Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday is a role-playing video game set in the Buck Rogers XXVC universe. It was published in 1990 by Strategic Simulations for MS-DOS, Commodore 64, and Amiga. A Sega Genesis version was released in 1991. Matrix Cubed is the 1992 sequel.

Gameplay

At the beginning of the game the player creates a party of six characters from a choice of five classes (Rocketjock, Warrior, Medic, Rogue, and Engineer) and six races (Human, Desert Runner, Tinker, Venusian, Martian, and Mercurian).

The game has five view modes:

• Solar System View: The map shows the positions on the inner planets and major asteroids from an “overhead” perspective. The player’s spaceship can be moved around in relation to the planets. Ship-to-ship combat is started from this view.
• Overworld view: This is another overhead view, where the player can move the party around on the surface of a planet. Land combat can be started from this view.
• Adventuring view: This is a 3D view that shows the party’s environment form their perspective. Land combat can be started from this view.
• Land combat: This is an overhead isometric view of the area that the party is in. Individual characters, NPCs, and enemies are displayed in scale.
• Ship-to-Ship combat: The player sees the enemy space ship. Controls are limited to menus at the bottom of the screen.

Ports

Most versions of the game display the Adventuring view from the point of view of the party (i.e. the display is first-person), and have a simple text menu for spaceports.

The Sega Genesis version of the game shows the Adventuring view as an isometric view of the area indicating the characters behind the party leader (i.e. the display is third-person), and uses the Adventuring view in spaceports. Most of the text is replaced by icons.

The available races and classes are also more limited on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version. The player may only select from Human, Desert Runner, and Tinker as races, and may select only Warrior, Rocketjock, Medic, or Rogue as a character class. There are also significantly fewer skills and equipment types available to players as compared to the PC version. In addition to this there is a reduced selection of weapons and ammunition is no longer required for weapons.