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.


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.


Found a bug - crash when you complete wave 19:


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.


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?


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.


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.


Hulk colour cycling bug now fixed in Hero Mod. Post above updated with new version.
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