Released in 1982 by Williams Robotron 2084 is a multi-directional arcade shooter game where the story line is to save the last human family from the variety of Robotrons that are attacking the human race. The Robotron arcade game is a classic 80’s title that everyone should experience.
The Backstory of the Game
The Robotrons were invented by mankind and were perfected in the year of 2084 and upon perfection have realized that the human race is inferior and must be destroyed. Fortunately for us the human that we are controlling in the game has a genetic engineering error which means we possess superhuman powers.
Our mission is to stop the Robotrons and save the last human family in wave upon wave of frenzied arcade action.
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The Man Behind the Robotron Arcade Game
The man who was responsible for giving us the game Robotron 22084 was Eugene Jarvis who was also behind the arcade classic defender as well as being involved with titles such as Narc and the development of the classic Smash TV.
Robotron 2084 Arcade Game Controls
The arcade cabinet setup itself is a twin joystick setup so you have one joystick that you use to control your sprite and then you have a second joystick that you use to fire with and to control the direction of which you’re firing.
The twin stick control system works really well for this game. I really enjoy it because it adds to the sort of frenzied action as you work your way through the waves of Robotrons. It’s just a different way of playing a game rather than hitting a button to fire you’re using a joystick and controlling in which way it goes. So you’re having to think about which direction you’re going with your left hand moving your character around the screen and with your right hand you’re having to think about which direction you’re firing.
it is just crazy at times, but that craziness does make it a lot of fun. Wave upon wave of Robotrons comes at you as you work your way throughout the game with more enemies filling up the screen.
Playing the Robotron Arcade Game
Robotron 2084 is a game from the early 80s so practice is really needed to get the hang of it and make progress.
As you play the game it’s one screen (or wave) at a time. Your character appears in the middle and you’ve got the human family, the mom and dad and the children working their way around which you’ve got to try and bump into to rescue and make them disappear off the screen while destroying the Robotrons on screen to then work your way through to the next wave.
The Different Types of Robotron Enemies
In Robotron there’s a variety of enemies that you face as you work your way through the attack waves.
1. The Grunt
The most common one is the grunt which is the least sophisticated enemy in the game and basically they don’t have any weapons and they will just follow you around the screen until they hit/kill you or you kill them,
2. The Hulk
As you work your way through the game and the first few wave you’ll come across the Hulks which will come at you and all you can do really is shoot the hulks to slow them down and hold them off as you can’t kill them.
3. Spheroids and Enforcer Aliens
You’ve also got the spheroids which will spawn Enforcer Aliens which will come at you and can fire sparks to destroy you. It is best to try and destroy the spheroids before they start spawning the enforcers.
4. The Brain Robotron
The worst enemy by far is the Brain Robotron. This is the most clever and dangerous of the enemies in the game it has a two-pronged attack that will be launched every fifth wave and if it collides with you it will electrocute you where you stand. It can also fire cruise missiles which will seek you out and destroy you. So, it’s a case of destroying the brain or being destroyed
If you do destroy the brain you get 500 points and if you can zap its cruise missiles you’ll get 75 points.
The second wave of the Brain Robotron’s attack is to attack the humans rather than yourself and reprogram them into an enemy that will then turn on you. This is quite a clever move so it’s obviously advisable to try and destroy the brains before they do any real damage and start turning the people supposed to be saving against you.
5. The Tank
You will come across the tanks in the later waves. They fire rebounding shells that will bounce off the border of the screen and are difficult to dodge. Not as complex as the Brain Robotrons but the rebounding shells make this extremely difficult to eliminate.
Saving the Humans from the Robotrons
The storyline behind the arcade is to obviously rescue the last human family. But as you work your way through the waves you don’t have to do that. All your gaining is points by saving the human family members on screen and the ultimate goal really is to destroy the Robotrons that you can to clear the screen and to get onto the next wave.
On the earlier waves when you first start playing the game you can save the humans fairly easily. The game does get more difficult as you play your way through the waves.
The big benefit of saving the humans is that it can bump up your score fairly quickly. You get 1000 points for the 1st human you save, then 2000 for the second, 3000 for the third, 4000 for the fourth and then 5000 for the fifth human and any thereafter.
The Original Title of Robotron 2084
Originally the title for the game was going to be Robotron 1984. But as the game was being released in 1982 Williams decided that with 1984 only being two years away it seemed unrealistic that we were going to be taken over by robots. So the year in the game’s title was moved forward 100 years to 2084.
The Robotron Arcade Game Sequel That Never Was
Due to the success of the first arcade cabinet there would have been a sequel but the video games crash in North America in 1983 killed off the sequel coming out. It would have been interesting to have seen what they would have done with the sequel. Would it have been much the same or would they have come out with something a bit different?
Robotron Home Conversions
Robotron 2084 was converted to quite a lot of home systems back in the day. I’ve got a version of it for the commodore 64. In 1996 a 3D sequel popped up on the Playstation 1 which was titled Robotron X and also there was an N64 3D game called Robotron 64.
My Thoughts on Robotron 2084
Now I play the game quite often on my Home Arcade cabs and you will often find it at Retro Gaming Expos too. It is one of my favourite arcade games and it is a great game to play to keep trying to better your high score.
If you haven’t played the game before and you’re not really of the era of the early 80s arcade games I’d say definitely give it a try. It is a bit of a crazy game which is what I love about it. It’s frenzied and it gets a bit manic as you work your way through each wave of Robotrons.
You need to play it quite a few times to really get the feel for it. There are supposed to be strategies to which way you should be moving and where you should be on screen in certain waves but for the life of me I can never remember when playing the game. I just go for it and see what happens.
You can have a really good run on the game and then you can just fail miserably on your next turn. But that’s part of the challenge of these old arcade games from the the early 80s. They were supposed to be challenging. They were trying to get your money and if other players were getting high scores the challenge was there to try and beat them. The attraction of gettingyour name on that high school board.
Robotron 2084
Robotron 2084 is just great simple arcade fun as are a lot of these early 80s classics. Simple goals to try to achieve, simple controls although on this one quite challenging with the twin joysticks but simple great fun. Like many games of the era you need your imagination a little bit as anybody playing arcade games or video games in the early 80s did.
I certainly recommend it if you haven’t played it. Try and find it on emulation and give it a go.
If you are looking for more retro games to try take a look at these.
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Keep it retro.
Daz
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