Robot Tank Vs Battlezone (In A Lifeboat)

[belty]

So come on, which is best?

 

*Battlezone, I just can't get away from the shells of the other tanks once there locked on, especially from behind.

 

*Robot Tank, (have been playing this one on Stellatron don't have it for console), can get away and play longer and nice graphics.

 

Do I buy Robot Tank for the console and turn my back on Battlezone which was an era classic in the arcade and on the 2600 back in the day.

 

This really is a lifeboat question, your taking in water, you have two carts (as well as a console, television and miraclelike mains power supply) you have to throw one cart overboard to reduce that essential bit of weight or you sink. But decide wisely you may be drifting for six weeks before rescue so the game you choose better be your favourite.

 

Ahem... I must go now.

[moycon]

Personally I prefer Robot Tank.

Throw BattleZone over the side.

[Goochman]

Battlezone is an excellent port of an Arcade game - Robot Tank is an excellent enahancement on that basic theme IMHO, keep Robot Tank.

[lhfreak]

Both games are great, but Robot Tank has a more 'intense' feeling about it when you play. My vote is Robot Tank!

[BydoEmpire]

I like Robot Tank better.

[HawgWyld]

Robot Tank, but I also like Battlezone. Couldn't I throw something else over the side to save weight? A sandwich? Another passenger?

[+Mitch]

Battlezone seems to me to be the more realistic of the two. In Robot Tank I hate how you can just turn so that the enemy shot disappears, is your tank one inch long or something.

 

Mitch

[+kisrael]

This is from a Usenet r.g.v.c. post I made in 1999:

 

Battlezone is SO MUCH BETTER than Robot Tank it almost hurts to think about it. The only thing Robot Tank has going for it is the weather conditions and vairiable damage (It's been a while since I've plaid Robot Tank, so some of this is from memory, but I think the general idea is right--)

• The battlezone graphics rock. Crisp, clear, colorful. You can watch the treads move! That effect alone blows me away. Compare this to the monochrome world of Robot Tank. Look at the effect when your tank gets hit-in Battlezone it looks like your electronics are really shorting out!
  
• In Robot Tank, you dodge bullets by TURNING SO YOU CAN'T SEE THEM!! What the hell is this, some kind of bizarre "ostrich defense", if you can't see it the bullet can't see you?? Compare this to Battlezone: you hear a bullet fired at you offscreen, throw it in reverse, and watch the bullet arc harmlessly in front of you. It has an actual PHYSICS MODEL. The physics in Robot Tank are so "cheaty" by comparison.
  
• In Battlezone, you move like a tank. In Robot Tank, you move like a hovercraft.
  
• Battlezone has up to two enemies at a time. And it's not just the same lame-ass enemy tank: there are also saucers to distract you and mother ships to home in on you. Weather and Damage are cool, but battlezone is a much better game. The closest thing to current day VR that the 2600 has to offer.
  

[The MilkMan]

I've played Robot Tank the most out of the two. So I'd keep Battlezone for a change of pace. Once I got back to shore, I'd pick up another copy of Robot Tank.

[Big Player]

Right now I'd throw both over the side and play Thomas' Battlezone TC hack.

 

This requires two joysticks and has controls just like a tank--and the arcade game of course.

 

Packrat had a nice package at PC5, selling this game with two new spectravideo joysticks. I've long ago mastered Battlezone, but this new controller hack makes it a new game.

[bjk7382]

I also like Thomas's Battlezone TC. It makes the game harder and more fun at the same time. Great stuff.

 

If I had to choose one of the originals it would be robot tank.

[Stingray]

Throw yourself over and tread water alongside the boat in hopes of saving the games.

 

-S

[+Nathan Strum]

I think Robot Tank has more going for it. The varying times of days, weather conditions, tank damage, attack waves, the "bouncing" effect of the tank treads.

 

Having said that, I'm a huge arcade Battlezone fan.

 

Which is probably why I don't like the 2600 version very much.

[+kisrael]

I think Robot Tank has more going for it. The varying times of days, weather conditions, tank damage, attack waves, the "bouncing" effect of the tank treads.

 

Having said that, I'm a huge arcade Battlezone fan.

 

Which is probably why I don't like the 2600 version very much.

Feh, Robot Tank is just a big random sit and spin shooting gallery.

 

The look of the Battlezone treads is terrific.

 

I mean, it is a judgement call, but I think 4 kinds of enemies, 2 enemies at once, and a "real" 3D world beat Robot Tank's faster action, weather, and damage.

 

So, does arcade battlezone have more than one enemy at once?

[NovaXpress]

Robot Tank is all frills, the gameplay is nothing to be impressed by. It's just a two-dimensional Starmaster.

 

I find Battlezone to be superior in every way. Better graphics, better enemy "AI", more realistic physics, more variety of enemies, far more difficult and rewarding. Even though it bears pretty much no resemblance to the original, which did indeed have multiple enemies. And instead of planes you fought rockets which didn't shoot.

[Blackbird]

I mean, it is a judgement call, but I think 4 kinds of enemies, 2 enemies at once, and a "real" 3D world beat Robot Tank's faster action, weather, and damage.

Ironically, for all the above reasons I think that Robot Tank is better... I just enjoy more, I guess. I'm a sucker for weather effects.

[+kisrael]

I mean, it is a judgement call, but I think 4 kinds of enemies, 2 enemies at once, and a "real" 3D world beat Robot Tank's faster action, weather, and damage.

Ironically, for all the above reasons I think that Robot Tank is better... I just enjoy more, I guess. I'm a sucker for weather effects.

Fair enough, I was trying to list the features of both games.

 

I am biased, maybe...I've been in love w/ 2600 Battlezone since I was like 8 and begged my cousin to snag me a copy. It just looked SO good...

[DeV0]

Speaking from a PAL territory robot tank wins hands down for graphics which is enough to effect the gameplay in this case.

 

Both great games, just dont get pal battlezone

[Chris-in-NJ]

When I had both games twenty-odd years ago, I preferred Robot Tank, as the gameplay was just so much more intense than Battlezone. The fact that to this day I have never seen an actual Battlezone arcade game may have something to do with this

 

I had a nice Radio Shack pistol grip joystick with suction cups on its base that I used for Robot Tank; I could get really psyched up playing it with this stick, especially after I'd destroyed three squadrons and the speed of the enemy tanks' missiles became so fast that they'd hit you less than a second after being fired. I liked Battlezone, but it never got as exciting as this IMHO :-)

[NovaXpress]

I love the weirdness of gamers' tastes. We all take one side or another and have reasons for doing so. There must be something about Battlezone's style that gets me in a way that Robot Tank doesn't. I remember a similar debate over Starmaster-Star Raiders. I'm one of the few in the Star Raiders camp.

 

We could play this with quite a few of Activision's games, they loved to do pretty conversions of other people's games.

 

Sticking with the 2600 cart versions:

Chopper Command or Defender?

Freeway or Frogger?

Frostbite or Q*Bert?

Decathlon or Track & Field?

 

I actually prefer Defender to Chopper Command, no one else seems to feel that way.

[+Nathan Strum]

I mean, it is a judgement call, but I think 4 kinds of enemies, 2 enemies at once, and a "real" 3D world beat Robot Tank's faster action, weather, and damage.

 

So, does arcade battlezone have more than one enemy at once?

 

Nope. Just one at a time.

 

I guess I'm a "purist" when it comes to Battlezone, which is why I found the 2600 version disappointing. It's still a very good 2600 game, but to me it's no more "Battlezone" than the 2600 version of Pac-Man is "Pac-Man". (Admittedly, Battlezone is a far better conversion, but I'm just talking in terms of gameplay.) So I'm biased.

[ZylonBane]

So, does arcade battlezone have more than one enemy at once?

Nope. Just one at a time.

Wrong. Two at a time.

[NovaXpress]

Nope. Just one at a time.

 

Not true, up to two enemies at the time. C'mon, shooting that saucer isn't much of a challenge if you're not dodging tank shells at the same time.

[Whisper]

Speaking from a PAL territory robot tank wins hands down for graphics which is enough to effect the gameplay in this case.

 

Both great games, just dont get pal battlezone

 

What's the difference then?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

What's the difference then?

Way less colors which is very unusual for PAL conversions.

 

Hm, maybe someone could make a better PAL conversion.