I, Robot by Atari Video Games is an older arcade game that wasn’t widely released or very popular, but it was very revelutionary in many respects employing 3-D techniques that had never before been used!
Unfortunately, other than the star of the game being a robot, and the title of the game itself, this game has nothing to do with anything that Asimov wrote.
So why include it here? Because it’s damn fun if you like playing the occasional thumb-blistering video game, and you can always pretend that it's somehow related to the Asimov world if you’re a purist! -grin-
Our hero is presented with the only law he must follow, “No Jumping!” which he promptly questions and tests. Although this law isn’t programmed into him, he discovers there are consequences to not obeying.
His job is to run over the floor tiles and change their color. He may indeed jump, but only when the large eye is closed. After changing the floor tiles to their proper color, he may destroy the eye by jumping to it and ending the level. But there are many more levels to go!
Your robot can fire at various enemies and obstacles to keep his path clear. You can also change the elevation of your view from down low, right behind the robot, to up high, with a clear view of the playing field. Also there are bonus scenes that involve flying through space and destroying various enemies.
To play, download the I, Robot emulator (Win95+) into it’s own directory and unzip it.
Then download the ROMs into the same directory and unzip that file.
Then create a shortcut by right-click dragging the I, Robot program file (I Robot.exe) onto your desktop and selecting ‘Create Shortcut’ from the small menu that appears when you let up on the right mouse button.
Before playing for the first time, read the ‘Readme.txt’ file that is in the directory where you unzipped everything. This file explains controls and different settings.
Finally, click the I, Robot icon that you just created on your desktop and get ready to play!
This is a great text adventure game, based upon and following pretty closely the book, ‘Robots of Dawn’.
If you’ve never played a text adventure then give it a try! It’s an interactive story. The game gives you a description of your environment and you type commands (such as: HELP, I or INVENTORY, GET object, EXAMINE object, N, S, E, W, U, D for moving to other locations, etc.) trying to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles to reach a determined goal.
If you’ve read the book then it will be somewhat easier to understand what is taking place and what you must do.
Good luck, have fun and do the name, ‘Baley’ proud!
Download this Apple II emulator and the Robots of Dawn disk image into their own folder and unzip them.
Make a shortcut using the methods described for ‘I, Robot’ with the program file, ‘AppleWin.exe’.
Use the shortcut to run the Apple II emulator.
Click the Disk 1 icon and select the robotsofdawn disk image, then click the Apple icon that is directly above the Disk icon.
When the game asks for the Slot # of your 80-column card, type the recommended 3 and press Enter.
The rest is up to you!
You may email me with any questions or problems you encounter.
Need some help with ‘Robots of Dawn’? A walk-through is available right here.
Disclaimer: The software presented here is still under copyright but is no longer available for sale or use due to the fact that either the hardware is no longer being sold or due to the length of time since the software was originally released and is no longer being distributed. Should the authors or distributers actively use the licenses associated with said programs, or should the afore mentioned parties disagree with their software being available here, I will immediately remove them from this site. The availability of these programs here is in no way intended as a challenge to that ownership, and is offered solely for entertainment purposes.
Basically, if anyone associated with any of the programs I've posted doesn't want it up here, I'll gladly and promptly take it down. I only post it so that fans of Isaac Asimov may play what is generally considered to be 'Abandon-ware' and perhaps enjoy these programs enough to purchase newer availabilities from you guys in the future. We would love updates or new software creations based upon Isaac Asimov!
End of my lengthy 'C.M.S.W.A.' disclaimer!
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