Beschreibung
Category:
Game
Programming Language: Assembler
Requirements:
Standard Atari 800 XL/XE
computer (64 KB RAM), video system PAL or NTSC
Name:
Robix
Author:
Radek Štěrba, (c) Raster/C.P.U., 2010,
http://raster.atari.org
ROBIX
Introduction
Robix
is an arcade game for one or two players (playing simultaneously in
cooperative mode). There are robots that can move, jump, fall, shoot
and crouch. They have to struggle through three main stages containing
a lot of traps and enemies that you have to beat and kill their
boss at the end of each stage. If you succeed, you can go to a final
fourth stage defended by a major enemy boss-chief.
Controls
Main menu:
SELECT … Stage (1 to 3).
OPTION … Number of players (1 or 2 simultaneously).
START and/or JOYSTICK FIRE … Start the game.
Game control by joystick:
RIGHT … Move the robot forward.
LEFT … Stop the robot.
UP … Jump up.
(The
height of the jump depends on the duration of holding the joystick UP.
Then the robot starts to fall and another jump is possible only after
bouncing from the ground. The robot may be controlled during the jump
at will (RIGHT/LEFT).
DOWN … Crouch.
(Hold joystick DOWN to keep the robot crouched. You can still control its movement by moving the joystick DOWN+RIGHT/DOWN+LEFT.)
JOYSTICK FIRE … Fire.
(Hold FIRE to fire continuously. You cannot fire while the robot is crouched.)
During the game, you may also use:
SELECT … Pause.
(Press again to continue.)
OPTION … Quit the game immediately and go to the main menu.
Information, Tips and Tricks
Opponents attack in formations. When getting down the last enemy of the
formation your weapon is upgraded to the second or third level –
missiles have a stronger effect then. The strength of the weapon is
indicated on the top panel and with shape of the missiles. If the
weapon already has the top third level, some energy will be added to
the robot. If the energy is full, it will get a score bonus.
While colliding with enemies or missiles of the bosses your robot’s
energy is decreasing. Remaining energy is indicated on the top panel.
When losing all of the energy, your robot is destroyed. You have a
total of 5 robots available for a single game. A new blinking robot
first appears in the air and you have about 5 seconds to move the
invulnerable robot RIGHT/LEFT at will. After the time runs out or when
moving the joystick DOWN or pressing FIRE, the robot is activated.
(Note: A new robot is always equipped with full energy and first-level weapon.)
When the robot is pushed back to the left by an obstacle, it is destroyed.
When the robot falls down out of the screen, it is destroyed.
By rising the robot up in places with insufficient height, it is
destroyed (typically in underground tunnels).
When the robot runs into a mine, it is destroyed.
The light part of the dark line under the words "GAME OVER" shows part
of the mission where the game has ended.
Opponents and moving objects with different colours have different
endurance. Some of them can be destroyed by a poor weapon, others
need more hits or a better weapon or they can be immortal.
Bosses and the major boss-chief are only vulnerable in the head or eye
area. A successful hit can be identified by a short change of colour
and a sound. The remaining energy of the bosses is indicated in the top
right corner by diminishing squares (always for a certain number of
hits). When the last square disappears, the enemy dies.
If you kill the bosses in the first three stages (even in several
individual games), it is possible to select the final fourth stage in
the main menu.
Additions, Interesting Comments
Work on the game began in December 2008 and continued intermittently until August 2010.
The game consists of four graphically different sections more than 150
screens long (a total of over 600 screens) in which you are under
attack of 12 kinds of enemies / moving objects and 4 large bosses.
The program uses entire RAM (64 KB) and decompresses the data for each
section of the game. The whole game is also compressed, so the overall
size of the executable file is heavily reduced. (It was originally
planned to use extended memory, but thanks to the use of special
compression techniques it works on standard Atari 800 XE/XL.)
Many thanks goes to PG for help with graphics and English version of
the manual. Thanks to Pepax also for consultation on the English
version. Furthermore, thanks to Bob, Fandal and PG for their valuable
comments during beta testing. Thanks also to my girlfriend Mirka for
support and tolerating my repeated hard work on the game late at night.
;-)
Have fun... :-)
