Videogames Club

Retr0gamer · 13-11-2007 12:46PM #1

First post of hopefully many.

The first game that I'm going to recommend will be Robotron 2084 which I've recently fallen in love with. I pioneered the dual joystick system, one to move the other to choose the direction of fire, that we see in every xboxlive arcade game these days.

The game is notoriously tough but also very addictive. Some tips for people starting out:

It might be counter intuitive but staying close to enforcers (the annyoing flying guys that look like buggenheim (sp?) from FFVII fire slower the closer you are to them.

The game is very tough and you will die often. However the design takes this into account. It's very easy to obtain extra lives in the game so make sure you rescue as many civilians as possible since they are your ticket to more lives.

The game is emulated in mame and available on xbox live arcade. You will be better off using a pad with dual analogue due to the unique control scheme.

We need to make up a rota for who chooses the games, so post here if you are interested.

deadl0ck · 13-11-2007 05:41PM

So - how long have we to play/test the game ?

Retr0gamer · 13-11-2007 05:52PM

Say what you think of it whenever you want. A new game will be choosen by someone else next Tuesday so anytime before then. Play it as much or as little as you want.

CiDeRmAn · 13-11-2007 09:04PM

Hate those feckin' tanks, always got stuck on the tanks, this is the game I'd give a kidney to have at home in it's original arcade format, otherwise I have versions on nearly every format I've got, it's a beauty of a game,
For affordability therefore I'd recommend the Xbox Live edition, as the pad has a handy two sticks already!

Retr0gamer · 13-11-2007 10:54PM

I keep getting stuck on wave 9 as well. Bloody tanks, although I probably get killed more by enforcers. Some of the top scores on xbox live are just crazy, can't believe some people can obtain them, it's superhuman.

It's amazing that a game thats going on 25 years old is so damn good and addictive. It gives modern shoot'em ups a good run for their money and is hard to beat in carnage stakes. The graphics are also excellent, love the dissolution effects when you kill an enemy or the weird effects when you start stage 10. Goes to show that with very little power and a good art style you can still make a great looking game. For me it's a tiemless classic and I can't believe I only just discovered it now despite having read so much about it. God bless Xbox Live arcade. (I did think I wasted my money on it at first but after 30 minutes I realised I loved it and wasn't going to stop playing anytime soon

)

CiDeRmAn · 14-11-2007 09:01PM

I have it on the PS as well, a Tempest 2000 style update, Tempest X, not quite the same but not bad.
I've got a decent version on the Megadrive and a nifty one on the GBA.
I used to hate the brain thingys until realised that if you kill them all bar one quickly you can then rack up some serious points picking up Moms, nice, grab an extra life on the way.
Mention should go out to the spiritual sequels Smash TV and and Total Carnage, Super Smash TV on the Snes was awesome.

Trode · 15-11-2007 12:59AM

Somehow, I'd never actually played Robotron before. I loved Smash TV and played a few different versions, and had this sitting there for a while, but I just never got around to it. Now I have, and it is excellent. Perhaps not as excellent as I had been led to believe, but I'm still laughably bad at it, and it's one of the rare games that makes me really want to be good at it, so my feelings could change. It's definitely a 'one more go' kind of thing, all the more so when my goes tend to average at about 40 seconds. I probably would have ignored it in an arcade, had one go, swore at it's ludicrous difficulty and never spent money on it again, but MAME is great for giving games like this a chance to shine for the differently skilled* gamer like myself.

*crap

Roar · 15-11-2007 01:10AM

bright colours!

never even heard this before, gave it a go on midways site

http://www.midway.com/classicGames/robotron/robotron.html

but you'd need about 40 fingers to play it on keyboard

anyone know how i can get my ps2 pad to work with mame?

Dr Bob · 15-11-2007 11:54AM

ps2 to usb adaptor, I think Game does them , and you should be able to map it under mames config screen (tab calls it up , I think)

Roar · 15-11-2007 09:30PM

yeah i have one of those, but mame don't seem to recognise it..

ah well

deadl0ck · 16-11-2007 12:23AM

You'll need to use MAME32 to use that, not standard MAME
It should be fine then, once you configure it in Control Panel

hamster · 19-11-2007 12:40AM

Just tried Robotron tonight and back to work tomorrow and busy solid for next 3 days. Bah! Retr0Gamer and folks - that game is a *gem* !!! I only played it for 2 games and wow - it has that classic playability and captures the best point of games back then!

By the way, I love the rating comments it gives you on your score. Keep playing this game!
The Mame version is beautiful! Zipping this game with me on my travels tomorrow.

deadl0ck · 19-11-2007 12:56AM

Weird that you picked Robotron actually....
I've just moved my MAME cab and set it up 2 weeks ago (after it had being lying dormant for almost a year), and discovered Robotron, just before you suggested it.

It's an absolutely fantastic game!! It's gotta be one of the best arcade games I've played.

If this videogames club allows me to discover games on par with Robotron, that I didn't know, about it's gonna be a games filled Christmas for me

Dr Bob · 19-11-2007 05:41PM

gave this a quick blast yesterday ,(mame32 and an aldi usb dual analog controller) good fun but a lot harder than I remember.
..and to think I used to think smash tv/total carnage were hard

I have the midways greatest hits pack on the ps2 (all of them actually) must give it a dig out and play it on the big screen.

Retr0gamer · 19-11-2007 06:02PM

I find smash TV to be a much tougher beast, I'm horrendous at it but in robotron at least I can hold my own until after wave 5 when the sh*t hits the fan.

trout · 19-11-2007 06:10PM

Robotron, Smash TV and similar games always make me feel terribly inadequate

I'm just hopeless at them.

Can we have a nice old fashioned side-scrolling shooter next ?

Retr0gamer · 19-11-2007 07:23PM

trout wrote: »

Can we have a nice old fashioned side-scrolling shooter next ?

I hope someone picks an evil bullet hell shooter like Mars Matrix just for you

Are there any 'nice' side scrolling shooters? Defender is the most evil for me. It's up there with Robotron in the difficulty stakes.

brianon · 20-11-2007 05:25PM

I love Robotron. But Smash TV wins it for me although its an exceptionally tough game. As is Robotron.

Retr0gamer · 20-11-2007 09:46PM

Your turn to pick a game deadl0ck

deadl0ck · 20-11-2007 11:23PM

Cool.

So how the hell do I come up one one as good as Robotron !!!

Right - I'm gonna go for another arcade game, it's one I used to play in the chipper beside school WAYYYY back....

It's.... Choplifter (The bootleg version works)

It's pretty tough, but I used to enjoy it.

deadl0ck · 22-11-2007 01:01AM

Jebus.....

Is it so bad that it doesn't even warrant a comment ???

trout · 22-11-2007 02:42AM

deadl0ck wrote: »

Jebus.....

Is it so bad that it doesn't even warrant a comment ???

Here's a comment. I remember the first version of this game on the Apple II. One of the lads in school got a copy from his uncle in America.
The disk was labelled "Pascal source code" and we could only play it at lunch time on the school's one and only computer.
The teachers thought we are working on programs for a pilot Comp. Science scheme the Department of Education was running. Ah, the innocence.

I remember seeing the arcade game some years later, I think in the Airport, and being blown away by the difference in graphics and especially sound ... bet it looks cheesy now.

Man, I am feeling so old right now.

Still ... it was a good game in it's day, and I will give it a blast tomorrow

djsim · 22-11-2007 09:39AM

Choplifter - Now there is game that takes me back in time. I remember seeing this game way back in the "so called" arcade section out in Shannon Airport. This game was there along with UN Squadron. I found choplifter very hard at the time (was only a wee young lad)

I will play the game tonight and comment more tomorrow.

Dr Bob · 22-11-2007 10:11AM

I'll have a crac at it via mame tonight .
I remember the Atari 8bit version myself

Jerichoholic · 22-11-2007 07:09PM

I'll give it a go later on too.

Trode · 24-11-2007 08:15PM

I've been playing this, and it's great, although killing the hostages is much too easy and fun to make progress easy. There are a couple of irritations, the point at which the screen decides to scroll is frustratingly inconsistent, and the Defender-esque 'press button to turn around' thing I've never liked, but all in all a good and unfairly overlooked game. Good pick, deadl0ck.

I'd also recommend the SNES update, although it's a good but easier than this.

trout · 25-11-2007 06:52PM

So I gave Choplifter a rattle today, for old times sake. I have mixed feelings about it - It hasn't aged well, and the scrolling is irksome, but it is quite satisfying and fun to play

I seem to remember it being much harder when I was a kid, I suppose we have all evolved a little since then.

What I do like about it is it's the first game I remember playing that was obviously the work of a team, and it was so well polished & "produced", with references to the original coder and the original publisher ... I don't remember seeing that before in an arcade game. It also had an attract mode that featured a backstory ... about the evil Bungeling Empire, and how the POW's were held captive.

I like the way you can fly in different directions to the one you are facing, like a real chopper. The animation, for 1985 is pretty smooth, and the graphics are cute enough.

Maybe the nostalgia factor is high today, but I remember being pleased at playing a game of "rescue the good guys", and feeling bad if I shot or squashed a hostage.

Also, I think this is one of the first games to appear on a home PC or console first, and then becoming an arcade game, as opposed to an arcade port. The upscale really worked well, if you consider the Apple II version.

All in all, it's a cool game and well worth the time spent.

Good choice, deadl0ck

Retr0gamer · 26-11-2007 10:40PM

Had a go of it there myself. I'm rather impressed, thought it would have aged badly. The gameplay is addictive and still holds up today. I'm also rather impressed by the graphics. It looks rather gorgeous for a game from 1985 since it was one of the first games on the 16-bit Z80 hardware that would be the basis for the Megadrive. The animation on the helicopter is really impressive, you would swear it was sprite rotation if you didn't look hard enough. The parallax scrolling is great and it was on of the first games to use it. Nice one deadl0ck.

CiDeRmAn · 27-11-2007 08:29AM

I too played it on an Apple IIe back in the computer lab in school, it was not all that good then, too many games on the Spectrum and C64 were better and I think time has left it behind.
Not really good enough to polish Robotrons shoes!

deadl0ck · 27-11-2007 11:08AM

Over to you CiDeRmAn

trout · 27-11-2007 12:17PM

I think I'm up next ... according to the rota in the sticky

Sticking with the same era - mid 80's, I would like to nominate Salamander.

In college, I spent a waaay too much time & money on this game when I should have been studying ... I had to repeat two subjects in first year, but I don't regret a single minute :rolleyes:

If you've played Nemesis / Gradius on any of the home consoles, this game will be familiar to you. If you like R-Type, you'll probably like this.

It's short game, but tough and engaging ... just one more go.
I still get a kick out of the digitised speech ... "pick it up ... for Ripple Laser"

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9410
http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=detail&id=2297

Supported by MAME from v 0.35b12 up ... salamand.zip

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