The Doctor Who Spin offs, parodies and guest appearances
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Escape From Moon Base Alpha
Publisher: Micro Power Ltd Year: 1983 or 1984 Price: Unknown (around £10) Machines: BBC BASIC Type: Arcade / Adventure |
Story: (from the game itself) You have been left on Moon base alpha by your mutinous crew. Your only means of escape is the Doctor and he wants payment. Along the way you will meet many foes and friends. People such as The Wizard, Deadly Doris, and The Demon.
Notes: You play Joey. There are many links to popular science fiction shows in this one. Marvin the paranoid android from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the Incredible Hulk from the Marvel comics. The TV from Willo the Wisp (I think). The Doctor and his Police Box (from you know what) and the name itself is probably inspired by Space 1999.
The game also features a character called the Metal Mauler which is basically a Dalek and the Green Gualer which is basically a Godzilla like monster. I suppose calling them a Dalek and Godzilla would mean they would need to pay royalties to use them. Other examples of this are the Doctor is never called Doctor Who, the Police Box never called the TARDIS, and Marvin never Marvin the Paranoid Android (as he was mostly known)
Marvin kills you by boring you to death. You can eat a pill which will turn you into the Hulk. The Police box turns up occasionally, which if you get into it will transport you to another room in the base. The Doctor is portrayed as the Fourth Doctor, so the game may have been released even earlier then I thought.
The graphics are bright and bold. The story of the Doctor wanting payment is a little far fetched, turning him into some kind of mercenary. Game play is very, very hard. Just by entering a room you can be killed so watch out. This game is wonderful and I’m amazed it was overlooked because it features so many references to popular shows of the time.
The keys
G - Get a bag of gold
H - turn into the Hulk
Deus Ex Machina
Publisher: Automata
Year: 1984
Price: £15 (very expensive then)
Machine: ZX Spectrum
Story: The game follows the life span of a mutant created by an all powerful computer.
Notes: Not a direct Doctor Who game but it does have one of the oddest features of any of the games listed, Jon Pertwee lends his voice to the audio soundtrack that came with the game! He gives the basic story of the game. Comedian Frankie Howard also gets a part, playing the Defect Police.
It came in a massive box, and was not easy to stock in shops because previous games had been cassette size, so it didn't sell particularly well and quickly became a collectable item. It contained two tapes, the game itself and an audio tape which was designed to be played while you played the game.
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The Roland games - Roland in Space and Roland in Time
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Story: A nice simple premise, where you as Roland must collect all 158 crystals to build a super weapon to destroy your arch enemy the Maestro (another Master anagram), who is trying to stop you.
Roland in Space 1985 (unconfirmed year, the game gives no copyright
date)
Features: You have 9 lives, and the game is split over 7 planets.
Two of them named after planets from the "Curse of Peladon", Alpha Centuri
and Arcturus.
Roland In Time 1986
Features: You have 10 lives, and the game is spread over 10
different time zones. The title screen also featured a rendition of the
theme music.
Notes: These games used the Doctor Who idea, borrowed the music, changed the TARDIS to a telephone booth, used the Master as an enemy, and had Roland step into the Doctor’s shoes. The game play however is very unique and the graphics stand out.
They were part of a series of games featuring Roland. The other titles were Roland on the ropes, Roland in the caves, Roland on the run, Roland ahoy!, and Roland goes digging. According to the game inlay for Roland in the caves, Roland lands in his time machine and falls down a big hole and this is where the game starts. Apart from this the other games feature completely different game play and ignore Roland’s time traveling adventures.
Reviews: Roland In Time fared quite well in the reviews of the time. Amtix gave it 72 out of 100 in issue 2 and Amstrad Action gave it an overall mark of 82 out of 100 in issue 1. Roland In Space recieved some mixed reviews, with Amstrad Action liking it with 81 out of 100 in issue 1 and Amtix giving it only 41 out of 100 in issue 1.
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Odd Job Eddie
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Story: The televisions broken so TV repair man Eddie must go inside the television set and collect his tools so that he can fix it.
Notes: Being inside the telly Eddie meets only one TV star, a Dalek (I suppose they wanted a television nasty) even R2 D2 features in this Jet Set Willy look-a-like. He is located in the screen directly above the starting screen, go left, up and right. This came in two different sets, first with a game called Witch Fiend. This set was also collected together with another set comprising two other games, Colin The Cleaner and Blizzard Pass.
Pokes
| Feature | Address | Value |
| Infinite lives | 30349 | 0 |
Brian Bloodaxe
Publisher: The Edge
Year: March 1985
Author: Charles Bystram
Machine: ZX Spectrum
Type: Platform
Story: From the Spectrum games database Text file - Brian Bloodaxe has landed on the shores of Britain in his viking longboat. His first quest is to become ruler of the land by finding the crown jewels and sitting on the throne while wearing them. After that, God will send further instructions.
Notes: A very large and complicated game. Using the same format as Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy Brian must wander around 104 rooms collecting objects to complete various tasks. The heavy influence of Monty Python can be seen in the game, the theme music for one which gets very annoying very quickly. Various monsters patrol the platforms and rooms you must travel around, and these take the shape of various objects popular with Jet Set Willy clones (toilets, scissors, etc) as well as the old favourites the Daleks which all the designers of these types of games seem to love. This one is located off the main screen you start on, to the left, once you jump on and over the pool with the shark in it (hint: use the shark's fin to jump on).
Herbert's dummy run
Publisher: Mikro-Gen Ltd
Year: 1985
Price: £9.95
Machine: ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad
Type: Arcade/Adventure
Story: Herbert was visiting a large department store with his Mum and Dad (Wally and Wilma) when he got lost! Now the store is a scary place and full of beasts which will hurt Herbert and make him cry! Help Herbert to explore the store, manipulating the objects he finds to help him get into the lost children office where Wally and Wilma are waiting for him.
References - ZX Spectrum magazines
Many articles featuring previews, reviews, features, tips, maps, hacks,
and solution have been published in most leading magazines. Many articles
relating to both the original and re-release versions. To save space I
have not included them. They can be found on the World of Spectrum archive,
using the search engines.
Notes: The game features various arcade sub-games which must be completed to finish the game. The games were Breakout and a Carnival-style shooting gallery. There was also a Space Invaders game with the Daleks as the aliens. If you travel right you will reach the Dalek room. You can shoot the Daleks but they reappear at the top of the screen. Herbert's Dummy Run is part of a series of games under the overall title of the Wally Week series. The other games in the series were Automania, Pyjamarama, Everyone's A Wally, and Three Weeks in Paradise
Pokes
| Feature | Address | Value |
| Set number of lives | 36739 | Num |
| Infinite lives | 51925 | 0 |
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