wee doors banging

One of my favourite computer games ever is the stunningly simple but impossible to put down Daleks. It’s a clone of the ancient Robots game originally developed for UNIX terminals, but themed after the iconic tin can bad guys from sci-fi series Dr. Who. I first discovered the Daleks game on an original Apple Mac when I was at school, and since then I’ve developed versions for the Amstrad CPC (a couple of them), Amiga and even Javascript, just so I could play it.

Gameplay is very simple. You move a step, then the Daleks move a step directly towards you. Daleks can’t avoid each other and when they crash into each other, they die. When all Daleks are dead, you move to the next level where there are even more Daleks to deal with. Rinse, repeat. There are a couple of twists, but that’s basically it. See how many Daleks you can kill before your luck runs out!

Back in 1999 I created a version of Daleks in Javascript. It’s been offline for some time as, by today’s standards (if not 1999′s) it uses some very, very bad Javascript and HTML. But I’ve now hammered it back into some sort of working order for modern browsers and it kind of mostly works. Sorta. You get it.

For your Dalek smashing pleasure, I am pleased to present: JSDaleks Online Daleks Game !

It should probably be rewritten someday using modern Javascript libraries such as Prototype or script.aculo.us to handle rendering, animation and even add AJAX enlovlied high score recording. But that’s an effort for another day, for now just get on with the Dalek carnage !

EXTERRMINNAAAAAATE!