Robinson Technologies
Encyclopedia
Robinson Technologies is a company founded and run by Seth Robinson in 1989, when he created the BBS door
game, Legend of the Red Dragon
(LORD). He currently operates the company with the help of his wife, Akiko Robinson, in Hiroshima
, Japan
. Seth's full name is Seth Able Robinson and the character Seth Able the bard from LORD was named after himself. Also, the final boss in Dink Smallwood
was also named Seth.
-based BBS
that he called Legend of the Red Dragon
, or simply LORD for short. The game was not immediately popular, but it took off after he ported it to the PC. Originally only featuring text-based menus and fighting, the game allowed for early multiplayer RPG play before the advent of MMORPG
s. It allowed for multiple players (if the BBS had enough phone lines) to play at once. Later, the game would feature a form of graphical menus using RIPTerm.
IGMs, or In Game Modules, was a popular addition to LORD. It allowed for others to add onto the game and pretty much customize it in any way they wanted. In fact, many IGMs were their own encapsulated game. However, some IGMs were written to be cheating devices, allowing players to do evil things to other players, to give themselves money and gems, and pump up forest and player fights.
Seth Robinson sold the rights to LORD to Metropolis Gameport
in 1998.
. It would be commonly referred to as Planets: TEOS, it was a space-based trading game, which had players flying to all kinds of planets, buying, selling, and trading items in order to make money. The game even allowed fights that were very similar in style to LORD, allowing players to attack others when they were offline. Players could also attack planets in order to take control of them.
The game featured two sides, the Alliance and the Maraken. Players could join and fight for each side. Players could even own planets for withever side they belonged to. However, they could also play independently and even start their own "guilds" called cartels. It also had a huge Star Trek
influence, including references to the Borg and characters from the different Star Trek shows.
Seth Robinson sold the rights to TEOS to Metropolis Gameport
in 1998.
This game is completely different than the original Red Dragon, with many differences. Instead of a text based menu concept, the game was changed to an ANSI-based graphical map concept. Players controlled a smiley face-like character that could roam around, much like modern MMORPGs. The game was never as successful as the original Red Dragon, but it did gather a cult following.
Seth Robinson sold the rights to LORD II to Metropolis Gameport
in 1998.
. This was an effort made by Seth Robinson to move away from BBS door games and into something more profitable. The title featured a zelda-like isometric view and spotlighted the wicked sense of humor of Seth Robinson.
In an attempt to keep the game alive for a little longer, Seth took the idea of IGMs from Legend of the Red Dragon and created "D-Mods", an addon feature where players could create their own adventure for others to explore. Anyone could create D-Mods and distribute them as they wished.
On October 17, 1999, Robinson Technologies released the game to the public for free and it can be downloaded without charge from their website.
2003.
. Since the release of Dink Smallwood, he has worked on many ports of games to cellular phones and various games for several websites. Some of the phone ports he has worked on includes Duke Nukem and Guitar Hero III Mobile
.
Robinson Technologies has released several games and programs. The following list are the major notable games that have been developed and released by Robinson Technologies.
In a January 2006 news post on his website, Seth Robinson alluded to have been working on a brand new game or two.
In October of the same year, the company unveiled the NovaShell game creation system, the technology powering their next game. NovaShell is available on Microsoft Windows
, Mac OS X
, and Linux
under a zlib/libpng-style license.
BBS door
A door is a computer program, on a bulletin board system, that runs outside of the main bulletin board program. Sometimes called external programs, doors are the most common way to add games, utilities, and other extensions to BBSes. From the 1990s on, most BBS software had the capability to...
game, Legend of the Red Dragon
Legend of the Red Dragon
Legend of the Red Dragon is a text-based online role-playing video game, released in 1989 by Robinson Technologies. LORD is one of the best known door games. The player's goal is to improve his or her skills in order to defeat the Red Dragon which has been attacking the village...
(LORD). He currently operates the company with the help of his wife, Akiko Robinson, in Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Seth's full name is Seth Able Robinson and the character Seth Able the bard from LORD was named after himself. Also, the final boss in Dink Smallwood
Dink Smallwood
While compared to other role playing games, Dink Smallwood was praised for its humour, being described as “a spoonful of Zelda,…a dash of Monkey Island and a pinch of Diablo.” The humour was described as the one good aspect of the game and was found quite entertaining...
was also named Seth.
Legend of the Red Dragon
In 1989, Seth Robinson had created a game for his AmigaAmiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
-based BBS
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
that he called Legend of the Red Dragon
Legend of the Red Dragon
Legend of the Red Dragon is a text-based online role-playing video game, released in 1989 by Robinson Technologies. LORD is one of the best known door games. The player's goal is to improve his or her skills in order to defeat the Red Dragon which has been attacking the village...
, or simply LORD for short. The game was not immediately popular, but it took off after he ported it to the PC. Originally only featuring text-based menus and fighting, the game allowed for early multiplayer RPG play before the advent of MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
s. It allowed for multiple players (if the BBS had enough phone lines) to play at once. Later, the game would feature a form of graphical menus using RIPTerm.
IGMs, or In Game Modules, was a popular addition to LORD. It allowed for others to add onto the game and pretty much customize it in any way they wanted. In fact, many IGMs were their own encapsulated game. However, some IGMs were written to be cheating devices, allowing players to do evil things to other players, to give themselves money and gems, and pump up forest and player fights.
Seth Robinson sold the rights to LORD to Metropolis Gameport
Metropolis Gameport
Metropolis Gameport is the Kansas, USA based company that currently owns the rights to several games, including Legend of the Red Dragon, MajorMUD and Planets: The Exploration of Space, selling the licenses to the games on their website.-External links:**...
in 1998.
Planets: TEOS
The second game released by Seth would be another text-based game, Planets: The Exploration of SpacePlanets: The Exploration of Space
Planets: The Exploration of Space is a text-based BBS door game that can also be played in a regular DOS environment. It was originally created by Seth Robinson of Robinson Technologies. It was the company's second major hit, following Legend of the Red Dragon. The first release came in 1992,...
. It would be commonly referred to as Planets: TEOS, it was a space-based trading game, which had players flying to all kinds of planets, buying, selling, and trading items in order to make money. The game even allowed fights that were very similar in style to LORD, allowing players to attack others when they were offline. Players could also attack planets in order to take control of them.
The game featured two sides, the Alliance and the Maraken. Players could join and fight for each side. Players could even own planets for withever side they belonged to. However, they could also play independently and even start their own "guilds" called cartels. It also had a huge Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
influence, including references to the Borg and characters from the different Star Trek shows.
Seth Robinson sold the rights to TEOS to Metropolis Gameport
Metropolis Gameport
Metropolis Gameport is the Kansas, USA based company that currently owns the rights to several games, including Legend of the Red Dragon, MajorMUD and Planets: The Exploration of Space, selling the licenses to the games on their website.-External links:**...
in 1998.
New World
In various releases of Planets: TEOS, a game that Seth had been working on was advertised. This game, New World, would never see release, due to events that were never made public. Instead, another game that Seth came up with inherited the name, Legend of the Red Dragon II: New World. Fans wanted a new game from Seth and wanted New World as well, so he released the official sequel to his original hit, Legend of the Red Dragon.This game is completely different than the original Red Dragon, with many differences. Instead of a text based menu concept, the game was changed to an ANSI-based graphical map concept. Players controlled a smiley face-like character that could roam around, much like modern MMORPGs. The game was never as successful as the original Red Dragon, but it did gather a cult following.
Seth Robinson sold the rights to LORD II to Metropolis Gameport
Metropolis Gameport
Metropolis Gameport is the Kansas, USA based company that currently owns the rights to several games, including Legend of the Red Dragon, MajorMUD and Planets: The Exploration of Space, selling the licenses to the games on their website.-External links:**...
in 1998.
Dink Smallwood
In 1997, Robinson Technologies released an adventure/RPG title by the name of Dink SmallwoodDink Smallwood
While compared to other role playing games, Dink Smallwood was praised for its humour, being described as “a spoonful of Zelda,…a dash of Monkey Island and a pinch of Diablo.” The humour was described as the one good aspect of the game and was found quite entertaining...
. This was an effort made by Seth Robinson to move away from BBS door games and into something more profitable. The title featured a zelda-like isometric view and spotlighted the wicked sense of humor of Seth Robinson.
In an attempt to keep the game alive for a little longer, Seth took the idea of IGMs from Legend of the Red Dragon and created "D-Mods", an addon feature where players could create their own adventure for others to explore. Anyone could create D-Mods and distribute them as they wished.
On October 17, 1999, Robinson Technologies released the game to the public for free and it can be downloaded without charge from their website.
Teenage Lawnmower
A 3D action/simulation/interactive story game, where players mowed lawns to make money to support their family. It was an Independent Games Festival finalist at GDCGame Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
2003.
Dungeon Scroll
A spelling game with a dungeon RPG theme. Players spelled words from letters they were given to deal damage to baddies they run in to in the dungeon. It was an Independent Games Festival finalist at GDC 2004.Funeral Quest
A multiplayer Flash game, players take the on the role of running their own funeral parlor.Other projects
Since the creation of Robinson Technologies, Seth Robinson has worked on many games and various programs. He at one point even had his hands in a video game arcadeVideo arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
. Since the release of Dink Smallwood, he has worked on many ports of games to cellular phones and various games for several websites. Some of the phone ports he has worked on includes Duke Nukem and Guitar Hero III Mobile
Guitar Hero III Mobile
Guitar Hero Mobile is a series of rhythm video games in the Guitar Hero series, adapting the normal console-based gameplay which uses a guitar-shaped controller to match notes of popular rock music songs to work with the face buttons on advanced mobile phones, including BlackBerry devices and those...
.
Robinson Technologies has released several games and programs. The following list are the major notable games that have been developed and released by Robinson Technologies.
- Toolfish Utility Suite
- Reckless Thief
In a January 2006 news post on his website, Seth Robinson alluded to have been working on a brand new game or two.
In October of the same year, the company unveiled the NovaShell game creation system, the technology powering their next game. NovaShell is available on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
under a zlib/libpng-style license.
Employees
Seth Robinson has had several people help him out with Robinson Technologies over time. They include:- Akiko Robinson (his wife)
- Shawn Teal
Trivia
- In the sysop.doc file for Planets: The Exploration of Space, it is noted "RTSoft *IS* Seth A. Robinson and Shawn Teal".