Robotron: 2084 Arcade
In this shooter game the player controls the on-screen protagonist from a top-down perspective. The game is set in the year 2084 in a fictional world where robots (“Robotrons”) have taken control of the world and eradicated most of the human race.
The main protagonist is called “Robotron Hero” who is a super-powered genetic engineering error (or mutant) and attempts to save the last human family.
The game uses a two-joystick control scheme; the left joystick controls the on-screen character’s movement, while the right controls the direction the character’s weapon fires. Both joysticks allow for an input direction in one of eight ways.
Each level, referred to as a “wave”, is a single screen populated with a large number of various enemy robots and obstacles; types range from invincible giants to robots that continually manufacture other robots that shoot the protagonist.
Coming into contact with an enemy, projectile, or obstacle costs the player one life, but extra lives can be earned at certain point totals.
Waves also include human family members who can be rescued to score additional points, but certain robots can either kill them or turn them into enemies.
Destroying all vulnerable robots allows the player to progress to the next wave; the cycle continues until all lives are lost.
Each enemy was designed to exhibit a unique behavior toward the character; random elements were programmed into the enemies’ behaviors to make the game more interesting.
The first two designed were the simplest: Electrodes and Grunts. Electrodes are stationary objects that are lethal to the in-game characters, and Grunts are simple robots that chase the protagonist by plotting the shortest path to him.
Grunts were designed to overwhelm the player with large groups. While testing the game with the new control system and the two enemies, Jarvis and DeMar were impressed by the gameplay’s excitement and fun. As a result, they began steadily increasing the number of on-screen enemies to over a hundred to see if more enemies would generate more enjoyment.
Other enemies were created to add more variety. Large, indestructible Hulks, inspired by an enemy in Berzerk, were added to kill the humans on the stage. Though they cannot be destroyed, the developers decided to have the protagonist’s projectiles slow the Hulk’s movement as a way to help the player. Levitating Enforcers were added as enemies that could shoot back at the main character; Jarvis and DeMar liked the idea of a floating robot and felt it would be easier to animate.
A projectile algorithm was devised for Enforcers to simulate enemy artificial intelligence. The developers felt a simple algorithm of shooting directly at the protagonist would be ineffective because the character’s constant motion would always result in a miss.
Random elements were added to make the projectile more unpredictable; the Enforcer aims at a random location in a ten-pixel radius around the character, and random acceleration curves the trajectory. To further differentiate Enforcers, Jarvis devised the Spheroid enemy as a robot that continually generated Enforcers, rather than have them already on the screen like other enemies.
Brains were conceived as robots that could capture humans and brainwash them into enemies called Progs, and also launch cruise missiles that chase the player in a random zigzag pattern, making them difficult to shoot down.
DeMar devised the final enemies as a way to further increase the game’s difficulty; Tanks that fire projectiles which bounce around the screen, and Quarks as a tank-producing robot.
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