THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN
A guide to the 1984 text adventure game
(Doctor Who and)
THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN
by Michael and Gavin Procter of W Games
for the 8-bit BBC Micro computer
The game (Doctor Who And) The Abominable Snowmen was solved in 2015 by "ahope1" and
"leenew". This document and the map that accompanies it were created by "ahope1"
and can be found at the Classic Adventure Solutions Archive (CASA):
http://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C2091/
Document version 1.1
CONTENTS
a. Introduction
i. History
ii. Problems
iii. Coda
b. Walkthrough
c. Links
a. INTRODUCTION
i. History
Not long after the original 1967 broadcast of the Doctor Who TV serial "The Abominable
Snowmen", the BBC deleted the episodes from its archive -- a procedure that was apparently
routine at the time.
Unless the missing programmes are found, the text adventure game by Michael and Gavin Procter may be
the closest you'll get to a complete story about the snowy abominations in question.
Well, okay, so there might also be some audio recordings floating about somewhere, but I can't
be sure about that because I'm not steeped in the mythos of Doctor Who in the way that the
brothers Procter clearly are.
The game draws from the whole of the Doctor Who canon as it existed in 1984: that's everything
up to and including the Peter Davison era. So not only do you get to fiddle with the controls of the
TARDIS, but you also visit a companion's bedroom (Doctor No. 1); stumble across the mysterious
"Zero cabinet" (Doctor No. 5); and contract a bad case of chronic hysteresis (Doctor No.
4). Plus, buried in the source code of the game, there's an unclued synonym for the snake that
you eventually run into: "Mara", one of the Time Lord's numerous enemies (Doctor No.
5 again).
You also have to keep running back to the TARDIS every so often, which, depending on your point of
view, is either (a) gratifyingly reminiscent of an actual episode of Doctor Who, or (b) just
incredibly tedious.
Naturally, many of the puzzles you have to solve are inspired by the plot of the "Abominable
Snowmen" TV serial, to which the game is a sort of tribute. The serial featured the
recorder-tootling Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton, whose portrait appears in pixel-art on
the title screen.
I strongly urge you to swot up on the TV serial in Wikipedia before you start playing because this
should clarify bits of the game that might otherwise be completely baffling. Here's the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abominable_Snowmen
ii. Problems
But I'm not saying that if you're the world's biggest Gallifrey geek then completing
The Abominable Snowmen will be a doddle. Not at all. The game is very whimsical, and you'll
encounter a number of objects and situations that just don't seem to go with the nominally
Whovian setup at all.
There are also several typos, which range from mildly annoying to downright misleading.
There's the primitive nature of the parser...
And, of course, there are the puzzles. Oh, the puzzles! To stand a chance of solving them,
you'll not only need to have a firm grasp of how the objects and the people in the game relate
to the Whoniverse, but you'll also need to think so far outside the box that you'll start
wondering whether boxes themselves were only ever the stuff of myth and legend...
Wait. There's more.
It seems to be possible to put the game into an unwinnable state -- but if and when that happens,
you won't know it! So you might end up wandering around in bewilderment, desperately trying to
do everything you can think of to move forward -- but all in vain. This is pretty much the highest
level of cruelty in interactive fiction. http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Cruelty_scale
iii. Coda
But in spite of my whingeing, I still think that The Abominable Snowmen is worth a look.
Why on earth would I say that? Have I, perhaps, gone mad? Well, I did finish the game, so the
answer's probably yes.
But I found that, despite its flaws, the game slowly won me over with its enthusiasm for all things
Who -- with its eagerness to enter into the world of Who and to make that world its own. (And bear
in mind that it was released several decades before Doctor Who fandom had developed into the roiling
global mania that it is today.)
The puzzles might be infuriating, but they're also works of a kind of genius. They're
endearingly batty.
When you play The Abominable Snowmen, you're reminded of a more innocent and exciting age, when
all you needed was a BBC Micro and an imagination to find that suddenly the whole of time and space
was yours to explore.
b. WALKTHROUGH
You can't type in this walkthrough verbatim because there's some randomisation in the game
that needs to be taken into account. My comments appear in square brackets.
[Walkthrough begins]
S
S
N
S
GET HAIR
GET PHOT
N
S
OPEN TRUN
HAIR
GET VASE
SMASH VASE
GET BELL
E
E
N
PULL LEVER
N
W
EXAM RADIO
[Replace each occurrence of xxx, below, with the radio channel number you just learnt]
OPEN ENVE
GET PLASTER
E
S
PRE SWIT
xxx
100
N
E
RUN
E
GET SCIM
E
GET HANG
MEND HANG
PLASTER
N
W
JUMP
W
DROP HANG
N
GET ROCK
S
S
GET SPAD
S
W
GET TORC
GET GREN
E
S
PRE SWIT
xxx
100
N
N
N
W
DROP SPAD
W
W
GET ZERO
N
GIV BELL
W
W
GHANTA
DET-SEN
ROOF
W
PLAY FLUT
DROP FLUT
GET RUBY
S
N
N
PUT RUBY
[Replace yyy, below, with the number of the spotlit switch]
GET RUBY
DROP RUBY
PUT ROCK
PRESS SWIT
yyy
W
W
S
N
W
OPEN PANEL
GET RED
GET PINK
OPEN ZERO
PUT RED
PUT PINK
DROP ZERO
W
W
THINK
E
GET SCIM
W
W
U
GIVE PHOT
CUT ROPE
SCIM
GET ROPE
E
GET NETT
E
THRO NETT
S
S
OPEN CHEST
HAIR
DROP HAIR
GET ANCH
S
E
E
E
S
E
E
GET SPAD
DIG
DRO SPAD
GET BATT
E
S
S
S
PRE SWIT
xxx
100
N
N
N
N
N
TIE ROPE
ANCH
THROW ANCH
U
FILL TORC
BATT
ON
N
CUT BEAM
SCIM
E
E
E
DROP SCIM
E
SWING
DROP GREN
GET CROWN
SWING
W
W
W
W
S
D
S
S
S
S
S
PRE SWIT
xxx
100
N
N
N
W
W
W
N
W
W
W
S
[Press S]
GET COMP
DROP CROW
N
E
E
E
S
E
E
E
N
N
UP
N
E
E
E
SHOOT PYRA
DROP COMP
GET PYRA
INV
E
SWING
DROP PYRA
[Walkthrough ends]
c. LINKS
This document can be found at the Classic Adventure Solutions Archive (CASA):
http://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C2091/
The accompanying map can also be found at the above address.
"The Abominable Snowmen" (1967 Doctor Who TV serial):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abominable_Snowmen
A disc-image of the game, suitable for playing in BBC Micro emulators, can be found at Stardot:
http://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=9214#p105514
BeebEm, the BBC Micro emulator, for Windows:
http://www.mkw.me.uk/beebem/
BeebEm, the BBC Micro emulator, for Mac:
http://www.g7jjf.com/beebemmac.htm
A beginner's guide to interactive fiction (or text adventure games):
http://pr-if.org/doc/play-if-card/
The Zarfian Cruelty Scale:
http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Cruelty_scale
Video playthroughs of other BBC Micro text adventures:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ahope1/playlists