ROBOPODS
Virgin Games UK, 1983
Author: Malcolm Adams
Format: cassette
Requirements: none
Playthrough video [coming soon]
Download .zip file [coming soon]
Virgin Games UK, 1983
Author: Malcolm Adams
Format: cassette
Requirements: none
Playthrough video [coming soon]
Download .zip file [coming soon]
Consistently mentioned as one of the better TI BASIC offerings of the classic era, Robopods dresses up a fairly simplistic game with some really impressive graphics and sound effects. Aliens are sending down pods, along with landmines to prevent you from deactivating the pods. They must be entered in numerical order, and you can't cross over your previous footprints when moving to the next pod.
Strip away the colorful robopods, the neat little guy who seemingly "types" out all your status messages and in-game instructions, and the delightful sound effects, and what you have is more or less a slow-paced version of Snake or Hustle, requiring you to plan a path to each 'pod in order without crossing your own steps. You occasionally get a little help in the form of 'mats' that appear on your path, which allow you to cross it without penalty. Good thing, too, because this game is unforgiving -- one mine or crossed path, or a Robopod in the wrong order, and it's curtains for you.
I'm not sure the game has a lot of staying power in the modern day, but it's a clever concept, and just viewing how Adams got it to work, and cook along at a decent clip for BASIC, is a neat enough experience. The animation of your little guy clambering into the bottom of each Robopod is worth the price of admission all by itself, and that little squirmy dance probably kept me going long after I should have loaded in something else. Cute game overall, a little lacking in stuff to do, but possessed of a charming and well-thought-aesthetic that's rare in the confines of TI BASIC.
Strip away the colorful robopods, the neat little guy who seemingly "types" out all your status messages and in-game instructions, and the delightful sound effects, and what you have is more or less a slow-paced version of Snake or Hustle, requiring you to plan a path to each 'pod in order without crossing your own steps. You occasionally get a little help in the form of 'mats' that appear on your path, which allow you to cross it without penalty. Good thing, too, because this game is unforgiving -- one mine or crossed path, or a Robopod in the wrong order, and it's curtains for you.
I'm not sure the game has a lot of staying power in the modern day, but it's a clever concept, and just viewing how Adams got it to work, and cook along at a decent clip for BASIC, is a neat enough experience. The animation of your little guy clambering into the bottom of each Robopod is worth the price of admission all by itself, and that little squirmy dance probably kept me going long after I should have loaded in something else. Cute game overall, a little lacking in stuff to do, but possessed of a charming and well-thought-aesthetic that's rare in the confines of TI BASIC.
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