Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror [Doctor Who, Diversion 36]

 Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror by Micro Power
April 1985

​

While chatting with dad about the Commodore 64 and taking notes for my Blue Box review, it occurred to me that the first Doctor Who video games appeared during the 1980s. Putting several of the various Who games into my marathon is something that occurred to me a while back, but I sort of lost track of time. Well, no time like the present.

After a quick search, I find that every Commodore 64 game ever made (more or less...) is available to emulate in-browser on various different sites. Saves me the effort of downloading and configuring a discrete emulator, I think happily. I click on the link for Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror.

I'm about to start when I recall that built-in tutorial features generally didn't exist yet in 1985 (or '86, when the Commodore port came out), and check to see if the game's manual is anywhere on the emulation site. No... Time to go looking.

After spending some more time combing search engine results, I was able to find one site with a ZIP full of scans for this game. When I download it, I'm greeted with an in-your-face plot blurb on the back of the box:

Are you ready for brain to brain combat?

Ultimate risk scenario. Your intervention urgently requested. The Master planning to use the Doctor's brain in modified TIRU (Time Instant Replay Unit) to produce chaos weapon. Time-warping mineral, Heatonite, a critical component. Mine/Factory 2nd Moon Rijar. Ky-Al-Nargath construction. Mega secure!!!! Madrag (genetically boosted saurian) + psycho-robotics + techno trickery. Force futile. Weapon skills N.A. Machine skill vital. Full cerebral combat status needed at all times. Halt Heatonite production. Disable TIRU. Locate and regain plans. Impossible to stress too fully the importance of the Rijan mission. Invisible cat could prove most useful.​

Invisible cat...?

A look at the various "top secret" manuals bundled in tells me all I need to know about the Doctor's ever-loyal robotic animal sidekick. Splinx! Yes, I struggled not to make a SPLINK joke too. You're very brave to resist it.

Splinx is an essential tool for the Doctor in this game, as she can move about invisibly and store items within her hyperspace load module, which is good since the Doctor himself apparently only has four slots in his pockets. A lot of the gameplay appears to revolve around using Splinx to distract enemies and solve puzzles. This can get a bit sophisticated, as we see here, where the developers felt the need to take explicit detail to tell you how to get out of the first area:

The trick is to use Splinx to distract the beast. Move left from the TARDIS and climb down the first ladder. [...]
Call up the Splinx command menu and instruct her as follows:
Goto marker (The one near the egg.)
Pick up object (An egg in this case.)
Goto marker (The one dropped near the ladder.)
Drop object (Splinx will leave the egg.)
Return (Splinx will attempt to return to the Doctor.) [...]​

​

I decide I will give the game a try in spite of my misgivings, and load up the Commodore version. After a brief glimpse of the boot screen, I'm right into the game without much more fanfare, standing next to Splinx outside the TARDIS.

​

Isn't she a precious little moggy? The first thing that strikes me is that the game doesn't look half bad for '86, although the music, a chiptune rendition of "Overture" from Bizet's Carmen, gets grating rather quickly. I mute the game audio and begin to explore.

I quickly notice a problem as I try to acquaint myself with the controls. The hotkeys for actions listed in the manual clearly do not align with the game I'm playing. I realize what's going on after looking things over more closely: the documentation I downloaded is for the BBC Micro version, and the controls for the Commodore version are different.

A search for the Commodore version's manual and documentation seems to turn up nothing, so I resolve to carry on through experimentation. I find out how to move about, jump, and climb up and down ladders easily enough. Finding the Splinx menu proves harder, but I do eventually locate it. Making use of it is another matter entirely. I find out how to scroll between options, but not how to select them. Trying each key on my keyboard systematically only gets me stuck in a boot screen that I can't seem to exit. I reboot the program and eventually accept the inevitability that I won't work this bit out on my own. I make the questionable choice to go on and see how far I can get without Splinx's aid.

While Quinn watches me fumble around the mines (of terror), they read off a history of the game from Wikipedia and inform me that it was originally being developed as a different game and had Doctor Who painted over it late in development. That's very "of the era", I gather; I can't imagine any game being developed in such a way today unless it was really on the cheap.

We also learn that a pickaxe is essential for progress, so as long as I'm struggling to master the hyperdimensional kitty cat, I figure I might as well go and grab one of those. After some exploration I find a Rijan miner working hard on a rock face. As I observe, they stop, walks over, and drop their pick when a second Rijan comes down to meet them. Excited, I rush over and try to pick up the item.

 

​

Unfortunately, I can't find the right key. I spend at least five minutes trying a different key each time the interaction happens. In the end I only succeed in soft locking the game a few more times. The game audio is still muted, but I imagine that, somewhere in my head, I can still hear Carmen, plucking tinnily away. I decide discretion is the better part of valor and try to locate the BBC Micro version of the game so I can line my gaming experience up with the manuals.

Fortunately, I do find it, and click my heels together in joy. Unlike the Commodore version, I get to see some charming screens before starting the game proper, including a Star Wars style opening crawl and a very... interesting portrait of Colin Baker. I am pleasantly surprised by an 8-bit rendition of the Howell theme playing over the title screen.

I immediately notice that the graphics are not quite up to par with the Commodore version, but the map appears to be identical and Splinx is still cute. With optimism in my heart, I begin to make my way around. Soon I also notice that unlike the Commodore version, where the camera follows the Doctor seamlessly, here there's a second of loading time whenever the Doctor reaches the edge of the "screen". As I make my way back down to the same spot where I tried to pick up the pickaxe before, I ponder the peculiarity of the fact that you play as yourself in this game, aiding the Doctor from afar, and not as the Doctor himself. I hum "Toreador" while dropping down the ladders.

​

Once in the same pit where I found the miners last time, I find them absent and realize that this version is a bit different in terms of its item placement too. There is no sign of the pickaxe, but I spot a different object on the ground. After consulting with the helpful image key provided with among the game's paper materials, I learn it's something called a "packing case". Huzzah! Now how do I get it out of my hands?

​

Upon further investigations, I manage to put the item away in my inventory and feel very proud of myself. With the packing case of dubious use in tow, I begin to ascend further, evading some legally distinct not-a-daleks and try to see what's up this way.

​

Things go a little wrong at this point, as while trying to hit the key to ascend the ladder after pausing for a second, I inadvertently open up to this load/save screen that I can't figure out how to exit, forcing me to reboot the game.

​

By the time I'm loaded in again, I decide it's time to stop messing around and attempt to bypass the Madrags with Splinx's help, just like the guide suggested. Things take a terrible turn when I try to select the commands in Splinx's menu. I'm once again faced with an inescapable screen, this time a BBC Micro Acorn command screen. I sweat as I realize that, unlike my dad, my skills with BASIC are pretty paltry indeed, and the one command I know doesn't happen to do anything.

​

After hard rebooting the game and trying to negotiate with the Splinx menu again, I nevertheless arrive on the command screen once more. Quinn watches in concern. I think I hear Carmen playing again, in the far recesses of my mind...

​

It seems I'm doomed to repeat this cycle. Perhaps I'm succumbing to the Master's psychic attacks. I'm not ready for brain to brain combat after all. No escape. No hope. No! Stop, you're making me giddy! No, no, no!

​

Sooner or later, I come back to my senses and conclude that maybe the real terror was the mines we found along the way. I concede defeat and close the game for good, with the assumption that I probably wasn't missing very much. It was a fun diversion, but it's time to come back to reality.

Timelash is next.

... Can I just go back to the mines of Rijan instead?

 

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 16 May 2024.)