Countdown To Doom resembles the three previously-published
Acornsoft 'Adventure' games. An adventure is a role-playing
game, where the player is supplied with a description of an
environment, and is invited to suggest some action to take.
Actions (such as picking up an item or walking in a given
direction) result in changes to the environment. The player's
"score" increases until some set aim has been achieved.
The environment of Countdown To Doom is a classic science-fiction
one. While orbiting a planet with the improbable name of
Doomawangara (Doom for short), your spaceship is unfortunately
zapped. You crash on the planet's inhospitable surface, where
you must hurriedly repair your spaceship before the corrosive
atmosphere of Doom makes it impossible for you to escape. Just to
complicate matters, the planet is liberally scattered with
treasures, which you are reluctant to leave behind. Various alien
tricks and traps are distribute across the planet, giving you the
chance of a sudden rather than a lingering death.
Instructions such as TAKE GUN, QUIT, GO NORTH and so forth may
be used. The program is rather dumb and consequently it doesn't
understand most instructions, even if you confine yourself to
two words. Sometimes it even misunderstands a command completely -
we typed EXPLODE DOOR and received the reply "What do you want
me to do with the explode?" Other instructions bring the
unhelpful reply "Eh?" The program is written in BASIC but cannot
be examined in the usual way.
Countdown To Doom takes over six minutes to load. A partially
completed game can be saved on tape if required. If you enjoyed
the other Acornsoft adventures you'll probably find this one fun,
but Countdown To Doom does not make very good use of the
machine' facilities.