VAX SUPER
ROBOT Remake (Back
to Games)
Background
Super Robot is a game I
played and enjoyed many years ago on a VAX computer running VMS. It is a text-based
game and the graphics are purely ASCII character-based. The game was written
by an as yet unknown to me German person in VAX PASCAL and FORTRAN.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| SUPER-Robot SUPER-Robot SUPER-Robot
|
| SUPER-Robot
SUPER-Robot
SUPER-Robot |
| SUPER-Robot
SUPER-Robot SUPER-Robot
|
|
SUPER-Robot SUPER-
Robot SUPER-Robot |
| |
| ---->>> S
U P E R - R O B O T <<<---- |
| |
| INCLUDING: |
|
* normal robots chaseing you. |
|
* a super robot supporting them sometimes. (!) |
|
* mysterious question marks. |
|
* and a golden hen rushing around haveing a haggard
look. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Original
VT-100 Terminal Title Screen |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Gameplay
In the original game an arena is generated by randomly placed blocks
and walls (made of hash '#' symbols) on
the 80x24 screen.
Robots live in this arena and they are represented by capital Rs
and you are repesented by an asterisk *.
Numbers are also placed at random in the arena and if you move onto these you
score points.
There are also mines ('@' symbols) which
kill anything stupid enough to move onto them.
Some question marks ('?') also appear in
the level - some give you points and some are mines.
Finally, there is a golden hen ('h') which
moves erratically around the arena avoiding you. If you can pick this up you
get a large bonus score.
Movement is turned-based. On each
move you can either move 1 space in one of 4 directions (North, South, East
or West) OR fire in one of 4 directions. Your shot will destroy the 1st thing
it hits (except walls and blocks) and then stop.
After you move or fire, each robot will then either fire or move one space.
The golden hen will move 2 spaces (if it is still alive!).
The robots are pretty single-minded and a bit stupid - they will naturally move
towards you unless they think they have a shot i.e. you are on the same line
or column as they are. Each robot will ignore anything between you and it -
so they will fire at you and possibly hit another robot or a mine in the way
(or of course a point scoring number or the golden hen) and destroy it. Their
keenness to track you down can be manipulated so that you can manoeveur them
onto mines or into situations where they will shoot each other. If you shoot
a robot (which is easier to do) it may or may not be replaced by 1 (or more!)
robots. (I was never able to ascertain what the rules were for this!)
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Your
Score: 0 Class: BEGINNER |
| #
# |
| #
# |
| #
* ############ |
| ############
2
8 |
| #
8|
| @
#########
|
| #
R
7 |
| #
?
#
@ |
| # |
| #
# |
| 7
#
3 |
| # |
| #
# |
| #
5
3 |
|##
# R # 2
# 2 ####### |
|5
# #
6# # |
| #
h# # #
3 |
| #
5 # # 1
#
6 |
|###########
# #
# |
| #
# |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Original
VT-100 Terminal Game Screen |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The trick was to make the robots kill each other while collecting points. You
only have 1 life - 1 hit and its game over and your score goes to zero. When
you defeat all of the robots the level finishes - you are deemed successful
only if you collect a certain percentage of available points. I can't remember
if the value of the golden hen counted towards possible points and am also hazy
as to the target percentage required to progress. If you fail to collect the
target number of points, you restart the level again (your score is not reset
to zero). If you do collect the target , you move onto a more challenging level.
Levels are described as classes in Super Robot. You start at Beginner and move
up though Good and Expert. At the expert level, super robots appear ('S's)
and can fire at you diagonally.
You could, I suppose, call this game the thinking man's Berzerk!
This was a very addictive little game and I have decided to remake it for the
PC using the game-programming language BlitzPlus.
It is my 1st BlitzPlus project and my limited knowledge in programming action-based
games is another reason why I chose this particluar game!
The Remake
I have decided to keep the gameplay as close to the original as possible
- filling in gaps in my memory and knowledge (since the source of the original
so far is unavailable). It is still a turn-based game and has all of the gameplay
features mentioned above. I have of course improved the graphics using bitmaps
for the robots, hero, mines etc. and have even added a little bit of animation
onto the robots.
I hope you enjoy it, and , if you are the author of the original - contact me
and perhaps I can make this remake more faithful to the original!!
Screenshot
There is a Hall of Fame which holds the best 5 scores. You Must complete the
game to be able to register a score. Do you see the tribute to a great retrogaming
web-site in the hall of fame when you 1st play the game?
Controls
Move using the cursor keys.
W=fire up,
A=fire left,
S=fire right,
Z=fire down.
Press ESC to quit.
You may create up to 1000 custom levels in version 1.0 as it features a level
editor
Outstanding Issues
I would like to introduce new gameplay features such as ammo, shields, decoys
etc. for use when making custom levels in the editor.
I would also like to build a parameter screen where the player may set certain
rules for custom levels.
Download (inc. source code - you have my
permission to do what you like with it!)
version
0.9 Beta 6th March, 2005.
version 1.0 Beta 23rd March, 2005. The game
now includes a level editor.
version 1.1 Beta 11th July, 2005. New feature
- shields in custom levels (see the readme file for details)
21st July, 2005 - Custom Level game engine settings can be tinkered with and
saved with each level.
version 1.2 Beta 3rd October, 2005. Rejigged
engine settings screen (makes more sense now) + respawned
robots will not immediately kill you. This was an original game feature but
it is annoying and takes some skill
out of the game. Suggested by feedback from codersworkshop.com
version 1.21 Beta 25th February, 2006. Couple of bug fixes (see readme.txt)
version 1.22 Beta 25th February, 2006. Found bug in so-called fix for instant respawn death - should really work now! (see readme.txt)
Back to Games Contact
me (davy.kelly@ntlworld.com)
video poker