No 2600 Robotron?

[joeybastard]

Does anybody know why there was no Robotron for the 2600? I wanted it really bad when I was a kid. I'm guessing too much stuff moving on screen for Stella but it's just a guess.

 

Also was Atari's Space Duel ever ported to anything? I liked it much better then the original Asteroids.

[Inky]

I think Robotron would be completely undoable on the 26. Space Duel, OTOH could have bee, to a degree. I agree that SD was a much better game than Asteroids, at least to me.

[King Atari]

Yeah, I'd think there'd be too many things moving around for Robotron to be ported.

[Tempest]

No I actually think it would be possible, but very rough and nasty. You could use missile sprites (aka squares) for the robots to get a bunch on the screen, but I think you'd end up with alot of flicker, and rows of squares that all moved together. In the end I don't think it would look much like Robotron at all.

 

I do believe Atari had Robotron on their master list as a title for the Graduate add-on.

 

Tempest

[Sir Plus]

It could be called "Attack of the Flicker Squares"....

Or better yet, "Spectator's Instant Seizure - Tramiel's Last Laugh"

 

Too bad.... it could be easily hacked to make that zombie game

[Inky]

Someone do space duel!

[Sir Plus]

You could still make a hack for the 5200 out of it.

[Sir Plus]

Anyway, Space Duel can be played with Mame.... why settle for anything less than arcade gooderness?

[Flojomojo]

It could be called "Attack of the Flicker Squares"....

Or better yet, "Spectator's Instant Seizure - Tramiel's Last Laugh"

very well put indeed! I vote for S.I.S.!

[CPUWIZ]

I was told that a prototype of Robotron existed, it was shown at a CES show in conjunction with the keyboard add-on that Atari was going to release. And yes, it flickered like hell !

[Goochman]

They did release Robotron for the 2600 -

 

Its called ' Mr Doo Doo'

[AtariLeaf]

Oh yea, Space Duel! I loved that game! Makes me wanna go fire up Mame right now! (Haven't done that in a while either).

[Gabriel]

I love Space Duel. It's the only game in the Asteroids family that I really really like. I dunno. It's just kewl.

 

I vaguely remember reading in some magazine of the time that it was destined to be ported to the Atari 5200. Looking back on it, I think it was best that there wasn't a home version at that time. Nothing back then could do the vector graphics games justice. And the vector graphics were the spiffiest thing about Space Duel. Without cubes constructed out of crisp bars of neon, it just wouldn't have been the same.

[NE146]

Anyway, Space Duel can be played with Mame.... why settle for anything less than arcade gooderness?

 

If that's the case then why do we play ANY 2600 arcade ports. Because they rock that's why! (Maybe it's the same as the morbid fascination I have with dedicated handheld translations of arcade games as well)

 

By the way, not to nitpick *too much* but the only way to get true "arcade gooderness" is through the actual cabinet itself (especially with the classic dedicated Pre-JAMMA games) Mame is almost there and obviously good enough most of the time... but for a couple of obvious reasons, falls short on many a game. That being said, I still love it ^_^

[King Atari]

MAME is good, but you just can't top standing at a coin-op and wasting your quarters.

 

I love handheld translations of arcade games as well (look at G&Ws, they have nothing to do with the game they're trying to port!).

[ZylonBane]

 

Playfield graphics for Grunts, missiles for humans, multiplexed players for everything else... yeah, it could be done.

[Paul Slocum]

Using the PF for the grunts is a really awesome idea. But I think there would still be a lot of problems to overcome. You've got bullets to draw and the later levels have a ton of stuff going on that can't be done with the playfield. I fear that if it were done, there would be a lot of compromises.

 

-Paul

[Big Player]

The 7800 Robotron pales in comparison to the arcade. I don't want to see a 2600 version.

[Sir Plus]

In any case, it would have to be a pretty layed-back version. Prolly with more flicker than "ghosts" could ever dream of.

[ubersaurus]

7800 robotron was like, arcade perfect. I don't know what you're on.

[Sir Plus]

I was referring to the possibility of a 2600 cart.

 

In short, I'd say about the same chance of seeing a 2600 version of Space Duel

[Albert]

I personally don't think anyone will be wholly satisfied about whether or not a 2600 version of Robotron can be done until someone actually does it. Whether or not such a version will bear any resemblance to the arcade version of Robotron remains to be seen, but given how many (overlapping) objects are chasing after you on the higher levels, I think the answer is fairly obvious. Perhaps a "Robotron Lite" could be done.

 

I also think the use of playfield graphics for the grunts is quite clever. And they move jerkily in the arcade game, so it would probably work very well in that respect. Vertically you would have the freedom to move them any number of pixels, but horizontally they would obviously jump a ways.

 

This is not a project I would tackle, as I don't like setting myself up for failure.

 

..Al

[Sir Plus]

Hehe....Robotron Lite. I mean that the whole plot of

Roby is that you are overwhelmed by the enemy. Given

that the 2600 already doesn't have a lot of juice at any

particular moment for a lot of updates, it's doubtful that

even a "lite" version would come across as being much

like Robotron. Each object would also require a bit of

RAM as well. The 2600 has what, 100 bytes total??

 

@Paul Slocum

As I was dusting cobwebs off of and reading the old threads,

I came across this thread. Is that where the inspiration for

Combat Rock and Mr. Roboto came from?

 

Maybe at some point I'll do a music hack with a current popular song.

 

OK not so current, but nonetheless popular. Or were those

games already made at that time?

[Albert]

Hehe....Robotron Lite.  I mean that the whole plot of

Roby is that you are overwhelmed by the enemy.  Given

that the 2600 already doesn't have a lot of juice at any

particular moment for a lot of updates, it's doubtful that

even a "lite" version would come across as being much

like Robotron.  Each object would also require a bit of

RAM as well.  The 2600 has what, 100 bytes total??

 

Haha! You are right, of course, the fact that you are being rushed by countless enemies is what makes Robotron what it is. If this can't be replicated on the 2600, then you ain't playing Robotron. And good point about the RAM, if you want to remember where each enemy is you'd need an X/Y coordinate for each one. The 2600 has 128 bytes of RAM, but a possible Robotron game could use the SARA chip for another 128 bytes. And had Atari ever created Robotron 2600, I'm sure this is what they would have done!

 

..Al

[Sir Plus]

Ouch... there's another possible strike against it. Since it would prolly

require this special SARA chip, wouldn't there be even less people that

have the knowledge to create a new homebrew? But anyway, a Lite

version would still be cool to see. Cool, but not Robotron

 

@Paul

Never mind.... I wasn't paying attention (it wasn't the insperation).