
The views expressed here are entirely my own. Other people may like the games and may enjoy them thoroughly. If I have missed any games, I am sorry.
Here at University I have access to a wide range of platforms, including Unix, Mac, Acorn, Atari, and VMS (can't remember my password). At home I have an Amiga. If the Amiga games are more in depth, sorry: I like Amigas very much. I have, where possible, tried to test the games before writing my mini review.
Doom Extras (MSDOS)
There have been a few add-ons to the popular PC game Doom and Doom II. I haven't tried many of these. One I did try was Dalek-Doom, which turned one of the man types into Daleks. They also shouted Exterminate instead of the usual shout.
This wasn't too bad, and the author did say that he had never seen a dalek in his life before deciding to do a Dalek doom. I am sure there are plenty more Doctor Who Dooms, and probably will be more to come for some time.
This is an adventure game where you are the Doctor, seeing how you would go about stopping Sutekh in the Pyramids of Mars with no Sarah to get in the way. This is a text adventure game, with a limited but at the same time quite good, vocabulary.
However, I am no good at adventure games, although I do like them, and got no where in this game due to the fact that I couldn't find the mars.hnt (the hint file).
The little bit I did manage to do I liked, and from what I can remember of Pyramids of Mars, this is quite a good conversion to computer.
It is definitely a good idea to watch Pyramids of Mars first. The characters that I managed to see have no introduction to them. This you must get from the video/programme itself.
This is a simple game, based on the classic game robots.
The general idea is that the Doctor can move eight ways:
Up, Down, Left, Right, NE, NW, SE, SW. As the Doctor makes a move, so will the
Daleks. The Daleks slowly mob towards the Doctor.
The idea is that, as the Doctor doesn't use weapons, he must try to make the
Daleks crash into each other.
The Doctor does have a few tricks though. He has a transporter. If the Daleks corner him, he can use the transporter to jump to another location. He also has a sonic screwdriver, which he can use to do nasty things to Daleks that are very close to him. When the Doctor has destroyed all the Daleks, he gets another level full.
I was actually quite impressed with this version. The graphics are nothing special, but again the game could quite easily get addictive, and I was only running on a 386sx25, and it was still quite good. A speedy machine is not essential for this.
The game was made much more enjoyable by the fact that it was controlled via keyboard and mouse.
The game is extremely similar to drobos, down to the keystrokes for transporter, sonic screwdriver and last stand (suicide). However the character control is very different. In the MS DOS version, cursor keys moved the character around. The Atari version uses the mouse, and you have to click on an arrow to move the character. (Unless the cursor keys didn't work properly. I was using an Atari TT). Unlike drobos for MS DOS, this game wasn't addictive. The controls got to me, and I went back to drobos on the PC.
This is very similar to the Atari version. (i.e. Having to control the main character via the mouse as opposed to the keyboard). In my opinion the game is mildly more playable than the Atari version.
A note for people wishing to download this game. You will need a vbrun100.dll. If you haven't got this, use archie and search for vbrun. It's needed by the program.
I tested this on a 486dx2 66 with a pci bus. It should run on any system with Windows. Speed, I doubt, is essential.
I did download this once for my Amiga, but didn't find the game very exciting. This was something like two years ago. I may download it again sometime and see what it was like, now I know the principle behind Daleks.
This is another Daleks clone apparently, although I haven't downloaded and tested it yet.
This is a simple game where you have to try to collect the six segments to the Key to Time. You can have two players, one of whom controls the companion. The Doctor starts off as William Hartnell, and counts each regeneration as a life.
There are a wide range of enemies to battle against, ranging from Daleks to Silurians, and of course the Master, who, if he gets hold of the Doctor, will steal one of the segments. There are also objects in the arenas which can get in your way. In a way it is not too dissimilar from the drobos13.zip above.
However, as before, the Doctor in the game does not use weapons. Instead, the Doctor, and the companion if there is one, must try to confuse the enemy, and cause them to crash into each other. At various points the Doctor can gain a powerup to the sonic screwdriver which, when activated, pauses all enemies on the screen for a few seconds.
In my opinion, and this is only mine, the game is badly programmed. (That could be because I am using OS 2.1, which maybe it doesn't like.)Saying that though, the game is very addictive. Beware, the enemies in this game fire back !
This is written by me. So if it has a very good review, then you know why.
This game is a very simple game (for those of you who own Amigas it is written in AMOS). It's a trivia game. The computer randomly selects a multiple choice question, and jumbles the order of the answers, so that the player can't remember the answer by simply memorising the order.
Also, some questions have four answers, some have three, and some have two. The questions are taken from the 26 year run of Doctor Who on British Television. (i.e. Up until the end of 1989).
The program, of course, keeps track of the player's score. The player has three lives in which to get as many questions right as possible.
A new version is hopefully on its way soon, which has a timer option, and better graphics. (My graphical skills are not brilliant at the best of times).
This is a Doctor Who platform game. It features three of the Doctors, and three of the companions, in a race to rid several major cities on Earth of Daleks, and their Ogrons and Robomen, and also to attack Skaro and hopefully get rid of Davros.
The Doctor and the companion have five lives in which to complete the game. Collecting bags of jelly babies increases energy.
The game features some nice sound, but the graphics, in my opinion, let it down. The background graphics are nice, but the characters are not brilliant. Also, the game can get infuriating after a while.
I am not sure about this game. I have seen it in a shop occasionally, but as I have no access to a BBC computer, there is no point buying it.
From what I recall, this is a text adventure. I may not have the title correct. I have heard people say that it is not very good, but if you have access to a BBC you will have to judge that for yourselves.
This bit is very biased indeed. WARNING.
The Amiga has the best games selection, and I don't say this because of my program. (Personally, I am paranoid about using my own programs.) I say this because the Doctor Who game that I mentioned is good and addictive. It is based slightly on Daleks, the game that seems to haunt every computer. (Even VAX). It is not recognisable as this, and even has music, something no other game I tried did. (Although they did have sound effects.)
Although I must congratulate Pyramids of Mars. I liked this game, even though I am completely hopeless at adventure games (Some would say all games). This game is also quite good for adventure game enthusiasts, although it would suit a Doctor Who fan better, preferably one who has watched the Pyramids of Mars.
As for Dalek Attack? I would only really recommend this to Doctor Who fans. A non Doctor Who fan would probably hate this game.
Another reason for being biased towards Amiga is that, not including Daleks or any Daleks clone, the Amiga has three Doctor Who games, PC's also have three (taking all daleks clones as one type), every other platform has one. (Unless there are some that I could not find).
Nigel Ellis
ED: Our thanks to Nigel for his list of games. I certainly wouldn't mind having a go at Pyramids of Mars.
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