Champ Games - RobotWar: 2684 (aka Robotron:2084), 2600

[+sramirez2008]

On 4/1/2022 at 1:04 PM, johnnywc said:

If you like GamePads, RetroGameBoyz makes a cool RobotWar:2684-branded twin stick game pad:

I did it John! I just had to have this as part of my Robotwar:2684 collection.

[+johnnywc]

On 2/12/2024 at 12:39 PM, sramirez2008 said:

I did it John! I just had to have this as part of my Robotwar:2684 collection.

Awesome Steve!  Retrogameboyz does a great job with those control pads.   

[GilsonAnimes]

On 5/16/2020 at 11:09 PM, johnnywc said:

EDIT:  The latest demo ROM of RobotWar:2684 (and all Champ Games) can be found here. 

 

Hello all,

 

As some of you may have heard, the Champ Games secret project was revealed this week on @ZeroPage Homebrew's Twitch stream - Robotron: 2084 for the 2600!

 

Object:

 

The object of Robotron is to guide your player around the screen and save the last human family (dad, mom, & Mikey) while avoiding a vast array of enemies, including:

• The Grunts robots constantly pursue your player and speed up as the wave progresses
• The Hulks roam around aimlessly and are indestructible, and will destroy the humanoids if they come in contact with them.
• The Sphereoids are circular enemies that fly around the borders of the screen, launching Enforcers.
• Enforcers will pursue your player and fire a steady stream of Spark missiles towards you.
• Brain Robotrons will wander around the screen searching for humanoids to program into deadly Progs.  Brains will also fire Cruise missiles that must be avoided.
• Quarks move around in erratic patterns and spawn Tank Robotrons.
• Tank Robotrons will purse your player and fire bouncing Bombs that ricochet off the walls making them difficult to avoid.
• Electrodes are scattered throughout the level and are deadly to the touch; however, they will also destroy Grunts if they collide with them also.

 

Control:

 

Robotron supports multiple control schemes:

• 1 joystick with no autofire (left difficultly on B)
  • In this mode, use the left joystick to move your player and press the button to fire in the current direction.
  • You can continually fire in one direction by holding down the joystick button and move in another direction. 
    • To fire in a different direction, release the button and move in the new direction you wish to fire and then press the button.
  • To fire in place (fire without moving), center the joystick and hold down the button.  You can then fire in any direction by moving the joystick in that direction (your player will not move).  Release the button to move your player.
  • If you have a Genesis controller connected, you can press the second button to fire backwards (opposite direction that your player is currently firing).
• 1 joystick with autofire (left difficulty on A)
  • This is similar to the no-autofire mode except your player automatically fires in the current direction (no need to press the button)
  • To change the fire direction, press the button and move the joystick to the new direction.  Release the button to continually fire in the new direction.
  • You can also "fire in place" by centering the joystick and pressing and holding the button.  In this mode, you must fire by moving the controller in the direction you wish to fire (your player will not move).  Note that your player will not fire if the button is held down and the joystick is centered.
  • If you have a Genesis controller connected, you can press the second button to fire backwards (opposite direction that your player is currently firing).
• 2 joystick (prefered)
  • If you have 2 joysticks, you can use the left joystick to move your player and the right joystick to fire, just like the arcade.  There is no special settings that need to be done to enable 2 joystick mode since the buttons aren't used.  Note that you can also play a co-op game by having one player move and the other player fire!  

 

Game Play:

 

From the title screen, move the joystick left or right to select the skill level.  Note that your player's helmet will match the color of the skill level:

• Novice (green): 5 lives to start.  1/2 of the enemies from the Advanced level.  Less enforcers and tanks are spawned.  Grunts move slower.  
• Standard (blue): 4 lives to start.  3/4 of the enemies from the Advanced level.  
• Advanced (red): 3 lives to start.  # of enemies on each level match the arcade.  More enforcers and tanks are spawned than Standard.  Grunts move faster.

 

Bonus lives are awarded every 25,000 points. 

 

Game Over:

 

Your game ends when all your reserves have been destroyed.  If you obtain a high score, the high score entry screen will be displayed for the current skill level.  Move the joystick up/down to select the characters to enter and press the button when finished.  Note that Savekey support is currently not supported so high scores will be reset when the game is turned off.

 

Credits:

 

Special thanks to Nathan Strum who did all the graphics for the game and all the game testing and assisted with the design.  

 

It should also be noted that the sounds have been "borrowed" from the 7800 version of Robotron, which was developed by David Brown.  We are currently trying to reach Mr. Brown to obtain his permission to include his sounds in this game.  

 

Current State:

We estimate the game to be about 80% done.  Due to other projects, a release is not expected until early 2021.

 

Here is a playable demo if you would like to download it and give it a try.  It works on real hardware (recommended), the latest version of Stella and Stellerator, and will also work on the Retron77 with the latest community build.  It will *not* work on the Flashback Portable. 

 

robotron_20200516_demo1_NTSC.bin 32 kB · 1,513 downloads

 

robotron_20200516_demo1_PAL60.bin 32 kB · 881 downloads

 

The demo is fully playable with the following restrictions:

• When the player competes Wave 9, the game will wrap back to Wave 5.  In the release version, all 40 unique waves will be included and up to 99 waves will be playable.
• There is currently no SaveKey support in the game (this has been disabled) but it will be available in the final version.

 

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

Have fun!

John

 

 

 

 

 

My console doesn't want to run this game, I also tried running galaga, but that didn't work either, the console turns off when running the game, does it need any hardware modification to work? like changing C.I, processor... I'm attaching a photo of my board.

[+johnnywc]

On 3/10/2024 at 10:25 PM, GilsonAnimes said:

My console doesn't want to run this game, I also tried running galaga, but that didn't work either, the console turns off when running the game, does it need any hardware modification to work? like changing C.I, processor... I'm attaching a photo of my board.

Hi there!

 

All Champ Games run on all models of the 2600 without any modifications that I've tested it on and have not heard anyone else incompatibilities in the last 10 years, so my guess is that it most likely is an issue with your console.  I don't know enough about hardware to speculate what the issue may be; it could be dirty contacts in the cartridge port or lack of power to run the extra hardware inside the cart.  I am tagging Fred @batari (the main developer of the Melody board that runs the game) to see if he has any insight into what would cause this sort of issue.  I assume you have tried other carts on the system and they work fine?  Do you have any games that utilize additional hardware in the cart (Draconian, Lode Runner, etc.) to see if you have the same issue?

[+Nathan Strum]

On 3/10/2024 at 7:25 PM, GilsonAnimes said:

My console doesn't want to run this game, I also tried running galaga, but that didn't work either, the console turns off when running the game, does it need any hardware modification to work? like changing C.I, processor... I'm attaching a photo of my board.

What sort of power supply are you using? It looks like you've bypassed the jack and hardwired something in. That would be the first thing I'd check. Looks like it's had a rough life... lots of hot glue and... toothpicks?