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Spin Doctor Brings Retro Mac Gaming to the iPhone

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spindoctorlogoIn the early 90's, a small software company called Callisto Corporation released a number of games for the Macintosh, along with a few other productivity applications. One of those games was Spin Doctor, which some long-ago Mac Performa owners may remember because Apple licensed a 10-level Spin Doctor Challenger edition for bundling with "about a million" Performas, according to developer Seth Lipkin.

Lipkin has since ported Spin Doctor, which was sold "in a big box" for $40 when it was first released in 1994, to the iPhone. The game is a bit like chess in the sense that it is easy to learn and difficult to master. It consists of a glowing wand making its way from dot-to-dot through a literal minefield of doors, switches, acid, fuses, bombs, and more. The user controls the direction of the wand -- which never stops moving -- as it moves its way across the map over more than 100 levels with several difficulty modes.

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Spin Doctor for iPhone is $0.99 on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

191 months ago
Thanks!

I'm the developer of the iOS version of Spin Doctor (and one of the small team that developed the Mac original).

Thanks for the good words and fond memories expressed here!
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
191 months ago
I remember this game

Apple should buy free copies for anyone who can prove they owned one of the gazillion different performa models - especially the 63x series. Those were some of the worst boxes Apple ever made. I had two of them.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Garrod Avatar
191 months ago
Spin Doctor! The first game I ever played on my first ever Mac and I loved it! A port to OS X would be welcomed - I'd buy it in an instant!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coder12 Avatar
191 months ago
Man.. the good ol' days :) Playing this... Mazewars. Back when there was still Mac Paint! Remember that?


Imagine if they ported Mazewars to iOS now--that would be tremendous fun for multiplayer! (Hint hint ;) )
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
191 months ago
Wow, I remember having the demo of this on my LC III, then picking up the full version with one of my later macs. I'm going to purchase this one right now! Hope it has the awesome sound effects...


Edit: ...just bought it and it still does. The press in one or both of two corners bounce/change dot control scheme works very nicely too. Great port so far!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Diode Avatar
191 months ago
Ha - a Performa 638CD was my first home computer and I remember playing this game.

Memories...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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