Searching for old robot puzzle game
Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 11:09 pm
I'm looking for the first computer game i ever played.
Background:
1) I'm awfully certain that the game was called either "Robots" or "Robot." (It definitely wasn't "chip's challenge").
2) It was programmed by some guy from Britain. When you were finished playing, it asked for any donations to be sent in the form of pounds to his address in great britain.
3) I'm not sure about the date of creation. I would guess mid-80s. It was on a 5.25-inch floppy, that's for sure!
Details I remember:
1) The game is split into seperate, screen-sized rooms. Each room is made up of an invisible grid. Each square in this grid was very small, kind of like "5-squares per inch" graph paper, except, as i said, the actual grid itself is invisible. Everything in the game--yourself, enemies, items, objects--occupies a single square.
2) The typical room included any number of immovable walls/water, normal grey blocks that you could push around, reddish "electrical" boxes which you couldn't touch without dying, and some gold scattered around. There would typically be a few robots moving eratically (but often in your general direction) around the room. There were several ways to kill these robots. Early on, the common method was to "lure" the robots into one of the electrical boxes by standing behind them while the robots made their way towards you from across the room. Another method was to use the movable grey blocks in order to create a prison of sorts, and when the robot wandered inside, try to "close" the prison by pushing another grey block in front of the entrance, thus trapping the robot inside. I distinctly remember the robots being able to move diagonally, even though you could only move up,down,left,right--so, trapping them required 8 blocks. I believe you could also push a grey block into a monster, and push both block and monster into an electrical block to kill him. You may have been able to push a grey block into an electrical block too, and move both grey block and electrical block into a monster. Later on in the game, i believe you received a slingshot. I remember both single pebbles and piles of pebbles being scattered around the rooms for ammo.
3) The basic premise of the game was to move through the different rooms, collecting gold and different colored keys, which granted access to later rooms. You were allowed to (and required to) backtrack through previous rooms. I'm not sure if you were required to kill all the robots in a room in order to move on. I'm also not sure if they respawned when you left a room and returned.
4) Some fuzzy details i remember about the game include a blue body armor of some sorts that you could pick up. I think it may have protected you from something like fire or water terrain, allowing you to access parts of the rooms you couldn't before. I also remember rooms with a maze of arrows in it. Once you entered the maze of arrows, you still had control of your character (in other words, it didn't move you like a conveyor belt), but, you weren't allowed to move into any space if an arrow in that space was pointing in the direction that you'd be coming from. So, you had to follow a pretty strict path. Depending on where you entered the maze of arrows from, you might be forced to walk straight into a monster, instead of your desired direction. There may have been arrows that automatically and periodically changed direction too.
If this game rings a bell for anyone, please let me know!
Background:
1) I'm awfully certain that the game was called either "Robots" or "Robot." (It definitely wasn't "chip's challenge").
2) It was programmed by some guy from Britain. When you were finished playing, it asked for any donations to be sent in the form of pounds to his address in great britain.
3) I'm not sure about the date of creation. I would guess mid-80s. It was on a 5.25-inch floppy, that's for sure!
Details I remember:
1) The game is split into seperate, screen-sized rooms. Each room is made up of an invisible grid. Each square in this grid was very small, kind of like "5-squares per inch" graph paper, except, as i said, the actual grid itself is invisible. Everything in the game--yourself, enemies, items, objects--occupies a single square.
2) The typical room included any number of immovable walls/water, normal grey blocks that you could push around, reddish "electrical" boxes which you couldn't touch without dying, and some gold scattered around. There would typically be a few robots moving eratically (but often in your general direction) around the room. There were several ways to kill these robots. Early on, the common method was to "lure" the robots into one of the electrical boxes by standing behind them while the robots made their way towards you from across the room. Another method was to use the movable grey blocks in order to create a prison of sorts, and when the robot wandered inside, try to "close" the prison by pushing another grey block in front of the entrance, thus trapping the robot inside. I distinctly remember the robots being able to move diagonally, even though you could only move up,down,left,right--so, trapping them required 8 blocks. I believe you could also push a grey block into a monster, and push both block and monster into an electrical block to kill him. You may have been able to push a grey block into an electrical block too, and move both grey block and electrical block into a monster. Later on in the game, i believe you received a slingshot. I remember both single pebbles and piles of pebbles being scattered around the rooms for ammo.
3) The basic premise of the game was to move through the different rooms, collecting gold and different colored keys, which granted access to later rooms. You were allowed to (and required to) backtrack through previous rooms. I'm not sure if you were required to kill all the robots in a room in order to move on. I'm also not sure if they respawned when you left a room and returned.
4) Some fuzzy details i remember about the game include a blue body armor of some sorts that you could pick up. I think it may have protected you from something like fire or water terrain, allowing you to access parts of the rooms you couldn't before. I also remember rooms with a maze of arrows in it. Once you entered the maze of arrows, you still had control of your character (in other words, it didn't move you like a conveyor belt), but, you weren't allowed to move into any space if an arrow in that space was pointing in the direction that you'd be coming from. So, you had to follow a pretty strict path. Depending on where you entered the maze of arrows from, you might be forced to walk straight into a monster, instead of your desired direction. There may have been arrows that automatically and periodically changed direction too.
If this game rings a bell for anyone, please let me know!
