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Robotron: 2084 (often simply called "Robotron") is an arcade game created in 1982 by the company Vid Kidz (Eugene Jarvis and Larry Demar) for Williams Electronics. It was unique at the time in that the controls were two 8-way joysticks (one for running, one for shooting) rather than the more typical single joystick and fire button.
Williams released Smash TV in 1990 with similar gameplay and two joysticks in the same way as in Robotron.
Overview
Each level, or “wave” of Robotron consists of a small humanoid mutant ("the last hope of mankind"), representing the player, in the center of a swarm of enemy robots. The player uses the two joysticks to simultaneously move away from the enemies and dodge their shots, while firing back at them. This requires a good degree of hand-eye coordination, but once the player is used to it the game flows remarkably well. Once all the destructible enemies are eliminated, the player progresses to the next wave.
Scattered around the playfield are slow-moving “humanoids” to rescue, clones of the last human family consisting of Mommy, Daddy and Mikey. Touching these clones before they are killed by Hulks or Brains earns the player 1000 to 5000 points, progressively. Since Robotron is a game in which death, in the long run, is practically certain, and the player earns extra lives by scoring points, rescuing humanoids is extremely important tactic for having a long game.
Enemies
The enemies the player must face throughout the game are:
GRUNTs (Ground Roving Unit Network Terminators).File:Robotron grunt.gif These simple-minded foes simply move towards the player. They do not shoot, but tend to appear in large numbers, and move progressively faster throughout each wave, making them dangerous on the whole. Wave 9 and every ten waves after have huge numbers of Grunts.
Hulks.File:Robotron hulk.gifBoxy green robots that move randomly around the screen. They cannot be destroyed by any means, but do not intentionally chase the player either, and they can be pushed around slightly by firing at them. They do not need to be shot to complete a wave. Hulks kill any humanoids they make contact with.
Sphereoids [sic].File:Robotron sphereoid.gifThese round, red objects move quickly and produce Enforcers. Sphereoids are deadly to the touch, but their real danger lies in the several Enforcers they produce over time, so it's best to shoot them immediately. Eventually Sphereoids disappear on their own, after creating perhaps a half-dozen Enforcers.
Enforcers.File:Robotron enforcer.gifThese yellow robots shoot rapid, shots aimed the player. While not much of a threat individually, when enough are in the game field they are very hazardous. They also have a tendency to zoom across the screen, causing death because of collsion.
Brains.File:Robotron brain.gifThese slow, blue enemies infest every fifth wave, which also contain large numbers of humanoids. Brains are almost harmless in themselves, but they turn humanoids into Progs, fast-moving agents of destruction that mercilessly home in on the player, and also fire large numbers of tenacious, unpredictable “cruise missiles,” which are difficult to escape.
Quarks.File:Robotron quark.gif These are weird, boxy, pulsing objects that produce Tanks in large numbers. Note: Quarks are referred to as "Cubeoids" in Attract mode, an apparent oversight.
Tanks.File:Robotron tank.gifThese red beasts fire quick, basketball-like bouncing shots at the player that are very hard to avoid. Due to game hardware limitations, Tanks will stop shooting if there are a total of 20 shots fired currently on the gamefield, without a single tank being destroyed. If a tank is destroyed, this counter will reset to zero.
Legacy
Robotron: 2084 is generally recognized as one of the games from the classic era that holds up the best today. It ranks up with Tempest in its mixture of brutal, high-speed gameplay and psychedelic graphics. While several ports were produced, including a version for the Nintendo 64, the original arcade game is considered by many to be the best version. A direct port of the game was included in Midway Arcade Treasures; a compilation of arcade games for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles, released in 2003.
In July 2000, Midway licensed Robotron: 2084, along with other midway games, to Shockwave for use in an online applet to demonstrate the power of the shockwave web content platform. The conversion was created by .Digital Eclipse. It is currently freely available to be played within the shockwave web applet.
History and trivia
The original name for the game was "2084 - Robotron", but the name Robotron was more commonly used by virtually everyone involved, and the game was renamed shortly before production. This is why the cabinet side artwork simply has the number 2084 vertically.
The inspiration for the dual-joystick control (left to move, right to fire) came from an injury Jarvis sustained to his right hand in a car accident.
One of the game adjustments a game operator can make is "Fancy Attract Mode On/Off". This removed the rotating marquee from the attract mode title page. The adjustment was included in case the DMA hardware overheated and crashed the game during the attract mode. It fortunately turned out to be unnecessary, and was rarely if ever set.
