''Mr. Robot and His Robot Factory'' is a

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

created for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

by Ron Rosen and published in 1983 by

Datamost Datamost was a computer book publisher and computer game company founded by David Gordon and based in Chatsworth, California. Datamost operated in the early 1980s producing games and other software mainly for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and Atari ...

. The music was composed by Gary Gilbertson using Philip Price's ''Advanced Music Processor'', while the title screen was drawn by Art Huff. It was ported to the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

by Robert McNally and to the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

. The gameplay is similar to that of ''

Miner 2049er ''Miner 2049er'' is a platform game created by Bill Hogue that was released in 1982 by Big Five Software. It was developed for the Atari 8-bit family and widely converted to other systems. The title "Miner 2049er" evokes a 21st-century take on th ...

'' (1982). The player controls a humanoid robot that must traverse all of the platforms in a factory filled with ladders, conveyor belts, and other gadgetry. There are 22 levels, plus a built-in level editor.

Gameplay

The robot is moved with either the keyboard or a joystick, and can make it walk side to side, climb up and down, and jump, collecting the white power pills from the platforms in the process. The player begins with four robots, and loses one if it falls too much or touches any of the fireball enemies. When one of the pulsing white rings scattered around the level is collected, the robot becomes temporarily invulnerable and can safely touch the fireballs, destroying them. In each level the player begins with 100 units of energy and loses units at a rate of about one per second, making quick completion of each level important. When the energy runs out, the player loses a robot. Points are granted in 10 point increments as the robot advances through the level. Collecting a ring earns 100 points, as does collecting the small musical note at the beginning of the level that turns off the game's sound effects. Dispatching a fireball is worth 500 points. Completing a level earns 100 points per unit of energy remaining on the screen. Later levels include bombs and magnets. There are a total of 22 levels, not counting the 26 customized levels.

Reception

''Mr. Robot and His Robot Factory'' was reviewed by ''

Video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

'' magazine in its "Arcade Alley" column where it was compared to ''Miner 2049er'' and described as "sufficiently different ..to represent an enthralling new test of skill". The reviewers praised the efforts of programmer Ron Rosen, noting that "the programming skill evidenced in the preparation of ''Mr. Robot'' is awesome," and concluding "what this game lacks in stark originality, it more than makes up for with polish". In 1984 it received a positive review in the German magazine ''Happy Computer''.Mr. Robot and his Robot Factory review in Happy Computer 04/1984, p. 137, ISSN 0344-884
here
(german)

References

External links

at Atari Mania * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mister Robot and His Robot Factory 1983 video games Apple II games Atari 8-bit family games Commodore 64 games Datamost games Platform games Video games about robots Video games developed in the United States Single-player video games