(Originally published in this blog entry in March 2022)
https://xatornova.blogspot.com/2022/03/robotron-2084-twin-stick-apocalypse.html

There is something strangely beautiful about the end of the world in art and the reaction that it draws from its characters, particularly the feelings that it gets from the people facing the inevitable demise, because it is then that you see them at their rawest. Robotron 2084 fits that category as an abstract portrayal of the collapse of civilization by the hands of machines, and to that purpose it sets the player as a survivor in the middle of the catastrophe, surrounded by robots chasing down the remnant humans. You can opt to save them, but the main challenge is to get past the waves of machines. The aim of the developers is that the player feels panic in an apocalyptic scenario, and to that purpose there are two sticks, one for movement and the other one to shoot in a direction, as the survivor's defense mechanism. The repercussion this has on the player is that there's a need to coordinate betwen two forms of reaction: To dodge and to shoot, and these two draw your attention away from each other and conflict with each other, and the result is that there's a dissasociation between these two understandings of your avatar that leads to a chaotic state of mind that turns the attention of the player to the game, their surroundings and their position.

Now, this is a precursor to the twin-stick shooter genre, and great games have been born from this control scheme, such as The Binding of Isaac and Assault Android Cactus, but to me, the original Robotron 2084 remains the strongest because the feeling that it awakes is not only an adrenaline rush but also a desperate, raw feeling that complements the game's aesthetic vision. It does this in a purer state, because your bullets can't be improved and go in just eight directions, which means that unlike a lot of other modern shoot 'em ups, precision is also important in this game, and ultimately, because its nature as an arcade game turns around the power fantasy aspect that may arise from this. In Robotron 2084, defeat is inevitable, because no matter how many screens you go through, eventually you will lose, and the enemies win. There is no end to this game, and the developers transform this arcade convention into something beautiful. It reminds to the endings of Crisis Core, or Halo: Reach that came out decades after, but in a whole game dedicated to that feeling, without their sentimentality. You just fight through waves of enemies until your body and mind can't go on, and you succumb. That is when the game is really over. No extra continues. That's the canonical end. As a portrayal of the end of the world, it is successful and radical unlike almost any other shooter that I have seen.

Robotron: 2084 might just be the single coolest arcade game I've played for sooo many different reasons. The visuals are especially impressive to me with the absolute cacophony of flashing lights and colours set to a flat black background being such a great way to convey the neon lit hellscape in which everything takes place. Basically everything demands the player's direct attention just from a purely visual standpoint, and are crafted in such a way that even at a glance you can tell where things are despite the maelstrom of clashing and intersecting explosions and shapes darting across the screen. It's also another case where the utterly brutal difficulty you could come to expect from a game at the time felt pretty interestingly contextualised within the tone and narrative of the game itself, which is always neat, not to mention that the tone itself is unbelievably bleak.

The game is set after a robot uprising that renders basically all of humanity dead, but rather than being a story of trying to do what you can to restore hope, everything is more akin to a desperate scramble just to maybe cling onto your life for a bit longer. There is no hope here, only doing what you can to extend your own life and that of the last remaining human family for that extra bit of time solely for the sake of not wanting to die, and in the end, it's pointless, there's no winning, just endless waves of increasingly aggressive and twisted death robots all desiring little more than your destruction. I also really like the pacing of the game and the way this further ties into these ideas, as rather than a more typical formula you'd come to expect where it takes a bit to get going and reach the tricky stuff that'll kill you, extra lives usually being a huge milestone in terms of score, this game throws you into the deep end and you just need to adapt to the chaos as quickly as possible. Extra lives are so common that by the 10th wave (each lasting at most 30 seconds) you'll probably have gained at least 4 extra lives as long as you've been playing well, but even if this it's likely that you'll have died by then enough times to not even see what awaits you.

I feel like this further contributes to the bleak desperation of the situation the player finds themselves in where there are so many situations where rather than even thinking about "how am I going to beat this huge wave?" you instead immediately start considering if it's possible to score enough for another extra life so you can inevitably get torn to shreds one more time and hold off the enemies for another few moments. It's definitely a unique take on this type of game to use lives as almost an active resource where it'll be a bit of a tempo reset if you die and put you back into a more advantageous position momentarily rather than simply being there to count the amount of mistakes you make. Obviously you still never really want to die in this game at any point, but it seems like the game gears it more towards each individual death not really being especially catastrophic. It all culminates in an awesome little time that I've been playing on and off for a while now, and while there are certain frustrating elements such as the game being obscenely fast with some erratic bullet patterns being practically impossible to dodge, the whole experience is something that I think is really impressive and engaging, especially with some absolutely amazing art direction backing it all up.

Neat point of twin-stick history. Really incredible how the paradigm of constant positioning and dealing with enemies that all want to murder you while you desperately look for safe spots to manage all the distinct enemy types persists all the way since its creation.

Albeit, still monotonous to really attempt to perfect past the first hour now, although how far we've come on the genre definitely holds a lot of the blame for that. What doesn't is how painfully flashy the art and colors are, with not exactly the accessible and perfect sprite stuff you see in Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. Really more of a game that makes you quickly appreciate or at least learn how exactly visual feedback and cohesion is kinda something that's super important to have.

Definitely the age old wear I expected walking in, but hey at least it'll look good in a museum!

(made it to wave 32, in case anyone is curious)

Robotron 2084 is often remembered as the first survival game of all time, much like Atari's famous Berzerk, you play as a man fighting off against an impossible horde of robots, aiming for a high score while rescuing humans spread across the screen, the difficulty increases exponentially with each wave, by making the robots faster and swarming the player. Beware though, that humanoids rescue can be shot by the enemy robots. This game is a spiritual predecessor to the more popular "Smash T.V.".

While the game is incredibly ugly, epileptic at times; graphics will keep you hooked, its colorful and contrasted graphics worked well with the powerful glow and full contrast of the CRT television and arcade monitors.

It was a major innovation at the time that has inspired other games since then; an inspiration not only to the more popular "Smash T.V.", but to any bullet hell, twin-stick games, and survival games from our relative present.
The randomly generated elements of the game allowed it to remain "fresh", in Jarvis' own words; as opposed to the more mechanized "Donkey Kong" or "Frogger" with little to no RNG, Robotron was all about the element of surprise, which contributed to the overall action and frenetic nature of the game.

I grew up playing Smash TV on, of all things, my PS1 (via Arcade Party Pak) and little did I know that almost everything I liked about it was already on full display in the arcade a decade before I was born.

Robotron is overwhelmingly brutal. I cannot imagine it was actually popular in the arcade, when it is so easy to put in that first quarter, INSTANTLY die before you even comprehend what is happening, and judge the second quarter to be an unwise investment. Getting good at Robotron is a daunting endeavor, even without the literal cost.

With the luxury of free-play in a modern environment though, it's easy to call Robotron the most frantically addicting game of its time.

Played via the Midway Arcade Origins collection on Xbox 360

A good majority of my pre-1990s game knowledge is second-hand because I haven't liked a majority of the games I've played before that era, but god DAMN if Robotron isn't a cut above its contemporaries. While not the first twin-stick shooter to make it to market, it's understandable why Robotron is as highly regarded and remembered as opposed to its predecessors in the genre. I will certainly return for more robot-blasting action in the future, be it through this exact collection or any other versions I may take a gander at in the future.

I frankly couldn't imagine trying to play any console port made before the existence of twin-stick controls, though.

PERSONAL BEST: 140,600pts (Blue label version)

Man, this is a depressing game. It doesn't help that you have to save the last remaining human family(and fail since you can only get a game over at this arcade), doomed to extinction, but it's also so hyper, so brain-twisting, so brutal, with exploding noises and flashes everywhere it makes you weary of this robotic bloodshed and just want to give up. What is your cause? What are you fighting for? Violence is not the answer. Only despair is left.

As an action game though it's a treaded formula(Berzerk did this style of gameplay earlier) but the idea of providing a twin stick action is a revolutionary one and it provides immediacy.

(Glitchwave project #007)

Classic arcade action at its finest, and the genesis of the twinstick genre. The graphics are flashy, but there's still enough distinction between the enemies and the humans for the player to quickly identify them. The sounds are basic, but memorable and have that iconic Williams sci-fi phaser sound to them. However, what really makes this game stand out is its brutal difficulty. This is quite possibly the hardest old school arcade game of all time. However, not a single death is cheap because of how incredibly quick and responsive the controls are. You are in total control the entire time and the only person you can blame for your failures is yourself. This is the twinstick genre stripped down to its bare essentials. And in this case, less is truly more.

Fast paced, psychedelic, and addictive. The game popularized twin stick shooting, but is also a just a fun game in its own right. Enemies come from all angles with a variety of projectiles demand quick movement and aiming. The people you gave give you an increasingly large point creating a risk vs reward for going after them, or keeping enemies alive to collection them before a round ends.

The graphics are simple but vibrant. With flashing colors providing constant visual stimulation to compliment the action.

Robotron somehow simulates the stress and intensity of an actual robot apocalypse through the use of, like, 50 pixels on the screen. The responsiveness and precision of the controls make or break a game like this, and Robotron's are like silky tofu - smooth, compliant, and vegan.

The simple rules of play and intuitive controls lead to an addictive experience. When you die, instead of thinking "wtf, I dodged that, the computer cheats", you think "I saw that coming, I'll be ready for it next time" or "hmm, maybe I should kill these guys first". You strategize to avoid or prevent deadly scenarios. You experiment with different paths and priorities. You realize that your plan of attack matters just as much as twitch reaction and skill.

The graphics are just good enough to get the job done (does the main character have huge glasses or something?), but the sound design is bombastic and perfect for an arcade thriller.

It's not a terribly deep game - It's an arcade game after all, good for maybe five or ten plays per session - but it's remarkable how well this humble cabinet with the limitations of 1982 tech holds up.