Squad Challenge - Robotron: 2084 (Atari 7800)

[Justin]

 

 

Robotron: 2084
Atari 7800 ProSystem
Controller: CONTROLLER / KEYBOARD / @RetroGameBoyz 3-D PRINTED CONTROLLER / PLAYER'S CHOICE
Difficulty Level: Intermediate
Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / MAME / Emulation OK! ✔
Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST June 31st, 2019

 

 

OBJECTIVE: Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between July 15th through July 31st, 2019. Screen captures are not allowed as they are easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor!

 

ELIGIBILITY: Anyone can join in. All players are welcome!

 

PLAY RULES: Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following rules and game settings as delineated in the Squad Challenge. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed.

 

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Intermediate

 

FAIR PLAY: Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that no use of cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, Photoshop, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage is allowed. Everybody hates a cheater.

 

MORE: To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: https://forums.atari.io/topic/1219-high-score-squad-how-to-play/

 

MESSAGE: Welcome to our 66th Squad Challenge! This challenge celebrates new Atari I/O Member @RetroGameBoyz's latest creation, the 3-D Printed Robotron: 2084 Controller for Atari 7800 with one of the system's finest arcade titles! Robotron has always been a favorite of mine and I think now is as good a time as any to give it a play in High Score Squad! ROM and Instruction Manual are provided below. Good luck to everyone playing!

 

NOTE: We have HSW Day 2019 coming up on July 30th.  Be there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[chas10e]

86350  wave 5

Brainy guys got me 😠

[Marco1019]

Wow, I'd love to try this on a 7800 emulator but I'm not sure I could pull it off.

[RickR]

10 hours ago, Marco1019 said:

Wow, I'd love to try this on a 7800 emulator but I'm not sure I could pull it off.

That's my plan...emulation.  I'll probably give it a shot later this week.  Great game. 

[Atari Creep]

HAHAH How did I know this was coming??? Awesome.

[Control Issues]

Yep, I'll give it a shot in emulation.  I've been playing a little of the Robotron 2084 arcade game in MAME with a Playstation 2 controller, using the two thumbsticks for control.  Seems to be working okay, so hoping I can get it to work here, but we'll see.

[Atari Creep]

2 minutes ago, Control Issues said:

Yep, I'll give it a shot in emulation.  I've been playing a little of the Robotron 2084 arcade game in MAME with a Playstation 2 controller, using the two thumbsticks for control.  Seems to be working okay, so hoping I can get it to work here, but we'll see.

 

2 hours ago, RickR said:

That's my plan...emulation.  I'll probably give it a shot later this week.  Great game. 

I'm going to try both emulation and OG hardware with my new Robotron controller by @RetroGameBoyz just for fun. Sure there will be a huge difference.

[Control Issues]

Yeah... those brain guys... how do you get away from the homing missile things?  Or can you?  Do you just have to shoot them before the fire?

[Control Issues]

68050

 

[Control Issues]

Trying to find a way to play this the "right" way on an emulator...

As you all know, in the arcade, this is a twin stick... left stick controls movement, right controls firing.  It can be set up on the 7800 by having two joysticks, one in the player one port and one in the player two port, then using them just like the arcade (I'm guessing it works like in the arcade at least, haven't actually tried it on real hardware).  And of course there's the awesome custom controllers that combine the controls into one easy to handle controller with two d-pads.

I've been using a Playstation 2 controller, with a PS1/PS2 to USB adapter to play emulated games on my laptop.  In MAME, I can configure the arcade Robotron to use the two thumbsticks on the controller as the two joysticks and it works decently.  I'm still not that good at the game, but it feels pretty "right."  The emulator I'm using to play 7800 games is RetroArch, though, and there doesn't seem to be a way to configure it to have controls for both player 1 and 2 go to the same controller.  I've reached out on a discord channel that has helped out on RetroArch problems before, but the only response I've gotten is that they either don't know or don't think you can.  One suggestion was to set both players as going to keys on the keyboard, then using that, but I think that would be less satisfactory than the method I'm having to use.

Any thoughts?  Anyone here good with RetroArch that might know a work around?

[Sabertooth]

292,650 Wave 12 

Played on an AV Modded 7800 using @RetroGameBoyz Robotron controller.  

FYI - This is the best game of Robotron 2084 that I've ever played on the 7800. It's wholly attributed to the controller. Check out my impressions in my blog post.

[Sabertooth]

408,475 Wave 19

The improvement jump with this controller is INSANE. 

[Sabertooth]

On July 17, 2019 at 7:21 PM, Control Issues said:

Yeah... those brain guys... how do you get away from the homing missile things?  Or can you?  Do you just have to shoot them before the fire?

Try to shoot as many Brains as possible before they get off a shot.  If they do shoot, keep moving and fire back at their homing missiles to destroy the missiles themselves.  That's the only way that I've found to do it.  These are the hardest baddies in the game.  I'm glad they only show up every fifth wave. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Time for me to drag out the 7800.  I'll try with the Europad.  

[Atari Creep]

So I went to play live on IG tonight. Set it all up and played a pre stream practice run and half way through, the game proofed out. Tried everything, even took the cart apart and give the contacts a good cleaning. Still nothing. So after all that, getting the controller, getting a working 7800 I cant play the damed game legit after all. So here is my emulated high score. 

 

134800 I think wave 7

Edited July 22, 2019 by Atari Creep

[greenween]

I suck at this game, but I have the next 3 days off. I'll get a score posted tomorrow for sure though!

[Atari Creep]

Same score as I posted earlier, this is just the replay.

 

 

[chas10e]

278,350, it's NOT wave 4, that was attract mode but my score didn't move. I had a 120k score the other night but attract mode was tallying up score as it went , mebbe I moved the control stick or something .....

[Sabertooth]

8 hours ago, Atari Creep said:

Same score as I posted earlier, this is just the replay.

 

 

Great video @Atari Creep! I'm sorry that the original cartridge is glitching.  I totally agree with you that playing with one controller after the dual pad is just not as enjoyable.  It's a completely different experience. That said, you definitely made the best of it and that's a good score! 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Here's my first attempt.  Brutal game!  138,200 points.

[greenween]

After a couple of attempts I was able to get 160,025. Playing on a 7800 with a 2600 joystick.

[greenween]

The advantage of dual controllers is very obvious. Having to move in the direction you want to fire is tough. Still a very fun game.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I've been trying still but can't even get close to my first score.

[RickR]

112150 Wave 7

No other classic system could move this many objects this fast with no flicker.  The 7800 rocks. 

[RickR]

231,675.  I think I made it to wave 12