Robotron - williams

Developer:   Williams

Year:  1982

Genre:  Shooter

Production:  11,000

Game Play

Each kind of Robotron has a different  way of attacking you and also different point values. Points are also  scored by destroying the missiles that they fire at you, by destroying  other enemies that appear during each wave and by saving humans.

• Grunts (100 points) do not shoot but they will attack in large numbers.
• Brains (500 points) can fire Cruise Missles (25 points) at you and turn humans into Progs (100 points).
• Spheroids (1000 points) can create Enforcers (150 points) which fire guided mines (25 points) at you.
• Quarks(1000 points) will create Tanks (200 points) that will try to run over you or fire Bounce Bombs (25 points) at you.
• Hulks  are indestructible and will kill humans as they approach. Your blaster  will only halt them as long as you are shooting them.
• Obstacles such as Electrodes in your path can be removed by firing at them with your blaster.
• Humans  are worth an increasing point value. The first human scores 1000  points, the second is worth 2000 points and so on until the point value  reaches 5000. The point value will remain at 5000 for all the remaining  humans in the same wave. When the wave is completed or you have been  killed, the points awarded for saving another human will be reset to  1000.

During each wave, you must destroy all the Robotrons (with the  exception of the indestructible Hulks) and rescue as many human family  members as possible in order to proceed to the next wave. When you  complete wave 255 it will appear as if you just started the game! Wave 1  starts it all over. Your score will be unaffected.

Cheats & Tricks

There is a bug in Robotron that can make  the game crash when you shoot into the corners. This is said to be  avoidable by turning the fancy attract mode of the game off.

In wave five, the first brain wave, a mistake in the brain's  algorithm can help you gain a vast amount of points. There is one Mikey  with lots of Mommies. However, the mistake in the algorithm causes the  brains to seek out Mikey rather than the Mommies. Therefore, if you can  keep the brains from getting to Mikey without picking him up yourself  (at least until you rescue all the Mommies), you stand to gain a huge  amount of points (up to 5,000 points for each Mommy).

During the tank wave, try to avoid shooting the tanks shots for as  long as you can. If the tanks fire 20 shots that do not hit anything,  the tanks will cease firing.

There is an easter egg hidden in the game with the games credits. To  exploit this easter egg, you must execute the following commands during  gameplay

1. Move the "move" joystick right and the "fire" joystick up and press the one player start button.
2. Move the "move" joystick up and the "fire" joystick down and press the two player start button.
3. Move the "move" joystick down and the "fire" joystick up.

When the last sequence has been entered, the credits will be  displayed until the "fire" joystick is moved from the up position. These  sequences must be done within a quarter of a second of each other. You  can hold a sequence as long as you like, but when you let it go, you  must execute the next sequence within a quarter of a second.