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New title for ColecoVision: Robotron 2084


AnalogKid

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Here's a demo capture of my latest project, one of my favorite games from the 1980's, Robotron 2084.  I've wanted to port this one for a while but was a little stumped on how to support the amount of on-screen characters and the dual-stick nature of the game.  It supports a single-controller mode using either the keypad to shoot in the 8 directions or the buttons to shoot in the direction the player is facing.  It also supports dual-stick mode which is great if you have a roller-controller expansion module or if you create some kind of side-by-side mount for your controllers.  As for managing the characters, the grunts and the humans are obviously characters rather than sprites so the flicker should be relatively manageable.  

 

Robotron 2084 demo

 

robodemo.avi

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7 hours ago, Ikrananka said:

Would be great to see the demo rom posted here if that's possible.  Quite a few people here, myself included, do not use Facebook.

Seconded. We shouldn't be penalized for refusing to use Facebook. ROBOTRON on the Colecovision has been a dream for close to 40 years. Next to DINO EGGS, it's the title I'd most like to see. And kudos for overcoming the limitations in scrolling and sprites in making an "impossible" port happen.

 

But, please, may we kindly be provided your demo ROM to get a better feel for how it actually plays? Thanks very much, indeed.

Edited by zyzzle
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I love Dino Eggs too, including the Windows port. Not sure what a Coleco version would add to the C64 port though, as it's a brilliantly designed game, but purposefully cluttered and slow moving, and not much in the sound department...  Dino Eggs is almost the anti Robotron, as you find yourself constantly losing points if you don't think and do the wrong thing...

 

For a Robotron type dual stick game, as various dual stick options are out there for standard one button db9 sticks (A8 robotron stick holder, edladdin dual stick controller, homebrew dual gamepads, 3rd party controllers with suction cups....), it would be great if they could be plugged right into the coleco without a y-adapter, and if the game could be started up without having to use the number pad.... 

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19 minutes ago, doug0909 said:

For a Robotron type dual stick game, as various dual stick options are out there for standard one button db9 sticks (A8 robotron stick holder, edladdin dual stick controller, homebrew dual gamepads, 3rd party controllers with suction cups....), it would be great if they could be plugged right into the coleco without a y-adapter, and if the game could be started up without having to use the number pad.... 

For what its worth, I did also test it with two standard issue Atari 2600 DB9 controllers and it worked just fine.  

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For a control system, I really like the mode in the Atari Lynx version where the stick moves the player, auto-fire is enabled, and you use buttons A and B to rotate (either direction) the direction of fire. It works surprisingly well, and is my favorite for Robotron when you don't have twin sticks.

 

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I have a custom 3D printed dual controller holder for the CX-40 that I bought from a fellow AtariAger. Will have to break them out and see how it goes.

 

Also, I have the version for the 5200 controllers which works great with Robotron and Xari Arena.

 

A few weeks ago I posted a question about dual controller games for the ColecoVision. Are there others? 

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56 minutes ago, discotronic said:

A few weeks ago I posted a question about dual controller games for the ColecoVision. Are there others? 

I mean, there's that terrible port of Crazy Climber which isn't actually a port of Crazy Climber that uses two controllers.  But it plays bad with one controller and even worse with two so I wouldn't actually recommend it.  Here's my video showing that travesty off:

 

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On 1/6/2022 at 4:01 PM, TPR said:

I mean, there's that terrible port of Crazy Climber which isn't actually a port of Crazy Climber that uses two controllers.  But it plays bad with one controller and even worse with two so I wouldn't actually recommend it.  Here's my video showing that travesty off:

 

it is a fun game for what it is, but if you are looking for a arcade translation its a pass.   I could not get the hang of the dual stick control method as it was very confusing and not what I would have thought being a frequent player of the arcade version.   I was told I said bad things about it to get clicks :P.  This and Turmoil were disappointing, I was refunded for both games and got a partial refund on Turmoil (I asked to keep the rom he sent me, as it worked the best of all, but still had glitches).   I really enjoyed both games, its just a shame there were so many issues.   I would like to see that MSX crazy climber game you told me about get translated over the Colecovision, that plays extremely well!

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2 hours ago, thevnaguy said:

it is a fun game for what it is...

Once you figure out that you can complete the entire game by just "pressing up" and using the invincibility feature that takes a heart away, it stops being fun!  :P (Watch my video below!)

 

 

 

Getting back to the "are there any other dual stick games for CV", I just watched your video for Black Widow and that would be AWESOME game to port over!  And knowing that @AnalogKid likes doing "vector style" games, maybe we can convince him that should be his next one after Robotron!  :P

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22 hours ago, TPR said:

Once you figure out that you can complete the entire game by just "pressing up" and using the invincibility feature that takes a heart away, it stops being fun!  :P (Watch my video below!)

 

 

 

Getting back to the "are there any other dual stick games for CV", I just watched your video for Black Widow and that would be AWESOME game to port over!  And knowing that @AnalogKid likes doing "vector style" games, maybe we can convince him that should be his next one after Robotron!  :P

Black Widow would be awesome to have a version for the Colecovision, I am so looking forward to his Colecovision Robotron!

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For those who would like a check out a very early preview of the game, here's the link: Robotron 2084 ROM

It's still in the very early stages so people don't need to point out what's wonky or doesn't behave exactly like the arcade version.  The brain's shot sprite hasn't been animated yet so it's using the tank's shot sprite and the brain doesn't reprogram the humans yet. 

 

I had to take some time to compress the structures being used for enemies and tweak the accompanying code because the goal is to get as many enemies on the screen as possible without blowing my 1024 bytes.  The true challenge of the game is there are so many specific behaviors for different enemies and that grows structures and grows code.  I'm also going to have to tune the hell out of the code to keep 20+ enemies and their shotsplus a half dozen humans updated.  Asteroids was a piece of cake by comparison: a bunch of rocks moving in straight lines, a ship, a UFO, and some shots.

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Here's another quick video showing the dual control option using RetroPie as an emulation option to play this game.  I've now tested the dual control using the Roller Controller, two Atari 2600 sticks (both with original CV hardware and the Phoenix) and now this is using emulation to pull off doing the dual stick using Retropie.  Overall this game is shaping up to be amazing!

 

 

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On 1/9/2022 at 9:55 PM, 1982VideoGames said:

Looks really nice.

I agree that Dino Eggs on the C64 would be hard to beat but i'd love to have a great version of Phoenix for the ColecoVision.

Phoenix has gotten little attention from the gaming community and is such a great game.

 

I played this one when it was new in the arcade. I still play it in emulation. 

 

Atari 2600 actually has a very good version. This is very doable on colecovision. In fact one version was started but never finished.

 

 

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10 minutes ago, digress said:

I played this one when it was new in the arcade. I still play it in emulation. 

 

Atari 2600 actually has a very good version. This is very doable on colecovision. In fact one version was started but never finished.

 

 

I'm pretty much new to the ColecoVision scene, is there a ROM available of this Phoenix (arcade) project so we can try it out?

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