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I, Robot (arcade game)
Encyclopedia
I, Robot is an arcade game
designed by Dave Theurer
, and published by Atari Inc. in 1983. The arcade machine comes with two games. The first is I, Robot, a multi-directional shooter that has the player assume the role of "Unhappy Interface Robot #1984", a servant bot that rebels against Big Brother. The object of the game involves the servant bot going through 126 levels, turning red squares to blue to destroy Big Brother's shield and eye. The player can switch to the second game, Doodle City, a drawing tool that lasts for three minutes, and vice versa.
I, Robot is known for being the first commercial video game with filled 3-D
polygon
graphics
and featured flat shading
, as well as being the first video game to feature camera control options. Its name was originally titled "Ice Castles", but was changed to "I, Robot".
Upon release of the game, I, Robot received poor reception and was a financial flop. Approximately 750–1500 units of the game were created, with few having been confirmed to exist today. However, the remaining arcade cabinets have become rare collectibles and the game has received later praise for its innovative 3D graphics. Author David Ellis
listed it as one of the "notable classics" of its time.
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I, Robot is a multi-directional shooter where the player assumes the role of "Unhappy Interface Robot #1984", a servant robot
that has become self-aware
and decides to rebel against Big Brother. The object of the game involves the servant bot to destroy the gigantic, blinking eye of Big Brother that watches over in all 126 levels before the time limit expires. To do so, the player must cross the red squares (the color of the target squares changing every 26 levels, such to yellow starting from Level 27, blue from Level 53, and magenta from Level 79.) that cover the playing field, turning them blue and destroying the shield that protects the eye and the eye itself. However, one of Big Brother's arbitrary laws is "no jumping"; meaning that if the eye is open while the player is in the act of jumping, it will destroy the robot and the player will lose a life
. Other hazards, such as bird
s, bomb
s, and flying shark
s, serve to prevent the robot from completing its task. Between levels, the robot flies through outer space
(in what is called a "Space Wave" ingame), and must shoot through polygonal "tetras
," meteor
s, and enemies to reach the next board.
By pressing one of the two "Start" buttons, the camera will zoom in and out and offer new angles on the playing field. Closer camera angles results in higher score multipliers, due to the difficulty of visibility. In later levels, enemies known as "viewer killers" directly "attack" the player, rather than the robot, forcing the player to switch camera angles or move the robot to scroll the camera away from the viewer killers away before he/she loses a life.
There are 26 unique level designs altogether; on passing level 26, the designs repeat at a higher difficulty level and with an altered palette, as in Atari's earlier game Tempest. The on-screen level counter is only two digits, so levels 100–126 are displayed as 0–26 respectively. On passing level 126, the player gets thrown back to a random earlier level.
Doodle City lasts three minutes per credit, though the player can switch back to playing I, Robot at any time. The number of lives the player has depends on how much time was spent on Doodle City; out of the maximum three, one life is taken away for every minute.
and pixel graphics
on a 19 inch color CRT monitor
. It uses a Motorola 6809
central processing unit
and four Atari POKEY
audio chips. I, Robot was originally called "Ice Castles".
, Galaga
, and Donkey Kong
, the game received a poor reception on release. Approximately 750 – 1500 units of the game were created. Few have been confirmed to exist today. The arcade cabinets have since become rare collectibles with Dave Theurer's involvement being a selling point among collectors.
Author John Sellers described I, Robot as a "near miss" because of its strong release that didn't gain enough popularity. He further praised the game, calling it enjoyable and influential. Author David Ellis listed it as one of the "notable classics" of its time, calling it "quirky". In 2008, Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition
listed it as the number ninety arcade game in technical, creative and cultural impact, citing its innovative 3D graphics. Gamasutra
placed I, Robot on its "20 Atari Games" list, saying that "This is the kind of brilliance Atari could field in its halcyon days". The game has been cited as the first arcade game to use 3D polygon graphics, and holds a Guinness World Record
for the milestone. IGN.com's Levi Buchanan and Craig Harris included I Robot to their "Dream Arcades" articles.
A rumor persisted that Atari shipped 500 unsold units to Japan with instructions to dump the units into the ocean at the halfway point. Atari employee Rusty Dawe dispelled this rumor as a "total myth" in a 2009 interview, adding "I would have LIKED to dump [the] I, Robot controls into the ocean [as they were a] total nightmare. But that didn't happen either."
Modern video game historians have brought greater attention to the game as a predecessor to modern 3-D games.
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
designed by Dave Theurer
Dave Theurer
David "Dave" Theurer is a game designer. In 1980, he created Missile Command, considered one of the great classic video games from the Golden age of arcade games. Another pioneering achievement, also in 1980, was Tempest. Theurer also designed I, Robot, the first commercial video game with filled...
, and published by Atari Inc. in 1983. The arcade machine comes with two games. The first is I, Robot, a multi-directional shooter that has the player assume the role of "Unhappy Interface Robot #1984", a servant bot that rebels against Big Brother. The object of the game involves the servant bot going through 126 levels, turning red squares to blue to destroy Big Brother's shield and eye. The player can switch to the second game, Doodle City, a drawing tool that lasts for three minutes, and vice versa.
I, Robot is known for being the first commercial video game with filled 3-D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
polygon
Polygon
In geometry a polygon is a flat shape consisting of straight lines that are joined to form a closed chain orcircuit.A polygon is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by a closed path, composed of a finite sequence of straight line segments...
graphics
Graphics
Graphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...
and featured flat shading
Shading
Shading refers to depicting depth perception in 3D models or illustrations by varying levels of darkness.-Drawing:Shading is a process used in drawing for depicting levels of darkness on paper by applying media more densely or with a darker shade for darker areas, and less densely or with a lighter...
, as well as being the first video game to feature camera control options. Its name was originally titled "Ice Castles", but was changed to "I, Robot".
Upon release of the game, I, Robot received poor reception and was a financial flop. Approximately 750–1500 units of the game were created, with few having been confirmed to exist today. However, the remaining arcade cabinets have become rare collectibles and the game has received later praise for its innovative 3D graphics. Author David Ellis
Dave Ellis (game designer)
Dave Ellis is an author and video game designer. He is also an avid classic arcade game collector and a columnist for GameRoom Magazine.-Career:...
listed it as one of the "notable classics" of its time.
Gameplay
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
that has become self-aware
Self-awareness
Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to reconcile oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals...
and decides to rebel against Big Brother. The object of the game involves the servant bot to destroy the gigantic, blinking eye of Big Brother that watches over in all 126 levels before the time limit expires. To do so, the player must cross the red squares (the color of the target squares changing every 26 levels, such to yellow starting from Level 27, blue from Level 53, and magenta from Level 79.) that cover the playing field, turning them blue and destroying the shield that protects the eye and the eye itself. However, one of Big Brother's arbitrary laws is "no jumping"; meaning that if the eye is open while the player is in the act of jumping, it will destroy the robot and the player will lose a life
1-up
1-up , pronounced "one up", is a term in console video gaming that commonly refers to an item that gives the player an extra life, to complete the game. In certain games, it is possible to receive multiple extra lives at once...
. Other hazards, such as bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s, bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
s, and flying shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
s, serve to prevent the robot from completing its task. Between levels, the robot flies through outer space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
(in what is called a "Space Wave" ingame), and must shoot through polygonal "tetras
Tetrahedron
In geometry, a tetrahedron is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, three of which meet at each vertex. A regular tetrahedron is one in which the four triangles are regular, or "equilateral", and is one of the Platonic solids...
," meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
s, and enemies to reach the next board.
By pressing one of the two "Start" buttons, the camera will zoom in and out and offer new angles on the playing field. Closer camera angles results in higher score multipliers, due to the difficulty of visibility. In later levels, enemies known as "viewer killers" directly "attack" the player, rather than the robot, forcing the player to switch camera angles or move the robot to scroll the camera away from the viewer killers away before he/she loses a life.
There are 26 unique level designs altogether; on passing level 26, the designs repeat at a higher difficulty level and with an altered palette, as in Atari's earlier game Tempest. The on-screen level counter is only two digits, so levels 100–126 are displayed as 0–26 respectively. On passing level 126, the player gets thrown back to a random earlier level.
Doodle City
Doodle City, billed as an "ungame" mode made to relax arcade players, is a drawing tool which presents the player with a selection of polygons from the "game" mode. The shapes can be manipulated at the player's leisure, leaving trails as they are moved across the screen.Doodle City lasts three minutes per credit, though the player can switch back to playing I, Robot at any time. The number of lives the player has depends on how much time was spent on Doodle City; out of the maximum three, one life is taken away for every minute.
Development
The game features amplified stereoStereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
and pixel graphics
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
on a 19 inch color CRT monitor
Cathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
. It uses a Motorola 6809
Motorola 6809
The Motorola 6809 is an 8-bit microprocessor CPU from Motorola, designed by Terry Ritter and Joel Boney and introduced 1978...
central processing unit
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
and four Atari POKEY
Pokey
Pokey may refer to:* Pokey the Penguin, a surrealistic online comic strip* Pokey , a character from the Gumby television series...
audio chips. I, Robot was originally called "Ice Castles".
Reception and legacy
Because of its incredibly different gameplay which broke tradition from the likes of Pac-ManPac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
, Galaga
Galaga
is a fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan and published by Midway in North America in 1981. It is the sequel to Galaxian, released in 1979. The gameplay of Galaga puts the player in control of a space ship which is situated on the bottom of the screen...
, and Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong (video game)
is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. It is an early example of the platform game genre, as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles. In the game, Jumpman must rescue a damsel in distress, Lady, from a...
, the game received a poor reception on release. Approximately 750 – 1500 units of the game were created. Few have been confirmed to exist today. The arcade cabinets have since become rare collectibles with Dave Theurer's involvement being a selling point among collectors.
Author John Sellers described I, Robot as a "near miss" because of its strong release that didn't gain enough popularity. He further praised the game, calling it enjoyable and influential. Author David Ellis listed it as one of the "notable classics" of its time, calling it "quirky". In 2008, Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition
Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition
Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition is a Guinness World Records book dedicated to video games. The first edition was released in February 2008 in association with the video games world records' tracking organization Twin Galaxies. The second edition was released in 2009...
listed it as the number ninety arcade game in technical, creative and cultural impact, citing its innovative 3D graphics. Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
placed I, Robot on its "20 Atari Games" list, saying that "This is the kind of brilliance Atari could field in its halcyon days". The game has been cited as the first arcade game to use 3D polygon graphics, and holds a Guinness World Record
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
for the milestone. IGN.com's Levi Buchanan and Craig Harris included I Robot to their "Dream Arcades" articles.
A rumor persisted that Atari shipped 500 unsold units to Japan with instructions to dump the units into the ocean at the halfway point. Atari employee Rusty Dawe dispelled this rumor as a "total myth" in a 2009 interview, adding "I would have LIKED to dump [the] I, Robot controls into the ocean [as they were a] total nightmare. But that didn't happen either."
Modern video game historians have brought greater attention to the game as a predecessor to modern 3-D games.