Created by Jeff Anderson
I,Robot is
without a doubt one of the most imaginative games to ever roll out of Atari's
door. Designed by Dave Theurer, it followed along the same surrealistic lines as
Tempest. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of Atari's biggest bombs and it
did not sell well. I,Robot was just too deep of a game to really catch
the public's eye.. not to mention being quite hard to boot. It was years ahead
of its time. Polygon graphics based arcade games were not commonplace, much less
seen for another 5 years after I,Robot's release!
The following is taken directly from the I,Robot manual.
Game Overview
The
player is an Interface Robot (#1984) in rebellion against Big Brother and his
Evil Eyes in I,Robot. Players will enter another world where they must face off
against Big Brother on different terrains, trying to shoot through a protective
shield and advance to the pyramid where Big Brother's Evil Eye can actually be
shot and destroyed. I,Robot provides players with exciting challenges as they
attempt to lead a rebellion against the control of Big Brother.
Game Play
I,Robot begins with the Interface Robot
facing off against the Evil Eye. The player has to collect all of the red
squares on the playfield in order to destroy the sheild that protects the Evil
Eye and enter the pyramid. The Robot can only jump to the red squares when the
Evil Eye is not watching (i.e., yellow or green). If the Evil Eye is red, it
will detect the Robot jumping and destroy him. At the acquisition of each red
square, the protective shield is weakend. When the Robot has obtained all of the
red squares, the shield is automatically destroyed and the Robot can get into
the pyramid and destroy the Evil Eye.
After the destruction of the Evil Eye,
the Robot travels through a space wave where the player muse either shoot and
destroy or avoid the objects flying toward him. At the completion of each space
wave, the Robot lands on another geometric terrain, where once again he must
face another Evil Eye.
Every third terrain contains a red pyramid which the
Robot must enter after destroying the Evil Eye. Once inside the pyramid, the
Robot has one chance to collect as many of the jewels as he can before he is
destroyed. If the Robot is destroyed while he is inside the pyranid, he is
immediately thrust back into space. The player must get through three more
terrains before he has another chance to get to the jewels inside of the
pyramid.
Hints for Game Play
- The player can advance to higher play levels while inside the
transporter.
- Objects to be destroyed for points include:
- a buzz saw
- a soccer ball
- a small ball dropped by a bird
- the polygons
- rolling log
- The player can achieve a bonus for shooting all of the tetrahedrons in a
space wave. The player can also acheive bonus points by spelling I,Robot by
shooting the letters as they appear sequentially in space waves.
- The player must shoot the polygons with SEVEN shots in order to destroy
them and achieve points.
Interesting tidbits:
I,Robot
was the first game that used:
- Changing perspectives. The player could select his viewpoint.
- Hall-effect joystick.
- Polygon graphics. Actually, flat-shaded polygon graphics with no hidden
surfaces.
I,Robot's hardware was spun-off from an
unrelated project. Atari engineers had wanted to design a polygon driving game
since the late 70's. There were numerous attempts using vector graphics
technology, but they couldn't ever pull off hidden line removal. Prior to 1983
raster technology wasn't tried for this project because it required too much
expensive memory. The new hardware, designed by Dave Sherman, still wasn't
powerful enough to do what they wanted for the driving game and I,Robot took its
place. The previous attempts of the driving game resulted in the hardware for
Battlezone/Red Baron and Star Wars. Atari finally pulled it off in 1988 with
Hard Drivin'.
An early name for the game was Ice Castles. Late in the development a storyline
was thought up and I,Robot was born!
last updated February 18, 2004
