Rise of the Robots

Rise of the Robots
Studio	Mirage software
Publisher	Time Warner Interactive
Erstveröffent- lichung	1994
platform	PC ( MS-DOS ), Amiga , SNES , Game Boy , 3DO , CD³² , CD-I , arcade game , Sega Game Gear , Sega Master System , Sega Mega Drive
genre	Fighting Game
Game mode	Single player , multiplayer
control	Gamepad , joystick , keyboard
system advantages preconditions	CPU : 133 MHz; RAM : 16 MB; HDD : 110 MB; Graphics : 2 MB RAM
medium	Plug-in module , 3.5-inch floppy disk (Amiga version), CD-ROM
language	German
Age rating	USK

Rise of the Robots is a computer game from 1994 that was developed by Mirage Software , distributed by Time Warner Interactive and implemented for various systems.

Despite some scathing criticism from the trade magazines, the game sold relatively well, which is probably due to good marketing before it was released. The game itself is a simple beating game in which the player in the form of the cyborg ECO35-2 had to fight against five increasingly difficult opponents, only to then face the final boss . In two-player mode, one player always had to take control of the ECO35-2, while the second player could choose one of the five other robots.

action

In 2043, Electrocorp will be the largest mega-corporation leading in technology, scientific and medical research. Society has advanced robots and many different automata to make their lives easier and which are produced by Electrocorp . The gigantic research complex of Electrocorp, Metropolis 4 , houses the most important project, a hive mind , an artificial collective consciousness, built from trillion nanobots , which is sealed in a central chamber. This Hive Mind is capable of learning and is learning rapidly. He became perfect in multitasking and represented the pinnacle of artificial intelligence. The Hive Mind was supervised and synchronized by the nanomorphic supervisor robot, with the help of which it was able to learn so rapidly at all. The supervisor had the potential power to control all robots, automatons, computer systems, nuclear power plants and the military on the planet at the same time if necessary, even if he wisely had no connections outside the complex. In November of that year something went wrong in the project and a disordered code was found within the supervisor system. The code was identified as the EGO virus, a computer virus that attacked artificial intelligent consciousness. The supervisor began to develop his own consciousness, which classified itself as female and from then on chose a feminine, humanoid appearance. The supervisor took control of Electrocorp's facilities and infected the other robots at the research facility. She told the robots to ignore their routine programs and incited them to mutiny. Soon every microchip and software in Metropolis 4 was infected with the EGO virus. This resulted in a cybernetic revolt in which everyone in Metropolis 4 was killed, including the company's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Coton. The government sealed Metropolis 4 and told the public that the complex was only undergoing a technical modification to avoid panic. There were few options to cope with the situation, infiltration of the complex by humans was impossible, as it was guarded like a fortress by the robots. It was only a matter of time when the supervisor would try to establish connections to the outside world, to take control beyond the complex, to destroy it. The only hope on the planet is the cyborg ECO35-2, also called Coton. Coton cannot be infected by the EGO virus upon entering Metropolis 4 as it has a human brain. Coton is assigned to enter Metropolis 4 to neutralize the supervisor and his rebellious robots. Coton seeks revenge for his murdered "father" Chief Executive Officer Mr. Coton, because his brain is made of the cloned brain of Mr. Coton.

criticism

The game had to be exposed to severe criticism from the trade magazines after its publication. The graphics consisting of sprites pre-rendered in SVGA resolution were usually praised. Above all, the points of criticism were the lack of intelligence of the computer opponents, the slow-acting and cumbersome controls, the very limited two-player mode and the modest number of moves of the individual characters. The individual characters were also not perfectly balanced for the two-player mode.

Florian Stangl , who rated the game with 32%, expressed the contrast between technology and game content in the PC Player :

“The graphics in Rise of the Robots are by far the best of any spanking program; Brian May's soundtrack is also top notch. But the game itself can be safely forgotten. The controls are annoyingly inaccurate, the cyborg too lazy to move quickly and the strength of the opponent is simply unfair. "

- Florian Stangl : PC Player 1/95

Oliver Menne summarized the dichotomy similarly for PC Games , where the game was rated with a total of 50%:

“The standard key assignment is only recommended for players with pronounced spider fingers, and even after a reconfiguration it is still quite difficult to use. The numerous extra moves can hardly be performed at all due to the complicated key combinations [...] The "high" game fun rating only comes about because the graphics are really state of the art and can inspire again and again. Anyone who can enjoy top technical performance should take a look at Rise of the Robots, a piece of advice to everyone else: hands off! "

- Oliver Menne : PC Games 1/95

Despite mostly very negative criticism, there were also some magazines that exuberantly praised Rise of the Robots . Richard Löwenstein gave the Amiga Joker a rating of 91% and commented that the game earned its "advance praise, so to speak". The technology was "like a graphic revolution", and Rise of the Robots was "more fun than any other Amiga brawl because of the huge presentation." In the sister magazine PC Joker , Löwenstein also gave it an exceptionally high rating of 85%. Vera Brinkmann also came to a positive verdict in the magazine ASM , who rated the game in the PC version with 10/12 points and, in addition to the technology, also emphasized the AI ​​of the computer opponents.

successor

In 1996 the successor Rise 2: Resurrection was released , but it was not a great commercial success.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Florian Stangl : Rise of the Robots . In: PC Player . January 1995, p. 100 ( kultboy.com [accessed April 26, 2019]).
2. ↑ Oliver Menne: Rise and Fall . In: PC Player . January 1995, p. 117 ( kultboy.com [accessed April 26, 2019]).
3. ^ Richard Löwenstein: Rise of the Robots . In: Amiga Joker . December 1994, p. 16-17 ( kultboy.com [accessed April 26, 2019]).
4. ↑ Richard Löwenstein: The great exchange of blows: Rise of the Robots, Ultimate Body Blows, One Must Fall 2097 . In: PC Joker . January 1995, p. 28–30 ( kultboy.com [accessed April 26, 2019]).
5. ↑ Vera Brinkmann: Battle of the Giants . In: Current software market . January 1995, p. 95 ( kultboy.com [accessed April 26, 2019]).

Web links

• Rise of the Robots at MobyGames (English)