I, Robot - Atari's 3D Visionary Flop

[@alanburnell3566]

As an operator in the 80s, I actually owned this game. I ended up selling it because despite having it in my Arcade and then on the route, it hardly made any money. In the arcade, I think it’s struggled to do two dollars a week. Other games were doing, 2 to 300 times that. However, I was always intrigued by the technology of it, and when I sold that, I actually kept the boardset, which I sold to a guy in Oregon many years ago, and I kick myself in the butt every time, but I appreciate this video very much.

[@cratorcorner]

Thanks for the perspective. That seems to be the common story among operators. I am surprised its graphics alone didn't at least drive people to drop a quarter for curiosity's sake. I even read threads from players who said they were to intimidated to try it out back then. To bad about selling it, but it made sense at the time since no one played it. Business is business in the end. Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@greenaum]

@@cratorcorner I suppose you could enjoy the graphics without putting any money in, just from the attract screen. The graphics would have been very attractive to me as a kid back then, though I would have been a bit young to hang round arcades. But the gameplay looks... a little bit annoying, to be honest! Still, maybe it attracted patrons to the arcade just to come look at it, while the other machines actually emptied their pockets!

[@Hamdad]

Flat shaded polygon graphics in 1984 is nuts

[@greenaum]

On an 8-bit 6809 CPU and a custom-designed "math box" (or "GPU" as we'd probably call it, since that's what it does), flat-shaded polygon graphics in 1984 is nuts, yeah! And also genius!

[@3rdalbum]

The Motorola 68000 at 12.5 MHz was apparently available by this time, which would be able to do flat shaded polygon graphics for a game; but not as smoothly as this, probably.

[@greenaum]

@@3rdalbum Going by polygon games on the old Atari ST, with an 8Mz 68000, nowhere near as smoothly.

[@breadsticat6264]

Criminally underrated channel. Great work!

[@sebastiankulche]

That PC port is nuts if you think about it. I wish more old 3d games recieves the same treatment. Fun fact: Kind of funny how since this only uses flat polygons that means it technically scales "better" than any other more modern 3d game, since flat and gouraud never became blurrier or pixelated compared to textures, regardless of the distance or resolution. The only thing that gets scaled with textures are the edges of the polygons, that applies to any game, even 2024. Now if you excuse me i would see my beautiful Paint like colours in 4k 😊😊😊

[@cratorcorner]

Ya its amazing what can be done. Maybe we'll soon have easier ways to upscale textures.

[@Nebulous6]

Wow. Those concept sketches definitely deserve high-rez scans. Phenomenal.

[@tangreen7267]

First time I ran into " I, Robot " was in the late 90's, I think I discovered it on Mame. I searched the year of release and was shocked to see it came out when I was 5. Pretty cool game.

[@arcanescroll]

I remember playing this at a theater back in the 80's when I was in high school in Carson City NV. The game was fun, but I actually spent most of my money in the drawing un-game. Something about it really caught me.

[@cratorcorner]

Great someone enjoyed the paint mode. Thanks for watching

[@colinwatt9387]

I stumbles upon iRobot a few years ago going through Mame roms and was genuinely surprised that it was from 1984, it seems a shame that they didn't do more with the technology.

[@cratorcorner]

Ya it is sad, they gave up to soon on it.

[@greenaum]

The custom "math box" wasn't cheap, and I think the game being a bit of a flop had something to do with it. I can see the logic behind dumping the technology in favour of more conventional games, although soon enough games started using 16-bit CPUs. It is a shame though. With a more fun game, ironically a 3D shooter like the other game in the video, they might have had a success, and they could have done without the expensive laser disc, with the inevitable mechanical failures after a while. The technology worked, if they'd put more time into developing really good gameplay, after the effort of designing the hardware to run it, they might have came up with something.

[@erikharrison]

You only mention Dave Theurer in your description, but Dave Sherman is the primary designer on this game, as well as designing the hardware. It's a little frustrating that Theurer (a huge talent!) tends to be the only name associated with this groundbreaking title, because he's the most famous

[@cratorcorner]

Ya, your right, that was a flub on my part. Edited the description. I'll try and be more careful next time. Thanks for mentioning it.

[@bc454irocz89]

Ahkshualley 😮

[@erikharrison]

@@bc454irocz89 He's a friend of mine, so I'm probably too invested.

[@sarabihyena]

Just discovered your channel and this is really splended stuff, the virtual arcade you've crafted, the animated patrons, and a wealth of intruiging knowledge has me hooked.

[@cratorcorner]

Thank you so much! So happy you enjoyed it.

[@lobachevscki]

Just discovered this channel at 92 subscribers, this was great presentation on a subject i havent seen in other youtube channel. I will come back and comment on this when you are in the 100K subscribers!!!!

[@cratorcorner]

Thanks so much for the praise! Glad you enjoyed. Hopefully soon I'll pass 100 and work our way up.

[@littlewillie65]

I discovered this game at the Bowling alley back when I was going to Naval Hospital Corps School back in '86. Ah, the good old days...

[@Blunko_McSqwuntley]

In the deleted convenience store scene in The Goonies there is an I,Robot and a Return of the Jedi arcade cabinets in the store.

[@cratorcorner]

Ya know, I've never seen this movie. But recently multiple people have told me to watch it. Maybe its time I do. Also thanks for checking the video out.

[@mabus42]

As a kid that grew up in arcades in the 80s, I think I only ever remember seeing this game precisely once. I probably played a couple of credits, decided it was too hard and then moved on to something else. The first real 3d game in the arcades that I really remembered playing the heck out of was cyber sled - and that was probably due to it being a great 2-player game with loud speakers in the headrests in the seats and great gameplay.

[@tonymck1618]

I remember playing this game in Aladdin’s Castle here in St. Louis at Jamestown Mall. I looked forward to playing everytime I went. I always loved 3D games and this blew my mind! Later when I got an Atari ST, I so wished the game came out on it. Man, I had a fun with it and the memories!

[@cratorcorner]

You were one of the braver ones it seems.

[@roxynano]

Now I really want to play I Robot after the way you are talking about this! It is so technically advanced but I see from your review that it is far from perfect, so my expectations are better set now.

[@cratorcorner]

Glad I inspired you to try it out. Its for sure one of a kind! Thank you for watching.

[@AlanMcClelland]

Stellar overview and very in depth look at such a stellar and overlooked game from the early 80s. Would love to see you cover other rarities such as Cube Quest, Inferno, Cosmic Chasm, Demon, Devastator and QB-3.

[@cratorcorner]

Glad you enjoyed! Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I'll check em out and add some to the list.

[@ant0n_X]

keeps getting better and better. GREAT WORK!

[@rikp]

I played it at my local arcade. Never got good, and never saw anyone else play it. The graphics and sounds were always captivating. I was never quite as impressed as others when "real" 3D gaming finally appeared since we'd had "3D" for quite some time before then, and if not actual polygonal 3D like "I, Robot" then perspective 3D like Tempest, Battlezone -- even going back to Night Driver. Some game or other always seemed to be trying to escape the flat screen.

[@carm3d]

I played this a lot any time we went to Las Vegas. I was enchanted by the 3D graphics.

[@tadpoleslamp]

I'm always surprised how beautiful this game is!

[@aikisteven0616]

Loved this game - my local arcade had one back in the day. Yes, it was super frustrating though. I've tried it in MAME, but without the funky cabinet, it really isn't the same... thanks for this deep dive, btw - I don't recall anybody else that really talks about it, but Atari really did have some inventive failures that probably deserve a second look (Major Havoc was another weird one that was fun once you could figure it out...)

[@cratorcorner]

Cool to hear from someone that actually played it. Crazy how often the first attempts at a new technology don't work out commercially.

[@ShinoSarna]

Regarding the I, Robot book - this is sorta interesting because they're not entirely dystopian, though there is a bit of that. Instead, the big inspiration is that I, Robot and other Asimov's books introduced the concept of Laws of Robotics - laws that are hardcoded into every sentient robot's brain to prevent any kind of rebellion. Logically, that is probably what inspired the "Laws" mechanic of the game.

[@3rdalbum]

Ahh yes - and any robot that broke the Laws, even unintentionally, would be dead afterwards. Just like Robot #1984. (There's an interesting bit in one of Roger McBride Allen's robot books where a man goes missing in a part of the planet that's about to be hit by a meteor, and every single 3-law robot on the planet stops everything to look for him because they are compelled by the second clause in the First Law.)

[@matthewmangan6251]

This came out before Super Mario Bros I can’t imagine how expensive the cabinets would have been to produce

[@VJFranzK]

I played it when it was new! Was confused and lost almost immediately. But it was so impressive, just to look at the cabinet and graphics.

[@davidmreyes77]

I discovered this game in the late 90s via emulation and I was pretty blown away by it.

[@VJFranzK]

I didn't think about it at the time, but "Doodle City" was an early example of a game without a goal. We have explored this much more in modern Social VR - it's using game technology to produce a hangout, or a building experience, not a battle of win or loss.

[@cratorcorner]

Thats very true. Was gonna mention it but didn't quite make the script.

[@Gunbudder]

i love this editing style! i can't believe this channel has only a few hundred subs! talk about finding a gem early

[@cratorcorner]

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed

[@josheldridge8546]

i forget who said it, but a multitude of shortcomings can be hidden by some deliberate design choices.

[@eyeprod3101]

This game was awesome! I played it when it first arrived at the popular local bowling alley in my town. It was so different at the time.

[@YungTristin]

Very interesting; really like the visuals you used!

[@cratorcorner]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed! I try hard on em.

[@SuperTinyhead]

Glad I found this channel. Good stuff!

[@DanJackson1977]

Theres an I Robot in the background of a deleted scene in Goonies where Brand confronts the yuppie bully at the convenience store where Chunk was playing video games at the intro. Might have been Spielberg's own machine... as he produced it and loved video games at the time.

[@sinistermoon]

I love this game! Excellent video! Subscribed!

[@cratorcorner]

Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it!

[@rundor8]

Dude I adore you're personal flair to these videos, the fun is perfectly balanced with information. Can we get the next video on videogame pinball soon? Anyway, I'm excited to see what you put out in the future. Also sidenote, this video reminded me how much I've yearned for a nice 3D arcade simulator, where you can walk around and examine the machines.

[@cratorcorner]

Thank you so much! I try hard to give more presentation. The next pinball episode will be after the next one I'm working on right now which is Sonic Eraser. I honestly didn't rush to do the next pinball one cause it did badly, but now the overflow from this video is going there I notice. Which is great, I put a ton of labor into it and adore pinball. Your the second one to directly request it in the comments actually. Great to see. As for an arcade simulator. I swear I saw one on the internet years ago, set up your arcade and play roms in it. Have no idea what the name is. Might look into it myself now. Thanks again!

[@jeenkzk5919]

I don’t remember this game as a child. I learned about it about 10 or 15 years ago when I was downloading MAME ROMs. It’s definitely one of those “what the hell is this“ games. I remember playing it for the first time and then when I died, I’d find myself playing again and again and again. I think people didn’t play it back in the day because it looked too intimidating. That’s the only explanation I can think of. I sure as heck would’ve passed it up as a child. I was probably six or seven when this came out.

[@cratorcorner]

I've seen people online describe it as intimidating for its time. Which is interesting. Usually people want to try the newest thing.

[@jeenkzk5919]

@@cratorcorner maybe for the adults definitely you would think so. Granted, me as a child, I would usually get eight tokens, so I had to choose wisely. What ever games I thought would give me the longest play.

[@trashymc4564]

Your style is so nice. Its apprent you put a lot of though and effort into your stuff. Youve earned by sub and will be awaiting whatever comes next!

[@cratorcorner]

Thanks a lot. Glad you enjoyed it

[@pengwin_]

good, very informative video about a classic arcade game!

[@mels8966]

I played I robot a lot in a local arcade, one of my favourites while they had it. The 3D graphics were really impressive for the time, I just wish the 3D graphics hardware had made it into an upgraded Atari 800 home computer!!

[@RaposaCadela]

I Robot is a rad game, but the one described at 14:03 sounds like a game I would very much dig

[@cratorcorner]

That was my thought as well. To much to do back then, but an indie dev for sure could hop on that and have a hit.

[@RaposaCadela]

@@cratorcorner a modern indie take could work but I'd have loved to see what these guys would've cooked up in the early 80's. It was a different time for ideas and tech; they'd have had to make their own physics engine, on top of the graphics engine! Maybe they took what they learned from these tests and I-Robot and worked it into Hard Drivin', that game was impressive not only cuz the 3D but also the realistic physics. They mention San Francisco Rush and I heard it was based on the tech for that game actually

[@adesignersperspective]

this is a fantastic video and you've got some positively wonderful production value. you've definitely got a new subscriber!

[@cratorcorner]

Thank you very much. Glad you enjoyed

[@xaGe__]

Loved this game when it was released, played often. Simple enough gameplay.

[@maestro-zq8gu]

Yeah I remember this back in the day. I remember it being insanely awkward to control and as a result very hard. Don't recall many people playing it at the arcade. Too difficult and too expensive for what you got.

[@cratorcorner]

Seems to be the common sentiment online. The controls were slippery in emulation with a stick as well. Using a keyboard made it easier. Thanks for checking out the video

[@frankb5728]

I sorta knew about this game, I never played it but I knew of its existence... but the weird thing seeing it now is that I am reminded of those god awful mobile game ads that show a person running up and shooting at a random enemy with a number above their head. wild stuff

[@dhawkes5096]

There is no way I, Robot is not a pun title "Eye, Robot" the core components of the game.

[@andymanaus1077]

1985 was my first year out of school and there was an arcade not far from work. I, Robot turned up about March and was my go-to game on many lunch breaks. I was never very good at it until one day the cabinet accidentally got left on maintenance mode. One coin started giving out multiple credits (I think it was 99 credits per coin). It stayed that way for over a week. By the time someone else noticed that the machine was spitting out virtually free credits I had become an expert player and had been late back from lunch quite a few times. The cabinet was not the original Atari I, Robot design (it was probably a local variation different to the US and UK models) and the artwork called it "1984" so that was the name I knew. After I changed jobs I was never able to find another example of "1984" anywhere. It took me over 20 years and the creation of the internet to track the game down again. I now have a Pandora's Box MAME console that has "I, Robot" running on it. I play it occasionally mostly for the nostalgia value and I'm still blown away that Atari was able to make a full polygonal game forty years ago.

[@cratorcorner]

Wow, talk about a one in a million find. No one noticed you just playing away for hours? I didn't find anywhere online it was localized elsewhere so that extremely interesting info. Thanks for sharing that info

[@andymanaus1077]

@@cratorcorner It was in a fairly generic three-quarter sized cabinet. Perhaps the comparitively tiny Australian market got dumped with a few prototypes or they threw some end of production run boards into generic cabinets. That wasn't at all unheard of in Australia. We got some hilarious mismatches of cabinets and games but I'm really just guessing. I only got to play at most 40 minutes a day, so I guess it didn't seem out of the ordinary. The arcade was in George Street, Sydney, and was one of the biggest in Australia. The attendant sat in a room near the back of the arcade and I was out of their line of sight. I'm pretty sure they only noticed when the coin box was light. I have no regrets. They got plenty of money out of me playing it and other games that whole year.

[@disgruntledtoons]

I saw this in the Skylark rec center on Lackland Air Force Base in 1984. I tried playing it a couple times. It was simply too difficult for a new player.

[@arostwocents]

Great video. Glad this was recommended. Subbed and ill be watching a lot of your other videos. Its AWESOME to find a channel with awesome, interesting retro content that does not put on the ridiculous fake KZbin accent that is PAINFUL to listen to. It sounds SO STUPID yet so many channels with amazing content put on the accent with emphasis in all the wrong places! Its crazy. This video was great. Id heard of this but never played it or knew how it played so brilliant stuff.

[@arostwocents]

Sub number 115 :D 🎉🎉🎉 The channel will begin to grow fast based on the quality of this buddy

[@arostwocents]

Please don't use that as your reading quote voice though 😂 just get AI to do the fairly convincing one it can do for quotes.

[@cratorcorner]

Thank you for the love! You don't have to worry about me doing the overly excited youtuber voice. I'm WAY to mellow of a dude to ever manage it if I wanted to (which I don't). And as for the quote reading, I have my friends do those as a contrast to my voice lol. I thought this one turned out pretty funny. Thanks for the sub and I hope you enjoy the future videos coming. Working hard on the next one.

[@FilmmakerJ]

Is this where the Homestarrunner crew got the idea for the giant Strongbad head video-game? "Your Head A-splode"

[@sparklesparklesparkle6318]

great work on the animations.

[@cratorcorner]

Thank you very much. Glad you enjoyed them!

[@sparklesparklesparkle6318]

@@cratorcorner you're welcome! also I made goulash. The crazy thing is I added queso fresco to the pot at the end. Queso Fresco doesn't melt. it'll get soft like warm mochi but it doesn't melt like chedder. So if you mix it in at the end of cooking a soup or whatever it retains its shape. This is the first time I have done this and each tiny cube of queso fresco is a delicious delight in a yummy meaty pasta dish. (queso fresco is like the mexican version of mozarella but cheaper than mozza. very cheap at sams club. if you haven't tried it pick some up!)

[@sparklesparklesparkle6318]

@@illsmackudown what's wrong with you? do you hate cheese or something?

[@greenaum]

"Hm, maybe the harsh, blocky graphics are meant to create a dystopian atmosphere..." Nah, mate! That really is the best they could do! It ran on an 8-bit 6809 CPU. The 6809 is often seen as the peak of the 8-bit chips, the best designed and more powerful. Alongside that, they gave it a 16-bit "math box" which did things like multiplies much quicker than software could. Using 4 of the AMD 2901 4-bit ALU chips, The 2901 chips were used by all sorts of manufacturers, including in mainframes and minicomputers. You could arrange them on a PCB in a way to make your own custom CPU. The 2901 was an arithmetic-logic unit, the part of a CPU that does the arithmetic, and also the logic, operations to data (also it's a unit). Other components in a CPU read and decode instructions, arrange memory access, etc. Atari created their custom "math box" for this game with 2901s dedicated to doing 3D maths as quick as possible, they'd feed in coordinates or whatever, and the results would come out a port on the other end. The "math box" wasn't a CPU so much as a specialised 3D maths accelerator. A GPU really! So the CPU just shovelled data in and out of the math box, rather than trying to render itself, which it would be hopeless at, you'd get 1 frame per minute.

[@cratorcorner]

Thanks for the technical background. I read a bit online but didn't include it in the video cause there's no way I could parse whats true or not. Interesting to see the workarounds of the past.

[@renakunisaki]

That magnet story is pretty funny. I wonder how long it took for someone to figure that out.

[@AReallyLongAndUnremakableUser]

The other odd thing that wasn't in any arcade game at the time either, which was a strange thing to do, Was a piant mode.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

Nice. Yeah my little brother can be a real pain.

[@rachelaudrey6241]

Definitely the type of game that would have worked far better at home than in the arcade, since it's a concept piece intentionally designed to be oppressively frustrating and obtuse, if not too early for its time in that regard.

[@johnran6015]

Never heard of or seen this or Cube Quest ever!

[@kilroy987]

I played the game a couple times. The 3D was cool, and as someone who always wanted to do 3D programming, I wanted to see it develop. But this game really felt like an alpha version.

[@MrMegaManFan]

I always wanted to play this video game as a kid just because I was a huge science fiction nerd who read every piece of Asimov literature I could get my hands on. Obviously the gameplay is more Orwellian than anything Asimov wrote in I, Robot but it's not like I had KZbin or Wikipedia to tell me that at 10 years old!

[@cratorcorner]

Really cool you found the game that way

[@brittanycunningham787]

This is a cool animation style.

[@bc454irocz89]

Nice

[@ArcadeJason]

i robot owner here lol. if you keep this up your channel is going to grow fast. make good content like this and when you hit 1000 subs the algorithm will change and your subscribers will explode

[@cratorcorner]

Hey, thanks a lot! I actually ran across your channel when doing research for my video game pinball episode. You do great work yourself. I'll be sure to keep it up.

[@geoffgunn9673]

I wonder if there is any truth they threw a lot of the cabinets overboard during shipping? They did it with ET so it could be a possibility

[@cratorcorner]

There isn't, no. I can't share links in youtube comment but Rusty Dawe did an interview at Coinopspace saying it wasn't true. This bit didn't make it into the video but here is the quote. 'Not true. Total myth. I would have LIKED to dump about 500 I Robot controls into the Pacific - they were a nightmare, but that didn’t’ happen either.'

[@jbponzi1]

Love this game.

[@SECONDQUEST]

Really neat channel

[@cratorcorner]

Thanks a lot

[@Schush]

As an arcade collector, I recall seeing a few of these at a auction in the early '90s for around $300. Hindsight is a cruel b***h...

[@GameOfDepth]

Played the hell out of this game, plus there is the "ungame" which was an image maker.

[@tonystout1545]

To call this game a flop is severely misleading. I, for one, loved it, and pumped a lot of quarters into it. It is a true tragedy that it never got any home console port.

[@cratorcorner]

It was a flop in the business sense. It didn't generate revenue for arcade operators or Atari. The game itself is extremely interesting of course. Its really cool to hear from someone who appreciated it at the time. Thanks for watching!

[@arostwocents]

It didn't even get shonky ports to micros in the UK?

[@leroyvisiongames2294]

"Grounded the shit out of it and it started to work" Sounds like my dad's parenting style when I was a kid..... LOL

[@cratorcorner]

Bro, lmao

[@3rdalbum]

I have never heard Asimov's book I, Robot described as "dystopian". I guess you could read the last two stories in a negative light, but it's clearly intended to be utopian.

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

Quirky little fun game I found on name about a decade ago....

[@williamheckman4597]

Flop? I LOVED this game back in the day!

[@Coastal_Cruzer]

My eyes have been opened

[@xexoxex]

Really a great game once you figure it out. I’ve owned one for a good twenty years

[@coreeeey420]

How did you get Ace Frehley to do a voiceover?

[@metronome8471]

I think Atari pushing the release to 1984 was just for theatrics.

[@KacperSobierajVargskeletor5421]

I wish that this game had a sequel, cause then it would have been called “THE CAVES OF STEEL”.

[@billy89guitars]

Great video you have a certain je ne sais quoi about you

[@junothescarecrow]

You will get subs. Quality is too good. 🎉

[@cratorcorner]

Thanks so much, means a lot to me!

[@arostwocents]

​@@cratorcornerhe's right. Amazing stuff. PLEASE never start doing the idiotic fake KZbin accent like all channels with brilliant retro content do. There's so many I can't watch as it's cancer to listen to.

[@82fdny97]

Is that the face from star fox?

[@Bernard_Ashtree]

👍🏻

[@KacperSobierajVargskeletor5421]

POV: THE ONLY ATARI GAME BASED ON A BOOK BY ISSAC ASIMOV

[@miaouew]

Very allegorical.

[@Polaroid64]

Delete your patreon Cringy

[@dabfellow]

accidentally clicked this video and im so happy i did, great video cant wait to see more!

[@cratorcorner]

Thanks a lot!