Atari 2600 I, Robot Discovered!

[ubersaurus]

That book was so good. Asimov could write a classic and make it look easy.

[Guy Ferrante]

Ok I hate you, You got me good this time

IRobot was a great game and I had tons of fun playing it in the arcades, When I saw it in 2600 format I started to drool and the I saw the text on the screen..

 

Shame on you!

 

/| Guy /|

[Mindfield]

Heh. When I saw the article -- even in spite of the date -- I thought I'd give it the benefit of the doubt. I knew there'd have to be some April Fools stuff floating around, but what the heck. I looked at the I, Robot page. The box art was quite convincing. It was the screenshot that gave it away. "high res" for the 2600, which would have made it a 16k cart at least, and the perspective would have been nigh impossible to achieve on the 2600. It was possible with Tunnel Runner only because it was flick-scrolling (one full square at a time) and orthogonal walls. A stretch, but not beyond the VCS's capabilities by any means. I, Robot could have been done on the VCS, but not in the same perspective its arcade counterpart; it'd have to be a single-screen, overhead (or slightly angled view -- 4/5ths view or something to give depth perspective without actually having to be 3D, even pseudo-3D) without any scrolling (not because it wouldn't be possible, but the primary obstacle in the game is that eye that can zap you in mid-air if it's open while you're jumping, so you'd have to be able to see it at all times while playing, otherwise the gameplay just wouldn't work).

 

If the screenshot was presented in that method, I'd probably have bought it. :-)

 

Good joke, though -- the box art is bloody great.

[ratfink]

With all due respect to the AtariAge folks, nothing beats that Doom hoax from a few years back. Heck, you still find people who think that was real!

[Nukey Shay]

That's because Doom would at least be possible on the 2600 platform (trimmed down, of course).

[Albert]

quote:

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Originally posted by Nukey Shay:

That's because Doom would at least be possible on the 2600 platform (trimmed down, of course).

---

 

While I agree that the Doom prank was great, I have to respectfully disagree with you about it being possible on the 2600. Any version of DOOM that found its way to the Atari 2600 would be so far removed dfrom the original game that the only similarities would be the name and box artwork.

 

..Al

[Nateo]

I think I,Robot would have been possible to some extent, probably having the same view as Crystal Castles for the 2600. (Hey, there's an idea for one of your mock-ups Moycon)