I've been looking forward to reading the "Robotron" bonus chapter for quite a while. I'm not sure why, but I guess I was just looking forward to the VG "take" on the game. While it wasn't in my top five favorite arcade games of all time, it was a great representative of the "twitch" era (I liked the line "all -you-can-kill buffet").
I recall reading on this site a long while ago that the Robotron chapter was going to focus on the innovations in game control, and it certainly did. But, the resulting chapter was still interesting without being too techno-geeky.
Control is an interesting issue, and I have to think arcade game makers had an edge there, since they didn't have to be standardized like controllers for consoles or computers. You still see a lot of innovation there, but sadly the emphasis seems to be on wacky and far-out controllers rather than doing anything truly innovative (no modern equivalents of the "dual joystick" that I know of). I wonder if anyone has tried to do a game with two joysticks and foot pedals? That could really get complex in a hurry. As far as I know, the only games that use pedals are racing games and the occasional light gun shooter. In any case, I've never seen more than three foot pedals on any machine. I guess some of the drumming simulation games might get close in this regard.
I played Robotron on my C-64, though I didn't get to experience what it was like with dual joysticks until much later (when I got my X-arcade). I just never encountered any Robotron arcade games growing up (before my time, I guess). It really just isn't the same game without the dual sticks, though.
I've been looking forward to reading the "Robotron" bonus chapter for quite a while. I'm not sure why, but I guess I was just looking forward to the VG "take" on the game. While it wasn't in my top five favorite arcade games of all time, it was a great representative of the "twitch" era (I liked the line "all -you-can-kill buffet").
I recall reading on this site a long while ago that the Robotron chapter was going to focus on the innovations in game control, and it certainly did. But, the resulting chapter was still interesting without being too techno-geeky.
Control is an interesting issue, and I have to think arcade game makers had an edge there, since they didn't have to be standardized like controllers for consoles or computers. You still see a lot of innovation there, but sadly the emphasis seems to be on wacky and far-out controllers rather than doing anything truly innovative (no modern equivalents of the "dual joystick" that I know of). I wonder if anyone has tried to do a game with two joysticks and foot pedals? That could really get complex in a hurry. As far as I know, the only games that use pedals are racing games and the occasional light gun shooter. In any case, I've never seen more than three foot pedals on any machine. I guess some of the drumming simulation games might get close in this regard.
I played Robotron on my C-64, though I didn't get to experience what it was like with dual joysticks until much later (when I got my X-arcade). I just never encountered any Robotron arcade games growing up (before my time, I guess). It really just isn't the same game without the dual sticks, though.
Matt Barton, Managing Editor
Location: St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA
Email: matt@armchairarcade.com