Computer Games Guide

The public view of Doctor Who fans has always shared many similarities with that of computer programmers – spotty, geeky, friendless youths rapidly going short-sighted from staring at too many screens. Throw a scarf in, and it's hard to tell the difference.

Whether or not this perception is correct, when the computer hardware industry boomed in the 1980s, Who fans saw this as a damn good excuse to attempt to create their own interactive episodes, with far superior effects than the series could ever manage.

Here we present a more-or-less complete guide to these bundles of machine code produced over the years, across a variety of formats and in a surprising amount of styles. Some are entire games given over to the Time Lord, others just feature nods of the head which show just how many fans had managed to infiltrate the top-level positions at software companies.

Unlike anywhere else on the site, we have chosen to include amateur games here. Not only is there, in several cases, a blurred line between "amateur" and "professional", but a lot of the "amateur" ones are far superior to the official ones!

In order to draw some sort of line, we're not including variants of the Daleks game (see below for more info) or online games that purely take the form of a quiz/puzzle to test your knowledge of Doctor Who (the official website, then part of BBCi, included three of these in the late 90s, and dozens upon dozens of fans have created simple tests online, which would take far too long to catalogue here! Try Googling if you're interested).

Notes on downloads

All downloads are available by arrangement with the original authors - beware sites that offer downloadable copyrighted items without permission.

TME takes no responsibility for software or hardware damage caused by the downloads it provides. It does, however, offer free technical support - please contact us with as many details of the problems as possible, and we will endeavour to help. Most downloads require Winzip or Windows XP/Vista or to run.

If you're having trouble with emulators, TME is working on a "how to" page, available here.

The games

Games that take place in (or spoof) the Doctor Who universe

Games that feature references to Doctor Who

Game download available

Related download available

	1980s
1983	Dr Who Adventure	Computer & Video Games
1983	Doctor Who: The First Adventure	BBC Soft
1983	Escape From Moonbase Alpha	Micropower Ltd
1983	Lords of Time	Level 9/Mandarin
1984	The Key to Time	Lumpsoft
1984	Roland in the Caves	Amsoft
1984	Roland in Time	Amsoft
1985	Roland in Space	Amsoft
1985	Doctor Who and the Warlord	BBC Software
1985	Brian Bloodaxe	The Edge
1985?	Time Lords	Red Shift
1985	Stranded	Superior Software
1985	Paradroid	Hewson
1985	Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror	Micro Power Ltd
1985	Mind Maze	Kevin o'Shea
1986	The Five Doctors	Kevin o'Shea
1986	Odd Job Eddie	Strobe
1986	Doctor What!	CRL Group PLC
1986	Herbert's Dummy Run	Mike-Gen Ltd
1987	Imagination	Prism Leisure
1988	Doctor Goo and the Samaroons	Global/SAEC

	1990s
1991	Doctor Who: Deadly Alliance	Mike Snyder
1991	Hugo II: Whodunnit?	Gray Design Associates
1991	Brides of Dracula	Gonzo Games
1991	The Bod Squad	Zeppelin Games
1992	Dalek Attack	Alternative
1992	The Key to Time	Jon Drukman
1992	Overkill	Epic Megagames
1993	Beneath a Steel Sky	Virgin Interactive
1993	Doctor Who and the Daleks	Systema
1994	Pyramids of Mars	Patrick Wigfull
1994	Whovial Pursuit	Brian Copeland
1995	Cannon Fodder II	Virgin
1995	BritTrivia	Mick Spencer
1996	Return to Karn	Patrick Wigfull
1997	The Doctor Who Platform Game	Argolis Productions
1997	The Seven Doctors	David Burke
1997	Jet Set Willy in Space	Richard Hallas
1997	Fallout	Interplay
1997	Mick's TARDIS Screensaver	Mick Spencer
1997	Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctors	BBC Multimedia
1998	Dr Goo	Josh Bender
1998	Exterminate!	Beeb
1998	Jigsaw Puzzles	Time Vortex
1998	Daleks!	Argolis Productions
1998	Manic Miner: Buddha of Suburbia	Broadsoft
1999	Dr Goo II: The Plague	Josh Bender
1999	Doctor Who: TARDIS Hunt	Argolis Productions
1999?	Dalek Blaster	The Production Centre

	2000s
2000	Dr Goo III: The Rubblewum War	Josh Bender
2000	Doctor Who: The Hidden Menace - Escape from Southbank Caves	Argolis Productions
2000	Doctor Who: Timewarp	Argolis Productions
2000	Doctor Who: The Jeffrey Coburn Series Quiz	Argolis Productions
2000	TARDIS Adventure	Greg Smith
2000	Dalek Soccer 2000	Cheeky Monkey Games
2000	Atlantean Soccer 2000	Cheeky Monkey Games
2001	Macra Cadabra	Cheeky Monkey Games
2001	Dalek Soccer 2002	Cheeky Monkey Games
2001	Return to Gallifrey	Family Fun and Games
2001	Asheron's Call	EB Games and Turbine, Inc
2002	Evade the Daleks	Paul Aslin
2002	Dalek Dissolution Earth	Pixel Pie
2002	Doctor Who and the Vortex of Lust	Chris Cole
2003	Whack-a-Dalek	daleks.fanspace.com
2003	Doctor Who Concentration	Kevin Wilson
2003	Destroy the Dalek Spacecrafts	Kevin Wilson
2003	Doctor Who Slot Machine	Kevin Wilson
2003	Doctor Who Hangman	Kevin Wilson
2003	Metebelis III Spider Race	Kevin Wilson
2003	Doctor Who Snake	Kevin Wilson
2003	K9 vs the Daleks!	SCSoft
2003	Doctor Who Trumps	BBCi
2003	TARDIS Tennis	BBC Sport
2003	XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association	Acclaim Entertainment
2004	Doctor Who: The Tides of Time	Toast Prophet Games
2004	Doctor Who: Dawn of the Orinth	Toast Prophet Games
2005	The Last Dalek	NewMediaCollective
2005	Dr Who: Invasion of the Daleks	Smila
2005	The Quest of the Golden Banana	Eric Eve
2005	Doctor Who: Dalek Hunter	Character Options
2005	Telos	Peter Crossley
2005	Dalektron	Andy & James Bower
2005	Launch Guinevere	BBC Online
2005	Project: Gallifrey / Doctor Who	Various
2005	Lost in the TARDIS	Murray Ewing
2006	Dalek	Brent Silby
2005	The Five Doctors	Paul Somers & Wil Roysdon
2005	Attack of the Graske	BBC Wales
2006	Slitheen Surfer	BBC Online
2006	SuDocWho	BBC Online
2006	Dizzy Who: Into the TARDIS	Theo's Grotto
2006	The Beginning	Paul Somers & Wil Roysdon
2006	The Dalek Game	Apathy Sketchpad
2006	Old Rope	Sequence
2006	Torchwood House	Sequence
2006	Are You Smart Enough?	Sequence
2006	Clockwork Robot Game	Sequence
2006	Cybus Spy!	Sequence
2006	Save Cyber Paris!	Sequence
2006	Defeat The Wire!	Sequence
2006	Flight Simulator	Sequence
2006	Escape the Ood!	Sequence
2006	Defend The Earth!	Sequence
2006	Chloe's World	Sequence
2006	Ghostwatch	Sequence
2006	Daleks vs Cybermen	Sequence
2006	K.9: Deja Who	Sequence
2006	Doctor Who: Cyber Assault	Fish in a Bottle
2006	BBCi Advent Calender	BBCi
2006	Escape from Skaro	Altered Vistas
2006	Sonic Who: The First TimeHog	SCSoft
2007	Another Five Doctors	Paul Somers & Wil Roysdon
2007	Smith and Jones Video Game	Paul Somers
2007	Sonic De-cloaker	BBCi
2007	Judoon Lander	DWOMedia
2007	Witch Hunt	DWOMedia
2007	Gridlock	DWOMedia
2007	Sec's in the City	DWOMedia
2007	Dalek Invaders	DWOMedia
2007	Escape Velocity	DWOMedia
2007	Scarecrow	DWOMedia
2007	Bloodline	DWOMedia
2007	Haunted House	DWOMedia
2007	Spaced Out	DWOMedia
2007	Fireball	DWOMedia
2007	Eye of the TARDIS	BBCi
2007	Dr Who: Robot	Paul Somers & Wil Roysdon
2007	Mr Smith Quiz	BBCi
2007	Z-Wingers	BBCi
2007	Doctor in a Dash	BBCi

	Appendix One: Unfinished
	K9 Racer	The Production Centre
	Doctor Who Adventure	Wayne Peters
	Doctor Who: The Dark Times	Andrew Brockhouse
	Timelord	Cheeky Monkey Games
	Dalek Chess	Corey Hollingsworth
	Doctor Who: The Morningstar Haunting	Argolis Productions
	Doctor Who: Caverns of Blood	Cheeky Monkey Games
	Doctor Who (Adventure Game)	Duckbutcher
	Dawn of the Daleks	Cirius
	Isometric Who	Christian Tate
	Top Trumps Adventures	Eidos

	Appendix Two: Unofficial Game Mods
1996	Doctor Who Quake Level	Christian Darkin
1997	Movie Daleks Quake	SCSoft
1997	Doctor Who Quake	SCSoft
1997	Dr Who WAD for Doom II	Unknown
1998	Doctor Who Doom II	Andrew Brockhouse
1998	Doctor Who Quake II	SCSoft
1999	Crows Nest Models For Quake II	Wayne Peters
1999	Quake Who	Conrad Feinson
1999	Doctor Who: The UNIT Years [for Quake III]	SCSoft
2000	Timequake [for Quake]	Giles Williams
2000	Wild Universe [for Homeworld]	Various
2000	The Sims models	Various
2001	Worms patches	Various
2003	Dalek War 2087 [for Wolfenstein 3D]	Paul Stone
2004	Dalek: Unbidden [for Half-Life]	Pixel-Pie
2005	Dr. Who: Dalek Invasion [Berzerk Hack]	Jamcat
2005	Dalek Mk IV [for Elite Force 2]	Andrew of Borg
2005	Doctor Who 2005 Dalek For San	Rhys Salcombe and [DRuG]NiKt
2005	The Only Dalek (etc) [for Escape]	Henri Kareinen

	Appendix Three: Myths, Rumours and Others...
1983	Attack of the Timelord!	Philips
1983	Cybermen	J Morrison Micros
1983	Zalaga	Aardvark
1984	Attack of the Cybermen	IJK Software
1984	Travels with the Trashman	New Generation Software
1985	Timelord	Omega
1986	Head Over Heels	Ocean Software
1986	Highway Encounter / Alien Highway: Encounter 2	Vortex
1989	Time Lord	Milton Bradley
1990	Zygon Warrior	Mal Harvey
1993	Cyber Man	Fabio Bizzetti
1995	Secret of Evermore	Squaresoft
1998	Doctor Who Theme	Chris Saloman
1998	Star Wars: Droidworks	LucasLearning
2000	Sonic Who (Now a Myth no longer!)	TMEGames
2004	Cyber Man	HardCover Entertainment Software
2004	Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords	LucasArts Entertainment
2005	Second Life	Linden Labs

If you've written, or are writing, a Doctor Who game and need somewhere to put it, we'd love to hear from you to discuss partnering with us at the Whoniverse.

If you already have somewhere to put it, but it's not listed here, please contact us anyway so we can help promote your work!

Daleks

In 1982, working for Williams Electronics, Eugene Jarvis created one of the most popular and enduring arcade machines for the early 80s – Robotron 2084. Like other classics of its time, the gameplay was simple but addictive: as a robot, the player must save humans from an unfeasibly large amount of killer robots. This game has spawned many conversions from a DOS version, to the Nintendo N64's Robotron64. It also inspired a spate of Who-based games from the mid 80s to the present day: Daleks.

As the Doctor, the player must destroy as many Daleks as possible (either with his screwdriver or by making them bash into each other as they move towards him), in a turn-taking puzzle-type affair. It is never possible to "win", as every time the Daleks are wiped out, a larger attack force appears. This differs distinctly from Robotron, in which the player can shoot the enemies.

Many versions of this Daleks game have appeared over the years, on the DOS, Windows, Atari, Amiga and Mac platforms at the very least. Ethan Koehler has programmed a Java version of it which is available to play online, and a highly advanced version was created in 2005, under the name Dalektron - with the exception of this latest incarnation (simply because it's very different), we haven't attempted to catalogue the myriad other versions. Life's too short.

We do, however, recommend the excellent WinDaleks, if you want to try out a nice PC version, available here (487k).

Photography by Jane Walker