During the 90s, it became common practice for knowledgeable gaming fans to “patch” or “mod” their favourite games, altering anything from the graphics to the entire gameplaying engine. Unsurprisingly, a number of mods were created to give some games a Doctor Who feel…
1996 – Doctor Who Quake Level
Quake was id’s follow-up to the Doom series (see below), based on a similar style of gaming but with far more advanced technology, and released in July 1996. So far there have been three sequels (Quake II, Quake III Arena and Quake 4), which have sold over 4,000,000 copies in total, and a version for mobile phones.
This is a popular Quake conversion that TimeQuake was eventually based on. The website has this to say:
“Fight the Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen and Sea Devils. (You need a registered version of Quake to play this).”
[website]
1997-1999 – SCSoft Quake Mods
For three years, SCSoft coded various mods for the different Quake games..:
1997: Movie Daleks Quake, incorporating Daleks and Robomen from the 60s Dalek movies.
1997: Doctor Who Quake, incorporating various fourth-Doctor icons such as Jelly Babies and K9. Also, Conrad Feinson of ‘QuakeWho’ (see below) created an add-on level in 1999, available for download at SCSoft, entitled ‘The Master’s Revenge’
1998: Doctor Who Quake II, incorporating various third and fourth-Doctor icons such as UNIT and Davros. An update would also utilise Crow’s Nest’s models.
1999: Doctor Who: The UNIT Years for Quake III, incorporation the Giant Robot, the Master and the Sontarans.
SCSoft inform us that they later began mods based on Doom 3 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but sadly got no further than replacing the final monster in the latter game with The Master.
[website]
1997 – Dr Who WAD for Doom II
Doom was a first-person shooter released by id Software in December 1993. It was one of the first major games of its genre to allow games to network computers together to play against each other, rather than against computer-controlled enemies. It was followed up by a sequel, Doom II: Hell on Earth in 1994, and numerous expansion packs, before the range died out in 1996. A brief revival took place in the 21st century, with the 2004 game Doom 3 and a tie-in movie in 2005.
No details are known for this mod, except that it seems to add a fourth Doctor image to Doom II.
[website]
1998 – Doctor Who Doom II
Created by Andrew Brockhouse, who would later go on to code Dark Times. TME exclusively hosts the game mod and an extra TARDIS model:
1999 – Crow’s Nest Models for Quake II
Models of a Dalek, a Cyberman and a Spider Dalek for use in Quake 2. Wayne Peters said the following on his site :
Spider Dalek : This is a Quake2 model of my Spider Dalek design. It was the last model I made using Bones Pro. The legs were murderous. Trying to keep track of what legs I had moved where was a nightmare. It worked I think, though I had not grasped the idea of keeping skins to 256×256 so it’s a little excessive and could probably stand to be improved, but I’ve grown kind of fond of it and I don’t really want to change it anymore =)
Dalek : Yet another model for the Doctor WHO total conversion project. I pride myself on the accuracy of the shape and scale of the model but the skin is dreadful. I may go back and improve this one, but for now I have uploaded it as it is.
Cyberman : My very first Quake2 model. Having toyed with mapping and modelling in DOOM II and Quake I got serious with Quake2 and having just got my copy of Studio MAX I set about producing some god-awful meshes with way-too many faces. I eventually managed to produce this. Extremely weak in both modelling and skinning when I look at it now, but I was proud of it at the time =)
The site is no more, but the models can be downloaded at TME:
1999 – Quake Who
Another well-known Quake conversion which TimeQuake was partially based on, Conrad says on his site “1 level of Dalek-splatting fun! A ‘Doctor Who‘/Daleks conversion for id’s Quake on the PC. Daleks, Hover Daleks, Special Weapons Daleks, Davros and more….”
Conrad has allowed TME to offer this mod for download:
2000 – Timequake
Another Quake mod, this time based on two previous ones (Christian Darkin’s and Conrad Feinson’s). The site has this to say of the storyline :
The fourth regeneration of the Doctor has been diverted by the High Council to intervene in a Universe where a malign entity is attempting to pervert the history of Earth. The QUAKE entity has recruited Cybermen, Sontarans and others to her campaign for conquest over the cosmos. The Doctor, aided only by the use of U.N.I.T.’s newly developed transmat technology and the sonic screwdriver, must retrieve the time crystals that are being used to twist reality to QUAKE’s twisted ends.
According to the website, this game is still in progress, but no updates have occurred since 2000…
2000 – Wild Universe [for Homeworld]Against all the odds, Homeworld continued past its brief release period (hampered by arguments between developers Sierra and Relic) with a series of mods and add-ons created by fans, and still has a large following to this day.
The Wild Universe mod is unfinished, but playable, and features the Doctor’s TARDIS.
2000 – The Sims Models (Various)
First published in February 2000, The Sims was the brainchild of Maxis’ Will Wright, and is based on helping a world of characters achieve real-life goals. With the lack of monsters, guns and alien worlds, it was quickly bought up by many casual gamers, and has spawned a large series of expansion packs and sequels.
Several items that could be added to the game were available from the now defunct Elisabeth Sladen Page at metebelis3.com for a number of years. These took the form of wallpaper and floor tiles, along with a t-shirt, a fourth Doctor costume designed by David Ault and a second Doctor costume by Andy Smith.
Since then, a collection has also appeared here, with the first four Doctors and several companions and enemies.
Some more can also often be found here.
2001 – Worms Patches (Various)
Worms began life in 1994 as an Amiga, and later DOS, turn-based cartoon strategy game, in which two players used a variety of comedic weapons to blow up each others teams of Worms. Based on an unsuccessful entry home programmer Andy Davidson made into the Amiga Format magazine, Team 17 not only made the game popular, but created first an expansion pack (Worms Reinforcements), and then a series of 2D sequels (including Worms 2, Worms Armageddon and Worms World Party), before 2003 saw the beginning of a series of 3D versions, which increased on the technology but lost some of the original magic.
These mods were discovered floating around on the internet together: a Who-ey backdrop (25k) for the excellent Worms 2 and also a soundbank (800k). Later, a background (76k) for the original Worms was also discovered. We cannot ascertain whether or not these were produced by the same person(s), but they are currently housed here together. If you are responsible for either of these, please contact us.
2003 – Dalek War 2087
A modification of the classic Wolfenstein 3D game, by Paul Stone. We honestly don’t know if this was finished or not, except for the following pictures that were posted to a W3D website in 2003:
2004 – Dalek: Unbidden for Half Life
Half-Life, first released in November 1998, was Sierra Entertainments attempt to usurp id’s grasp on the online gaming world.
With settings based on Earth, and less fantasy-based characters, it quickly became the best-selling first-person shooter of all time, and was followed up by numerous expansion packs and the sequel Half Life 2.
Pixel Pie created this single-player mod based in Totter’s Lane.
[website]
2005 – Dr. Who: Dalek Invasion [Berzerk Hack]
A hack of the 1982 Atari VCS cartridge game Berzerk (itself based on the 1980 Stern arcade game of the same name), coded by Dan Hitchens, Jamcat’s version features the Doctor running away from, and shooting, a Dalek army.
The original cartridge described the game as follows:
You are a prisoner on an alien planet that is made up of mazes. Robot gangs hunt you and you must shoot them before they hit you. Evil Otto, a grinning sinister face who is invincible, pursues you. If you can keep cool and not go bonkers, you’ll eliminate robots, escape Evil Otto, and score big points.
The manual went into further detail:
The Astro Date is 3200 and you are the last survivor of a small group of earth people who came to explore the planet Mazeon. Soon after landing, you discovered the planet is a dark, apparently uninhabitable place. But by then it was too late to turn back because your space craft had been destroyed by Automazeons.
Now you are a prisoner here. You are trapped in a maze where even the walls are death to touch. Grim robot thugs known as “Automazeons” stalk you relentlessly and you must systematically pulverize them with your laser gun before they eliminate you with theirs.
You are never safe on the planet Mazeon. Even when you’ve destroyed the mechanical heavies, Evil Otto, the mad and merciless mind behind the robot gangs, leaps out from where he’s been observing the battle. You flee in panic because you know that you cannot kill Evil Otto and that, once he catches you, you’ll never escape.
He will pound you to a lifeless pulp, grinning like a maniac all the while. Your only hope is to get out of the electrified maze before Evil Otto catches you.
If you do get out, you find yourself in another maze. Again the faceless robots shoot at you, again Evil Otto pursues you, again you must dodge and shoot and run … into yet another maze. It’s enough to drive you bonkers!
Jamcat does not describe anywhere the storyline for his hack of the game…
Controls
Joystick for directions, fire button to fire.
Tips
Never run from Evil Otto along the bottom of the screen. Otto will take smaller bounces and outrun your character.
Use this trick on any level that has a top door. Approach the door until your character’s head is just out of the door, but not enough to cause your character to exit the room. Wait for Evil Otto to appear and press Select (or move around so Otto does not get your character before getting to your left or right side). Otto will disappear out the door before a “laser beam” shoots to the bottom of the screen. Otto will “smash” through the wall below and float, not bounce, towards your character.
When robots shoot horizontally, any shot the hits your character in the space just below the head will not cause damage.
Press Select while a robot is exploding to display a random six-digit number at the bottom of the screen.
Note: This trick requires a maze with both a left and right exit. To fire a shot that goes around the world, move your character as close as you can to the exit on the right side. This should be so close that one more step will make the player exit to the next maze. Then, while facing the exit, press Fire button to shoot “around the world”. The shot will seem to repeat itself at the edge several times. It will then come out the right side exit and continue to move for a short distance. This is a great way to safely destroy robots on the other side.
[website]
2005 – Dalek Mk IV (for Elite Force 2)
‘Andrew of Borg’ (yes, how imaginative) has adapted an unknown Quake 3 mod to enable Doctor Who’s villains to go up against the cast of Star Trek in the critically acclaimed Elite Force 2 game.
[website]
2005 – Doctor Who 2005 Dalek For San Andreas Fault
The notorious 2005 game Grand Theft Auto 2: San Andreas Fault, receives a small makeover allowing you to drive a Dalek instead of a car.
Right.
[website]
The Only Dalek, Daleks to the Rescue, etc… [for Escape]
The fun 2005 puzzle game Escape came with a level editor and suggestions that players upload their own levels to the official website.
Soon enough (well, after 797 other fan-levels) someone created a Dalek-named one. A few others have followed since.
[website]
