REFERENCES / HINTS FOR ATARI ST GAME DEAD OR ALIVE
This game is full of puzzles and references to the seventies and eighties counterculture and other
totems from those days.
HOW TO CONTROL THE ROBOT
The Remote Control inside the living room of the house has nine settings for controlling the robot
that you encounter inside the Nuclear Station. Each button causes the robot to perform a discrete
action, sometimes injurious and sometimes helpful:
1. The robot’s head revolves 360 degrees;
2. The robot sets off south towards the tube station and ultimately to its demise on the railway
tracks;
3. The robot’s hands whirr and it crushed the laser gun that is it holding;
4. The robot struts around the room before returning to its starting position;
5. The robot kills you by firing its laser gun at you;
6. The robot opens the door to the east by pressing a button. There is located the nuclear-powered
torch;
7. The robot gives you a diode (this will repair a certain electronic item which you will hopefully
find on your journey);
8. The robot walks into a wall;
9. The robot deactivates the nuclear reactor. This will temporarily distract a certain guard
nearby.
RED HERRINGS
The rasher of bacon, the bunny (once you remove an item inside it) the briefcase, the traffic cone,
the red herring, the blowing toy and the plastic square.
The squeaky garden gate outside the house next door to where you are taken is also a red herring.
Don’t do as I did and spend time carting the oil can here as there is no puzzle to solve.
DOORS
You cannot open the cellar door where you are taken after being murdered, neither the north door in
the cellar.
TRAVEL AGENTS AND PETROL STATION
You cannot visit these areas on the east side of Malton Central until you have repaired an item on
the railway line which then gives power back to the Malton Central Station doors and allows you to
enter and exit this particular station. For some unknown reason all trains (which travel between
four stations) always stop in the dark tunnel. As a consequence you can alight and embark here.
APPEARANCE
When you find the set of clothes and the mask it is important to put them on immediately. You will
end up being trepanned in the nearby Zimmerman Institute if anyone sees that you are a skeleton.
Presumably Bob Dylan isn’t one of the dodgy surgeons.
CULTURAL REFERENCES
See how many of these you can spot:
OPEN ALL HOURS
(A not very good BBC sitcom starring Ronnie Barker and David Jason from the seventies)
MONTY PYTHON
How To Spot Different Kinds Of Tree From Quite A Long Way Away
Memorial To Graham Chapman
The Spanish Inquisition
Neville Shunt/Railway Timetables
It’s The Mind
The Vercotti Brothers
Semprini.
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
An early seventies Talent Show from ITV hosted by Hughie Green.
THE HITCH-HIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
Towel
Froods.
SEVENTIES ITV ADVERTISEMENTS
Milk (It’s Gotta Lotta Bottle)
Brut Aftershave (Advertised by the English boxer Henry Cooper and the English footballer Kevin
Keegan). “Nothing beats the great smell of Brut Kevin.”
JEREMY BEADLE
A host of various annoying eighties TV shows with dogs playing football, fat people breaking beds in
showrooms and similar assorted drivel. Don’t check out the Game For A Laugh show he appeared in
on Saturday nights but do check out Spike Milligan’s satire of this show called Game For A
Cretin.
SCOTT ADAMS ADVENTURE GAMES
MFI (A cheap and nasty manufacturer of cheap and nasty furniture from long ago). Creaaaaaak
crash.
THOMAS COOK
The travel company somehow still going strong.
AMOCO PETROL STATION
HACK
1984 rogue like video game.
MAGNETIC SCROLLS
LONNIE DONEGAN (OK back to the sixties)
POP GROUP
James
BENSON AND HEDGES
RE-ANIMATOR
1985 film.
CENTURION
War strategy game.
FAWLTY TOWERS
VIC REEVES
Very funny alternative comedian who originally presented Vic Reeves’s Big Night Out on Channel 4.
SINCLAIR SPECTRUM
SINCLAIR AMIGA
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW
Endless BBC antiques show.
There are probably others I didn’t find.
