High Score Club 9.17 - Robot Tank

[Ze_ro]

Important Note: This weeks competition is over and no further scores will be accepted.

 

October, 2019.

 

Our nation's defense system has become computer-controlled by robotic regulation. Human intervention and interference have been reduced to a scant minimum. It has proven to be a brilliant concept with a fail-safe design.

 

But, suddenly, something has gone haywire. At one of the Western test sites, a division of armed tanks, the Robot Tanks, has stopped obeying commands from Computer Central and is now on the rampage. Thundering over western terrain, blistering everything in sight, they are moving closer to downtown Santa Clara.

 

You must command your own sophisticated Robot Tanks from a remote station and stop this nonsense. It'll require plenty of stamina, razor-sharp wits and strategic flexibility. Your control panel will monitor the damage to your machines, but you'll have to battle alone. Alone, against the robots.

 

 

Game Information

• Game Name: Robot Tank
• Released By: Activision, 1983
• Left Difficulty: N / A
• Right Difficulty: N / A
• Game Mode: Default

Post your scores right here in this thread, and I will add them to the list. Remember to play the game with the recommended game mode and difficulty settings as shown above so that your scores will be consistent with everyone elses. The deadline for posting scores is Wednesday July 13th at 1:00 AM (Central Time, UTC-6).

 

Challenges

• Patch Challenge - Medal of Merit - Defeat 4 Squadrons, 48 Tanks (2 points)
• Patch Challenge - Cross of Excellence - Defeat 5 Squadrons, 60 Tanks (4 points)
• Patch Challenge - Star of Honor - Defeat 6 Squadrons, 72 Tanks (6 points)

 

Current High Scores 71 (Frostbite76) [+11][+4] 70 (JacobZu7zu7) [+10][+4] 70 (Gorfy) [+10][+4] 69 (Stan) [+9][+4] 68 (zylon) [+8][+4] 63 (Scrabbler15) [+7][+4] 62 (toymailman) [+6][+4] 58 (DT Kofoed) [+5][+2] 57 (Jifremok) [+4][+2] 51 (Miss 2600) [+3][+2] 50 (oyamafamily) [+2][+2] 46 (LarcenTyler) [+1] 46 (roadrunner) [+1] 46 (Vocelli) [+1] 42 (Darth Kinzer) [+1] 41 (Zoyx) [+1] 34 (Amstari) [+1] 34 (theKLT) [+1] 33 (Krytol) [+1] 24 (classicgamer_27330) [+1] 22 (Mingy Jongo) [+1] Best Tips Miss 2600 [+2] TwinGalaxies Top 3 76 (Sean B Kirkpatrick) 74 (Brien King) 73 (Troy Whelan) (Game 1, Difficulty B)

Current Standings JacobZu7zu7 [262] toymailman [257] oyamafamily [244] Frostbite76 [198] Gorfy [178] Vocelli [170] DT Kofoed [126] Deteacher [122] Stan [111] classicgamer_27330 [103] Jifremok [101] theKLT [98] Scrabbler15 [93] Miss 2600 [91] Amstari [81] LarcenTyler [74] cparsley [73] pokeplayer984 [65] roadrunner [63] SpiceWare [48] pis [38] keilbaca [37] ed1475 [36] Mister VCS [35] centiqueen81 [33] Krytol [27] Chuck D. Head [27] Wickeycolumbus [21] zylon [21] Cynicaster [20] SeaGtGruff [20] HatefulGravey [17] Curious Sofa [16] Torr [13] littleman jack [7] atarigal [5] Cortat G [5] bennybingo [5] Darth Kinzer [5] rmaerz [3] Zach [3] atariUCLA24 [3] dwane413 [3] SpaceDice2010 [2] MIKE5200 [2] Mangia-Boy [1] Buck [1] 4Ks [1] Cream147 [1] DickNixonArisen [1] leematari [1]

 

Scoring Points in Robot Tank

• Shoot a tank, get a point.

 

Hints and Tips

The Manual

 

As always, you really should read the manual. In case you don't have the manual, AtariAge has a typed copy and a scanned copy available online. Here are the hints it provides:

• Enemy Robot Tanks continually sneak up on you. You'll frequently end up losing visibility for one reason or another. So, practice aiming at enemy Tanks using only the radar scan. If you can master this, you will have better battling success at night or in fog.
  
• When there's no visibility, I suggest constantly maneuvering your Robot Tank to keep the enemy behind you, so that the vulnerable front of your Tank is safe. Then, you can wait until conditions improve.
  
• If your Tank is damaged, and it's night, keep track of the time using the military clock. If it's close to 0500 hours, then you may decide to wait for the weather alert. Conditions may improve from the previous day, and your next offensive may prove more successful.
  
• Remember that you can neutralize enemy fire by shooting into it. But, it's a risky tactic. Your miss could backfire and become a hit for your attacker.

 

We played this game once before in the High Score Club, you might want to check out that thread for more hints.

 

Miss 2600

 

1. For me, enemy tanks are easier to shoot when they are coming from the right side of the screen (from the perspective of looking at the screen). My strategy is to keep bringing the enemy around to the right. Ease into it because it will immediately start shooting. I can quickly get out of the way when the enemy cannon is on the edge of the screen. Then, when it is turned sideways, go in for the kill. You can catch them napping right when the sun comes out at 700 hours. When the conditions are clear, I try to blow up 4-5 tanks before dark. If you find your more comfortable shooting enemies from one side or the other, keep bringing them to your favored side.
   
2. Stand your ground. Don't always turn away from enemy fire. It seems to me that, even if a tank shoots at you, if you blow them up before you are hit, you will not sustain damage. I'm not sure that is true, but I've noticed, once I've blown up an enemy, that square that was coming my way does not do anything to my tank. Also, you can blow up an enemy cannon coming your way and save your tank.
   
3. I avoid conditions I'm not good at. I'm not very good shooting during the night and I am terrible in the snow. During these scenes, I keep the enemy behind me while watching the radar. In snow, you have to hold the joystick longer to get your tank to move. This wastes a lot of days. As you can see, it took me 12 days of Robot Tank time to get to 42 kills whereas a lot of you have done much better in less time. Waiting is best for me because, trying to fight in snow is suicidal for my tanks because I'm so bad at it, so not fighting on those days saves my tanks and allows me to get a better score.
   
4. Once shooting a tank, I would bring the dot on the radar 360 degrees counter clockwise before engaging another tank. If I brought the dot clockwise to me which was much quicker (less than 45 degrees, I think) I didn't see it. That is because it is too far away. So, by moving forward, you can bring the tank into view and shoot. I'm assuming that is what you guys have been doing to get so many kills in so few days. I got my daylight kill-rate from 4 tanks to 6, but I'm sure it could be even more with practice.
   
5. Fog Scenes: I don't like fighting in the fog but will sometimes give it a try to nab another tank or two. The radar will indicate if a tank is far away or close up. For me, I want to see the tank, so I prefer them closer even though they also have a better shot at me. Far away, they cannot be seen through the fog, of course, and their fire can surprise me. You can move forward to see the tank better, but that gives it more time to shoot at you.

 

Scrabbler15

 

The cannon shots are steerable. Shoot and then move the shot into the enemy tank.

 

Spin to avoid oncoming shots. In a real tank, it would be necessary to drive forward after the spin to get out of the way. But in Atari land, getting the oncoming shot off the screen is good enough.

 

The closer you are to the enemy tank, the easier the shot is, because the target is bigger. Just don't get your own tank shot. Easy, right?

 

Stan

 

1. Don't be afraid to waste a life, take risks, you get a free tank every time you beat a squadron, so if you're close to the end go for it.
   
2. Hold the fire button DOWN unless you're focusing on backtracking. Don't let up on that trigger, it can save your life because it sure saved mine. In later levels I had to have struck a kabillion shots thrown at me.
   
3. DO NOT bother fighting during night, as someone already mentioned, but also DO NOT bother fighting in any weather conditions OTHER than rain. If you suddenly come into one of them, especially snow, just backtrack, paying attention to the enemy on the radar and keeping them up above you. Once it gets clear or rains AND it's light out, go for them. Rain is the easiest to keep the enemy in line. Snow is worthless, and fog is about as hard even though you can steer.
   
4. Fight from around 7AM until 6PM, spend the rest of the time backtracking. No need to hold down the fire button when you do. Your wrist is going to hurt after all of this!
   
5. In later levels, a number of the tanks you face do not fire initially. Make sure you quickly hold left or right, sight them up on the radar, and come forwards guns blazing. You'll catch them quickly before they shoot.
   
6. DON'T GIVE UP! Even with no radar, and even sometimes with slow turning, you can still manage to nab tanks. Get daring at that point, because when you beat a squandron you get a free one.
   
7. And the BIGGEST tip of all? You can basically steer your shots. Your AIMER is key to hitting enemy tanks. If you fire, move to the right, and the bullet is in the aimer when the AIMER is on them, you get a hit. So in later levels, if you get stuck in a quick snow battle before you can retreat, fly back and forth and time that aimer!

 

--Zero

[Lauren Tyler]

46

[Stan]

YUS DAS TANK. This game is TOUGH AS BALLS. Let's see what I can manage from it! Always loved this game, totally dominates over the lesser Battlezone. So much more fun.

[Stan]

Oh, and props for trying out the voting idea man. I personally don't have time to practice potential, up-coming games, mostly because of life and, well, I'm playing the current game to win! I think this is good for any out there that prefer playing hard copies. Using the list above we can go and purchase the titles we don't own so they're here in time to play for the next contest. Plus, it can help avoid games that might have slightly skewed scoring systems or are rare as all hell and really can only be played in emulator by most people. Sure, something like Cakewalk is boss but most people don't own it.

[Frostbite76]

Stan is your Robot Tank Copy working now? I remember you had problems with your copies

[Frostbite76]

I've always sucked at this game because of the dark and poor weather. Although, I've always sucked at Tutankham until I competed in the High Score Challenge.

[DT Kofoed]

44 - I have work to do!

 

Zero, what's the point bonus for the various patch challenges? Typically there's not a tiered system for the Activision patches.

[Scrabbler15]

20

First game.

[Frostbite76]

41

[Stan]

It was my TV. My copy works on my usual TV okay, the screen skips for more challenge! But, to do good I'll play it on my flat screen. This game is quite difficult, the patch challenges seem rather daunting. Are patch challenges going to have bonus points this week?

[Gorfy]

In case anybody uses a 7800 console -- I believe Robot Tank is one of the few 2600 cartridges that is incompatible with the 7800. I know it doesn't work on my 7800, but plays fine on my 2600.

[Gorfy]

This is possibly my favorite Activision game (though I voted for Motorodeo since I have an unopened copy that's never been played).

Score: [b]58[/b]

[Vocelli]

I was hoping I would wake up this morning and Ze-ro would announce that he picked the game with the lowest votes. Ha. That would have great. Oh well, not the case. Robot Tank it is. Time to play.

[Zoyx]

41

 

 

Edit: Assuming I am interpreting my hen scratch correctly... my teenager hi-score was 65. How the heck did I do that?

Edited July 6, 2011 by Zoyx

[zylon]

I think I'll get in on this one.

[classicgamer_27330]

I think my score is 9.

 

I suck at this ****ing game.

[zylon]

47 1 shy of patch

[classicgamer_27330]

 

14

Edited July 6, 2011 by classicgamer_27330

[Scrabbler15]

37

 

I remember, now, that I played this a lot in the '80s. I didn't even remember what it looked like until I started it up this morning.

Edited July 6, 2011 by Scrabbler15

[Miss 2600]

Using the list above we can go and purchase the titles we don't own so they're here in time to play for the next contest.

 

Have you considered a Harmony cartridge?

[zylon]

I play nothing but OE hardware on real TV.

 

58 Patched!

[Scrabbler15]

43

 

Now I remember why I played it back then. I really like this game.

[Lauren Tyler]

In case anybody uses a 7800 console -- I believe Robot Tank is one of the few 2600 cartridges that is incompatible with the 7800. I know it doesn't work on my 7800, but plays fine on my 2600.

 

That's not always the case. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won't. There's no way of knowing, it's just a hit-or-miss thing, since some cartridges work on certain Atari 7800 systems, and others will only work on different ones. I know my 7800 plays it just fine.

[Krytol]

16.

[Miss 2600]

Zero:

 

We actually played Time Pilot just last season. It was part of a variety pack. I remember because it was one of the few games I was decent at.