My Pico-8 version of the 1982 Williams arcade classic.
Controls
To play with a twin-stick controller in the browser head to https://pahammond.itch.io/robotron
Supports 4 control methods:
Twin Stick
- If you have an Xbox or similar controller connected, this is THE way to play (will not work unless playing via my itch.io page)
- Keyboard controls are swapped. Arrow keys fire, S F E D move
Twin Stick (Swapped)
- Arrow keys to move, S F E D to fire
Auto-Fire
- Llamatron style controls. Fires in direction of movement but hold X to move without changing the fire direction
Auto-Fire (Lynx)
- Based on the Atari Lynx control system. Z and X rotate direction of fire
Thanks To
- Shane R. Monroe (@ShaneRMonroe) for his invaluable advice, testing and feedback
- Finn for further testing
Version History
0.80 - 26-Jan-2022 - Released
0.81 - 31-Jan-2022 - Fixed endless loop bug that could occur in later levels
I was certain I saw some other Robotron already written for Pico-8, and now I can't find it, @pahammond. This is incredibly polished AND fun !
I was expecting graphics from the original though, not Lemmings. In any case, here is a Gold Star to hang on your hero robot.
... OK here is my attempt to change at least 2-sprites to make it more like the ones used in the original Robotron 2084. No other changes have taken place.
That looks really cool!
The lemmings were where I started so really wanted them to stay.
I hadn’t seen the Lynx version when I redid my sprites. If I had then I’d probably have stuck to more of the original look. As it was, my new sprites had kind have grown on me by then 😁
Hi @pahammond, and thanks !
I just recently found out there is a version of Robotron for Gameboy Color called, "Infinitron." It's surprisingly small at 32k decompressed. Does a pretty good job.
You might rake them for their sprites as GBC screen is pretty small in itself at 160x144 pixels and they made some good choices about scaling.
Brilliant version! It feels a lot like the original. Love the choice of control options.
Nice work. When I made Pico-Tron I was originally going to do a straight port of the arcade version but ended up going off in my own direction.
Here's a little mod I made (based on dw817's mod) that changes the player sprite to the "Robotron Hero" from the arcade version.
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[8x8] |
edit: I updated this to include the latest fixes in the original version and the colour cycle bug reported below.
Shouldn’t mess anything up. Since I use pixel perfect collisions for the player, you’re right, it should be slightly harder. Loving seeing these mods! Nobody likes me sprites 😂
i'm still waiting for the day someone makes a game with wasd controls because esdf is really confusing for someone that just so happened to not be born on france
Found a bug - crash when you complete wave 19:
I have seen the same bug but I don't think I got as high as wave 19. I think it happened after I had played and lost a few games (playing in the browser), so I reloaded and carried on playing.
Damn. Test played this to death. Never got as high as level 19. Will set it up infinite lives and fix it!
From the video it Looks like it’s stuck in an infinite loop trying to position enemies. Something I thought I’d sorted out very early on.
Yep, logged in to say that and just noticed it had already been spotted. I got a long pause after about level 15 (little square animation in the top left), and then got a few more levels before it completely fell over. Shame as it's otherwise AMAZING.
(I was playing on the modded non-Lemmings version.)
I updated my Hero mod to include the latest fixes pahammond made to the main version which fixes the crash.
Nope. First time I played it it was fine, had another game and the same crash happened, this time after Wave 9.
Tried again and it had a brief hiccup at Wave 19 before finally getting to Wave 24 and then crashing permanently.
RevStu, can you only get the modded version to crash or does my original with Lemmings crash also?
The Lemmings one is giving me a harder time, only made it to Wave 17 so far, but no issues yet.
Well, that was a war, but Wave 23 successfully achieved with no crashing or even brief hangs.
That's cool. The original issue was a rookie mistake of an infinite loop that didn't get broken out of. Makes sense it happened on the later levels since there are more enemies and I try and position them not too close to the player and with brains not too close to humans (lemmings). The issue was that certain combinations were impossible so it kept trying. Forever!
So it's one of the mods which still crashes? If so, which one? Mine (Hero mod) or the one by dw817?
The one by dw817 is the one that still crashes, I hadn't even noticed the existence of yours until now. Just going to check it.
Mine has the fixes pahammond made to his latest version, so it should be OK. I got past level 20 when I tested and didn't notice anything amiss.
Okay, made it to Wave 24 of the Hero mod with no issues. (Other than the weird distracting way the Hulks start flashing bluey purple after a few seconds of each wave, which I assume is intentional.)
That sounds like the colour-cycling I applied to the Hero eyes is also being applied to enemies. Let me have a look and I'll try and fix it.
Good test for any modders is to just up the level variable for zero to something like 40. That should prove it no longer locks up. The only code that was changed was the entity_validateposition (from memory, I’m not at my PC).
Hulk colour cycling bug now fixed in Hero Mod. Post above updated with new version.
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