Robotron: 2084

This article is about the video game. For other uses, see Robotron (disambiguation).

Robotron: 2084 (also referred to simply as Robotron) is a 1982 twin-stick shooter video game developed by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar of Vid Kidz and released by Williams Electronics for arcades. The game is set in the year 2084 in a dystopian future where robots have turned against humans in a cybernetic revolt. The player's goal is to defeat endless waves of robots, rescue surviving humans and earn as many points as possible.

Robotron: 2084
Williams Electronics' arcade flyer advertising the upright cabinet
Developer	Vid Kidz Lynx Shadowsoft
Publisher	Williams Electronics Ports Atarisoft Atari, Inc. Atari Corporation
Designers	Eugene Jarvis Larry DeMar
Programmers	Eugene Jarvis Larry DeMar Atari 8-bit Judy Bogart 7800 David Brown Apple II Steven Hays C64 Tom Griner Lynx Dave Dies[1]
Platform	Arcade Atari 8-bit, VIC-20, Atari 5200, Commodore 64, Apple II, IBM PC, BBC Micro, Atari 7800, Atari ST, Atari Lynx
Release	March 1982 Arcade NA: March 1982[2] Atari 8-bit January 1984[3] VIC-20 February 1984[3] 5200, C64 March 1984[4][5] Apple II, IBM PC 1984 BBC Micro EU: 1985 7800 May 15, 1986[6] Atari ST 1987[7] Lynx NA: 1991[8]
Genre	Twin-stick shooter
Modes	Single-player, multiplayer

Jarvis and DeMar drew inspiration from Nineteen Eighty-Four, Berzerk and Space Invaders for the design of Robotron: 2084. A two-joystick control scheme was implemented to provide the player with more precise controls, and enemies with different behaviors were added to make the game challenging. Jarvis and DeMar designed the game to instill panic in players by presenting them with conflicting goals and having on-screen projectiles coming from multiple directions.

Robotron: 2084 was critically and commercially successful. Praise among critics focused on the game's intense action and control scheme. Though not the first game with a twin joystick control scheme, Robotron: 2084 is cited as the game that popularized it. It was ported to numerous home systems - most of which are hampered by the lack of two joysticks - Jarvis used the same control scheme in Smash TV (1990). The game is frequently listed as one of Jarvis's best contributions to the video game industry.

Gameplay

The player controls the protagonist (center) with two joysticks to shoot the robots while dodging their attacks and attempting to rescue the human (top right). Game statistics (score and player lives) are tracked in the top left corner.

Robotron is a twin-stick shooter game in which 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 "Robotrons" have, after a robot uprising, 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.^[9][10][11]

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.^[9][10][11]

Development

Eugene Jarvis

Larry DeMar

The founders of VidKidz, Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar (both shown in 2016), created the game for Williams Electronics, where they both had been employed at previously.

Robotron: 2084 was developed in six months by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar, founders of Vid Kidz.^[12][13] Vid Kidz served as a consulting firm that designed games for Williams Electronics, whom Jarvis and DeMar had previously worked for.^[13][14] The game was designed to provide excitement for players; Jarvis described the game as an "athletic experience" derived from a "physical element" in the two-joystick design. Robotron: 2084's gameplay is based on presenting the player with conflicting goals: avoid enemy attacks to survive, defeat enemies to progress, and save the family to earn points.^[15]

The game was first inspired by Stern Electronics' 1980 arcade game Berzerk and the Commodore PET computer game Chase. Berzerk is a shooting game in which a character traverses a maze to shoot robots, and Chase is a text-based game in which players lure text characters into obstacles.^[12][16] The initial concept involved a passive main character; the object was to force robots chasing the protagonist to collide with stationary, lethal obstacles.^[12][17] As they deemed the design too boring compared to other action titles on the market, the developers added shooting gameplay to provide more excitement.^[12][13][18] The shooting elements drew inspiration from the 1978 arcade game Space Invaders, which had previously inspired Defender, their first arcade game.^[13][19]

The developers derived the game's Orwellian world from George Orwell's seminal dystopian story Nineteen Eighty-Four (pictured).

The developers felt a rescue theme similar to Defender was needed to complete the game and added a human family as a method to motivate the player to earn a high score.^[13][16][18] The rescue aspect also created a situation where the player had to constantly reevaluate their situation to choose the optimal action: run from enemies, shoot enemies, or rescue humans.^[13][15][17] Inspired by George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Jarvis and DeMar incorporated an Orwellian world into the plot. The two noticed, however, that the year 1984 was approaching, but the state of the real world did not match that of the book. They decided to set the game further in the future—the year 2084—to provide a more realistic time frame for their version of "Big Brother". Jarvis, a science fiction fan, based the Robotrons on the idea that computers would eventually become advanced entities that helped humans in everyday life. He believed the robots would eventually realize that humans are the cause of the world's problems and revolt against them.^[14]

Jarvis and DeMar playtested the game themselves and continually tweaked the designs as the project progressed.^[17] Though contemporary games began to use scrolling to facilitate larger levels, the pair chose a single screen to confine the action.^[18] Jarvis aimed to outdo the tension in Space Invaders as the aliens crowd the player.^[13] To instill panic in the player, the player character is initially placed in the center of the game's action and must deal with projectiles coming from multiple directions, as opposed to previous shooting games, such as Space Invaders and Galaxian, where enemies attack from a single direction.^[13][14] This made for more challenging gameplay, an aspect Jarvis took pride in.^[14]

The developers placed enemies in different groups throughout the stages to create themes.^[12] Early stages are designed to be relatively simple compared to later ones. The difficulty level is designed to increase quickly so players would struggle to complete later stages. In retrospect, Jarvis attributes his and DeMar's average player skills to the game's balanced design. Though they made the game as difficult as they could, the high end of their skills ended up being a good challenge for expert players.^[17] The graphics have a simple appearance to avoid a cluttered game screen and object designs were made distinct from each other to avoid confusion. They chose black as the background color to help characters stand out and further reduce clutter.^[18]

Enemy designs

Each enemy was designed to exhibit a unique behavior toward the player character; random elements were programmed into the enemies' behaviors to make the game more interesting.^[12][17] The first two designed—Electrodes and Grunts—were the simplest. Electrodes are stationary objects that are lethal to the in-game characters.^[12][18] Based on enemies in Chase, Grunts are simple robots that chase the protagonist by plotting the shortest path to him.^[12][13][18] They are designed to overwhelm the player with large groups.^[17] 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.^[12][13][18]

Other enemies were created to add 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 them, rather than have Enforcers already on the screen like other enemies. Brains were conceived as robots that could capture humans to brainwash them into enemies called Progs. They could 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 fire projectiles that bounce around the screen, and Quarks are Tank-producing robots.^[18]

Hardware

Robotron: 2084 followed Williams Electronics' design trend in the early 1980s of using the Motorola 6809 microprocessor (pictured) as the arcade machine's main CPU.

Robotron: 2084 arcade machines are based on the hardware designs established in Williams' 1981 game Defender.^[20][21] The hardware features monaural sound and raster graphics on a 19 inch CRT monitor.^[10] The machine consists of five circuit boards—a main central processing unit (CPU), a read-only memory (ROM) board, a soundboard, an interface controller board, and the power supply—that coordinate different processes required to operate the game.^[20] It uses a 1MHz Motorola 6809E microprocessor as the main CPU, which executes the game code and assembles the graphics to display on the screen.^[12][20] Sounds are generated in software, with the same routines as in other Williams games of the era. The game uses a priority scheme to determine which sounds to play on a single channel.^[17] The developers added two blitter chips to the Defender hardware in order to improve the capabilities.^[21] The blitters generate the on-screen objects and visual effects. Because they transfer memory faster than the CPU, the game is able to simultaneously animate a large number of objects.^[12][22] The unit includes settings to adjust the gameplay difficulty and the point threshold for earning additional game lives. The machine also provides arcade owners with usage statistics, such as the average time per play, which Williams recommended businesses use to gauge when to increase the difficulty setting.^[23]

The dual-joystick design was developed by Jarvis. Prior to beginning development, Jarvis injured his right hand in an automobile accident. His hand was still in a cast when he returned to work, which prevented him from using a traditional joystick with a button. While in rehabilitation, he thought of Berzerk.^[14][16] Though Jarvis enjoyed the game and similar titles, he was dissatisfied with the control scheme; Berzerk used a single joystick to move the on-screen character and a button to fire the weapon, which would shoot in the same direction the character was facing.^[14][18] Jarvis noticed that if the button was held down, the character would remain stationary and the joystick could be used to fire in any direction.^[12][18] This method of play inspired Jarvis to add a second joystick dedicated to aiming the direction projectiles were shot.^[18] Jarvis and DeMar created a prototype using a Stargate arcade system board and two Atari 2600 controllers attached to a control panel.^[12][14] In retrospect, Jarvis considers the design a contradiction that blends "incredible freedom of movement" with ease of use.^[17]

Release

Upright arcade cabinet

Commodore 64 cartridge released by Atarisoft

Following its release in arcades, Robotron: 2084 was ported to several home console platforms.

Prior to releasing in arcades, the game debuted at the 1982 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.^[24] Williams filed the stylized logo with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on April 8, 1982.^[25] However, Walt Disney Productions filed a lawsuit against Williams in May 1982, citing Robotron as infringing on the trademark of its film Tron, which was scheduled to release that summer.^[26][27] Williams rebuked the lawsuit as frivolous.^[26] The suit was dismissed in the United States District Court in Chicago, Illinois on January 12, 1983 after both sides had reached an agreement.^[28] Williams sold approximately 19,000 arcade cabinets; mini cabinets and cocktail versions were later produced.^[14][16] Video games writer David Ellis noted that Robotron cabinets had become collectors items by 2004. While the upright cabinets remained common, machines in working condition cost more than other games, which Ellis attributed to Robotron's enduring popularity. The smaller cabaret and cocktail version are much rarer and sell for a premium.^[29]

Atari, Inc. ported Robotron: 2084 to its own systems (Atari 8-bit computers, Atari 5200, and Atari 7800), while it released the game for the Apple II, Commodore 64, VIC-20, TI-99/4A, and IBM PC compatibles under its Atarisoft label.^[1] Most early conversions did not have a dual joystick and were received less favorably by critics.^[18][30] The Atari 5200 port included an accessory to hold two console joysticks in order to implement dual-stick controls.^[4][31] Atari Corporation published a Lynx port in 1991.

Robotron: 2084 has been included in several multi-platform compilations: the 1996 Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits, the 2000 Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits, the 2003 Midway Arcade Treasures, and the 2012 Midway Arcade Origins.^{[32][33][34][35]} In 2000, a web-based version of Robotron: 2084, along with nine other classic arcade games, were published on Shockwave.com, Macromedia's game portal that used its Shockwave platform.^[36] Four years later, Midway Games^{[Note 1]} also launched a website featuring the Shockwave versions.^[37]

In 2004, Midway Games planned to release a plug and play version of Robotron: 2084 as part of a line of TV Games;^[38] however, it remained unreleased by 2009.^[39] The game became available for download via Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade in November 2005. It featured high-definition graphics, online scoreboards, and two-player cooperative multiplayer with one player controlling the movement and another the shooting.^[40] Microsoft later removed the game from the service in February 2010 citing permission issues.^[41] Robotron: 2084, along with many other Midway arcade games, appear in the 2016 Midway Arcade expansion of Lego Dimensions. The developer, Traveller's Tales, considered recreating them in Lego form but decided to present them in their original forms to maintain what they felt made the games good. Lego versions of Robotron characters appear outside the emulated games in the expansion's virtual Lego world.^[42] In 2021, the game joined other classic arcade games on the Antstream Arcade gaming platform.^[43]

Reception

Video game critic Bill Kunkel praised the Robotron as the best coin-operated game of the year after its debut at the 1982 expo.^[24] Owen Linzmayer of Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games praised the freedom of movement afforded by the controls.^[44] Writing for French magazine Tilt, Jean Michel Navarre included Robotron in the war games section of his imaginary arcade museum, citing the game's scenario.^[45] Discussing the evolution of video game graphics, JoyStik magazine staff cited Robotron as a example of dynamic color, a new advancement in graphics at the time. They specifically drew attention to effects during a Brain Wave, which use color variety and quick color changes to create a shimmering white effect.^[46]

Retrospective

Critics lauded Robotron: 2084's gameplay. Authors Rusel DeMaria and Johnny Wilson enjoyed the excitement created by the constant waves of robots and fear of the character dying. They called it one of the more impressive games produced from the 80s and 90s.^[47][48] Author John Vince considered the reward system (saving humans) and strategic elements as positive components.^[49] ACE magazine's David Upchurch commented that despite the poor graphics and basic design, the gameplay's simplicity was a strong point.^[50] DeMaria and Wilson considered the control scheme a highlight which provided the player a tactical advantage.^[47] Retro Gamer described it as "one of the greatest control systems of all time".^[51] In retrospect, DeMar felt players continued to play the game because the control scheme offered a high level of precision.^[52]

The game received praise from industry professionals as well. Midway Games's Tony Dormanesh and Electronic Arts' Stephen Riesenberger called Robotron: 2084 their favorite arcade game.^[53] David Thiel, a former Gottlieb audio engineer, referred to the game as the "pinnacle of interactive game design".^[54] Jeff Peters from GearWorks Games praised the playing field as "crisp and clear", and described the strategy and dexterity required to play as a challenge to the senses. He summarized the game as "one of the best examples of game play design and execution".^[53]

Several publications have included Robotron among the top video games released. In 1995, Flux magazine staff ranked the arcade version 52nd on their "Top 100 Video Games" feature, calling it a "two-joystick terror" that had yet to be topped.^[55] In 1996, Next Generation listed the arcade and PlayStation versions as number 63 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", citing the game's relentless peril.^[56] In 1999, Next Generation listed Robotron as number 21 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that the game was the "most intense interactive entertainment experience ever created".^[57] Retro Gamer rated the game number two on their list of "Top 25 Arcade Games", citing its simple and addictive design.^[51] In 2008, Guinness World Records listed it as the number eleven arcade game in technical, creative and cultural impact.^[58] Game Informer staff ranked the game 72nd in its "Top 100 Games of All Time" special feature, calling it the "pinnacle of relentless arcade action".^[59] Edge magazine ranked the game 81st on their 100 Best Video Games in 2007.^[60]

Legacy

Jarvis's contributions to the game's development are often cited among his accolades.^[61][62] Vince considered him one of the originators of "high-action" and "reflex-based" arcade games, citing Robotron: 2084's gameplay among other games designed by Jarvis.^[49] In 2007, IGN listed Eugene Jarvis as a top game designer whose titles (Defender, Robotron 2084, and Smash TV) have influenced the video game industry.^[62] GamesTM referred to the game as the pinnacle of his career.^[17] Shane R. Monroe of RetroGaming Radio called Robotron "...the greatest twitch and greed game of all time".^[63] The game has also inspired other titles. The 1990 arcade game Smash TV, also designed by Jarvis, features a similar design—two joysticks used to shoot numerous enemies on a single screen—as well as ideas he intended to include in sequels.^[18][64] In 1991, Jeff Minter released a shareware game titled Llamatron based on Robotron: 2084's design.^[65] Twenty years later, Minter released an upgraded version titled Minotron: 2112 for iOS.^[66] In 2017, Soiree Games released Neckbeards: Basement Arena, which is heavily inspired by Robotron.^[67] Because of its popularity, the game has been referenced in facets of popular culture: the Beastie Boys' song "The Sounds of Science" on the album Paul's Boutique, Lou Reed's song "Down at the Arcade" on his New Sensations album, and the comic strip Bob the Angry Flower.^[9][68][69] The characters make a cameo appearance in the 2015 feature film Pixels.^[70] Players have also competed to obtain the highest score at the game.^[71]

Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton of Gamasutra commented that Robotron's success, along with Defender, illustrated that video game enthusiasts were ready for more difficult games with complex controls.^[30] Though not the first to implement it,^{[Note 2]} Robotron: 2084's use of dual joysticks popularized the design among 2D shooting games, and has since been copied by other arcade-style games.^{[18][51][53][72]} The control scheme has appeared in several other titles produced by Midway Games: Inferno, Smash TV, and Total Carnage.^[72] Many shooting games on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network use this dual control design.^[73][74][75] The 2003 title Geometry Wars and its sequels also use a similar control scheme.^[72][76] The input design was most prominent in arcade games until video games with three-dimensional (3D) graphics became popular in the late 1990s. Jarvis attributes the lack of proliferation in the home market to the absence of hardware that offered two side-by-side joysticks. Most 3D games, however, use the dual joystick scheme to control the movement of a character and a camera. Few console games, like the 2004 title Jet Li: Rise to Honor, use two joysticks for movement and attacking.^[30] A homebrew enthusiast created a port of Robotron for the ColecoVision home console in 2022.^[77]

Remakes and sequels

Vid Kidz developed a sequel, Blaster, in 1983. The game is a 3D shooter that takes place in a world overrun by Robotrons a year after the original.^[18][78][79] Jarvis planned to develop other sequels, but the video game crash of 1983 halted most video game production for a few years.^[18] Williams considered creating another sequel in the mid-1980s as well as a film adaptation.^[80][81] After the 1983 crash, the company planned to sell an arcade conversion kit for games with a vertically oriented monitor, which had become popular at the time.^[82][83] Management felt that a sequel would improve the kit's saleability.^[83] Williams considered a sequel to either Robotron: 2084 or Joust, ultimately choosing the latter.^[80]

A 3D remake, Robotron X, was released in 1996 and features gameplay similar to the original.

Atari Corporation and Williams Entertainment^{[Note 3]} announced plans at the end of 1994 to develop an update of Robotron for the Atari Jaguar and high performance PCs.^[84][85] However, the update—Robotron X—was released on the Sony PlayStation console in 1996. Developed by Player 1, Robotron X is a 3D remake featuring new enemies and stages that was also released on Windows PCs in 1997. The game was later ported to the Nintendo 64 in 1998 as Robotron 64.^[86][87]

Notes

1. WMS Industries purchased Midway in 1988 and later transferred its games to a new Midway Games subsidiary.
2. The two-joystick control scheme was previously used in Taito's Gun Fight in 1975 as well as Artic Electronics' Mars in 1981.
3. Williams Electronics went public in 1987 as WMS Industries, and after acquiring Tradewest in 1994, WMS Industries renamed the new subsidiary Williams Entertainment to release home ports of its arcade games.