Doctor Who: The HyperCard Database

Before HTML there was HyperCard, Apple's card-based multimedia program for Macintosh and Apple IIgs computers.

This is a tour of the Doctor Who DataBank, a dream project I created in 1991, and hoped to one day sell to the BBC. (I was young... naive... leave me alone)

I wrote the code, designed the layout, and hand-pixelled the logos. The tour takes you around the sections of my DataBank, showing some of the sights and sounds and interactivity that I built into each page.

Sadly for me in 1996 the BBC released "Destiny of the Doctors", a PC-only computer game, that included a database... so my DataBank came to a close.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Doctor
• Who
• Hypercard
• Tom
• Baker
• David
• Tennant
• Matt
• Smith
• BBC
• ABC
• Database
• Dalek
• Cybermen
• Travis
• Wheaton
• cosmichobo
• tutorial
• software

[tjchin]

It's Polly Wright not Lopez.

[thecosmichobo]

At the time of creating this database, "Lopez" was the most common name given for Polly's surname. "Wright" was originally going to be used, but was scraped for fear of confusion with Barbara Wright. Lopez is apparently a miss-pronounciation of Polly's "double" from The Faceless Ones - thus yes, it is not Lopez. Wright was used in the New Adventure novels, but they are not canon. Officially, Polly is surname-less.

[jsl151850b]

How did you capture the Mac's video to post this on YouTube?

(Nice work by the way. What number is the current Dr.?

Ever see the Atkinson (Mr. Bean) Dr. Who? Hi-larious!)

[thecosmichobo]

Can't recall which program I used in the end, but it just captured whatever was on the screen (and audio), then I edited it to tighten it up. (All done on Mac of course)

The current Doctor (Tennant) is #10, possibly - He's not been addressed as such in the new series.

[tintinaujapon]

That's an amazing piece of work Cosmic Hobo!

[thecosmichobo]

Thanks, tintin.  If I find time I'll do the same treatment for "Version 2" of the Database, which was vastly improved, though never went beyond being just a structural design - no real contextual information.

[thecosmichobo]

@orkid682 Thankyou :) I wish Apple would revamp iWeb into a new version of HyperCard... with the "stacks" being usable on the iPad/etc... would be awesome for creative people who aren't programmers.