I, Robot (computer game)

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I, robot
Studio Atari
Publisher Atari
Senior Developer Dave Theurer
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 1983
genre Shoot 'em up
Game mode Single player
control Hall Effect joystick
casing Standard and Cocktail
Arcade system CPU :
Motorola 6809  @ 1.5 MHz,
Sound:
4 × Atari POKEY @ 1.25 MHz
monitor Raster ,
resolution 256 × 232 (horizontal),
96 colors
information The first arcade game with 3D polygon graphics

I, Robot is an Arcade - Shoot-'em-up that of Dave Theurer programmed and 1983 by Atari was published. It is the first commercial video game to use 3D graphics using filled polygons . However, with only about 1,500 units sold, the game was a failure.

development

At the beginning of the project, Atari planned to design a 3D racing game . In an early prototype , however, there were problems with the occlusion calculation and the capabilities of the hardware designed by Dave Sherman . The game was then further developed as a shoot 'em up under the project name Ice Castles .

Game flow

The game is not, as the name suggests, based on Asimov's book I, Robot , but is loosely based on Orwell's novel 1984 . The player controls the rebellious "Interface Robot (# 1984)" and tries to defeat an opponent called "Big Brother" and his "Evil Eyes".

I, Robot consists of 99 levels in which the player tries to color red-colored parts of the playing field blue by touching them and thus to be able to turn off an "Evil Eye". These are represented by oversized eyes and have the ability to destroy the character if it should jump within a specified period of time. The player can also lose life by expiring a time limit or by touching opponents such as birds, bombs or flying sharks.

Between the individual levels, the robot flies through a kind of space and the player tries to shoot objects or to avoid them.

Innovations

In addition to polygon graphics, I, Robot introduced further innovations in game development: the perspective can to a certain extent be determined by the player. Starting with an overhead display that is similar to games like Pac-Man , this can be shifted in about ninety degrees to a perspective behind the character. A form of representation that was used by many action adventure games and jump 'n' runs from the late 1990s onwards. Another innovation is the second game mode "The Ungame - Doodle City". For a coin thrown into the machine, the player can draw, move and rotate different polygons of the game for three minutes. I, Robot is also the first game to use a hall-effect joystick .

Despite these innovations, the game can be called a flop due to the low sales figures for Atari games . The reasons for this failure include the video game crash , the form of display that became standard years later and the system's high susceptibility to errors.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Manfreda: I, Robot Atari. manfreda.org, 2003, archived from the original on July 23, 2008 ; accessed on March 21, 2016 (English).