Doppleganger

Doppleganger by Alligata

Doppleganger is a game by Alligata Software (Re-released later by Americana)

"A mystic journey into the past. A treasure trail adventure in search of gold, silver and bronze as the magical sorceress and her legendary alter ego, test her powers against the forces of evil and powers of darkness in the Castle of Doom. A race against time and a test of your powers of thinking."

The aim of the game is to collect all of the ingots (gold, silver and bronze) that are scattered around the castle and bring them back to the start screen. You will need to use both characters (the sorceress and her alter ego) in order to do this.

You control a sorceress and also her alter ego (the doppleganger) in a 25 room castle (isometric 3D). Each room has a colour coded door frame - which only the sorceress or the doppleganger can pass through. Some doors are locked and need keys. The entire time, an hour glass ticks away which means you have a very limited amount of time to figure out how to top the hourglass back up. Finding the ingots and returning them to the start screen is also challenging, as you will need to switch between the two characters. Some rooms contain moving nasties that can hurt and kill you, also there are a batch of red spiders constantly chasing after the sorceress.

• Amstrad Action Issue 2
• Amstrad Action Issue 12
• ACU Jan 1986
• Amtix Review
• CPC Game Reviews
• Home Computing Weekly Sept 1985

• CPC Power
• Java CPC
• Genesis 8Bit
• Video Games Museum
• Amstrad Abandonware

• The Amstrad CPC Games Resource

• The Amstrad User Map

• Game tips courtesy of Tilkau:

• You have two separate drop keys, Space and Copy. One is for dropping keys, the other for dropping objects.
• Book is found by your main self in the room down from the recharge room. No idea what it does. I thought perhaps it enabled recharging, but you can recharge without ever picking it up.
• Candle is used in the dark room through the green door, to distinguish what the room features are. You can drop it on the floor and the features will still be -- more dimly -- visible. It's found in the recharge room (and looks like part of the scenery!)
• Shield makes you immune to spiders. Mostly it's good for getting away from the recharge room without loss of energy, but I never used it myself. Found immediately to the left of the recharge room.
• Mirror is used against the Gorgon (Red-hooded thing in a red room full of turrets). it's accessible by your normal self -- L-U-R-U from the recharge room
• Things you have no normal use for can be used as obstacles (it's particularly helpful to get the monster in the dark room stuck on the candle). Be careful not to drop them near room entrances, or you may have trouble with spiders.
• A new ingot is generated in the silver and gold ghost rooms, and in the red room with the snake monster, each time you take the current one and drop it in the start room
• You can't pick up ingots once you drop them in the start room

• Keys:
• Blue requires the mirror, it's in the room right of the Gorgon
• Fake-Green is immediately accessible by your alter ego (go right then up twice from the recharge room.). It's treated as an object, which is the hint that it's fake.
• Open the blue door with the key. Then grab the fake green key, enter the room you just unlocked, drop the fake, and pick up the real. AFAICS you can pick up either of the two without drowning, but picking up all the objects in the room dooms you.
• Red is found through the green door (which opens into the dark room). Remember to initially exit immediately, so you can drop the green key. You need the candle. It opens two red doors -- one which is directly opposite the dark room, head down all the way and be prepared to pick up an ingot and evade the ghost. The other red door (immediately right of the recharge room) opens into a room with a fireplace and a gold key.
• Gold key is used in the room 2 rooms left of the recharge room. Aim to get through without being touched by the skull-helmet. Usually you need to accept some minor zapping by the walls or bullets, in order to do that. Be ready to evade the ghost and grab the ingot. These are probably the most difficult 2 rooms in the game.

Direction table used here:

U  R
 \ /
  +
 / \
L  D