Are you a master level robotron player? No? Well how far away are you?

Cliff Clavin

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 7, 2012
Messages
1,708
Reaction score
46
Location
Missoula, Montana
Are you a master level robotron player? No? Well how far away are you?

I was perusing the definitive resource for all things Robotron,

http://www.robotron2084guidebook.com/gameplay/startingjourney/players/

and discovered the following criteria to determine if you are at Master Level player....Or in layman's term, you kick ass on Robotron......

As robotron is my favorite game and the one game that I have achieved a modest degree of success, I thought it would be interesting to see where other klov members sit on the master level continuum.....

The first and easiest to understand criteria.....

Breaking 10 Million....I have never broken 10 million, the best I have done is around 6 million and change...During that game, I was rocking along with a full rack of men, but as any robotron player knows, I fell out of the groove, lost a ton of men on on of the brains and my quest to 10 million failed....

Second guidepost, exceeding 600,000 on tournament settings...This I have never really tried....I can be very streaky, I can lose a ton of men on a really simple wave or I can clear a few waves without dying....Mostly the former.....Tournament settings are 5 men, difficulty level 5 and no free men.....

Third guidepost, surpassing screen 40 on difficulty level 10....since I prefer think in scores rather than levels, I played this morning on difficulty level 5 and went past screen 40 to see what the approximate score necessary to achieve this end....Not surprisingly, one needs about 1.25 million to hit screen 40....My best on difficulty level 10 was around 940,000 or so....close but no cigar.....

In short, I am clearly no master player.....When I see redelf playing on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD-db8lDCL4

I am clearly not in league with these guys....they are master level players in my book.....

So fellas, how close are you to mastering robotron, are you close to any of the 3 goals for master level player?

Also, for those looking to improve, spend some time on

http://www.robotron2084guidebook.com

it contains a ton of valuable info......
 
Interesting. Well, I've only owned Robotron for a short while. I never was good at it BITD, at least not compared to a good buddy of mine. I'm already way better than I ever was as a kid. We'll see after a few months of steady play. Until I've proven otherwise, I feel I have the potential to be a master at anything.

I assume the first mark of 10 mil is on diff.5, 3 men, 25k@?

As of today I'm at ~1.1 mil - ~368k - 0 (haven't tried TGTS yet)
 
Robotron

i have gotten 10 million on robotron. last year i was at the point where i could play forever. would usually play til 5 million and then quit. after a fellow klov'r came over this summer i had not played for 6 months and could get to a million no problem. to get to ten million i would have to start playing again every day for a week to get back in the "groove". robotron probably my all time favorite. this is the type of game where you get 200-500k and all of a sudden something clicks and you get to a million after that it gets pretty easy to stay at a million.
 
this is the type of game where you get 200-500k and all of a sudden something clicks

I'm waiting for the click. Lol. Haven't had my Robotron for very long but I'm already waaaay better than when I was a kid. My high score is 491k. I've read and watched everything robotron I could find which has helped tremendously.... But I'm still looking for that click.
 
Larry DeMar has given a title to the most efficient way to decide how good you are at Robotron, the Robotron Quotient (RQ).

http://www.robotron2084guidebook.com/gameplay/walkthroughs/wave30-39/
Robotron Quotient (RQ)-
Eugene (Jarvis) and I coined the term "RQ" back when the game was current to describe the efficiency in which you play through the game (such as the average score at a particular wave) – Larry DeMar 11/12
RQ= Score Divided by Wave Number
Range is between 25K and 35K (for an extremely great player)


See the Robotron RQ link from the brand new www.williamsplayersunite.com site. And feel free to participate.

The WPU is headquartered from Facebook group, "Williams Defender Players Unite" The title is out of date as the group discusses all things Williams and has a hugely diverse group of players. It is a no-drama zone. It is Williams players that like to help each other in a laid back manner. The policy is fairly strick on crazy stuff, so don't look for us if you like dramatic online behavior. Call us boring... ;)

I just played to wave 100, after a hiatus and did an RQ of 28.8K. Dane did over 29k during his 13million marathon, and Sir Spriggsy has top honors right now of 34k at wave 35. (I plan on trying to snake him using a couple mikey trick waves in one game!)
 
I'm waiting for the click. Lol. Haven't had my Robotron for very long but I'm already waaaay better than when I was a kid. My high score is 491k. I've read and watched everything robotron I could find which has helped tremendously.... But I'm still looking for that click.

The click for you will be when your skills become internalized and you quit actively thinking about what you are doing. Like driving a car on a long trip on the interstate, you quit thinking about every time you adjust the steering wheel.

Try music. My "click" moment happened when I played late at night in the dark after the house went to bed. I'd turn up Wolfmother on Pandora and just play. I still do best when animated music is in the background.
 
I'm waiting for the click. Lol. Haven't had my Robotron for very long but I'm already waaaay better than when I was a kid. My high score is 491k. I've read and watched everything robotron I could find which has helped tremendously.... But I'm still looking for that click.

tip. do not run from enforcers, their shots will only spread out at you and you have no chance. go towards them. this keeps their shot narrow and you can blow them away quickly. when you run from them they spread out, when you go towards them they tend to come together and you can blast them easier.

tip. on every grunt screen, the screen where it seems to have thousands of grunts and it is very hard to blast thru. draw the grunts inward toward you while finding and shooting a path, stand your ground until the grunts come in. shoot your way thru. by drawing the grunts in now you cleared a path along the walls that you can get to. follow that path along the wall blasting the grunts to pieces.

hope this helps somebody, hope i was clear.
ant
 
The click for you will be when your skills become internalized and you quit actively thinking about what you are doing. Like driving a car on a long trip on the interstate, you quit thinking about every time you adjust the steering wheel.

Try music. My "click" moment happened when I played late at night in the dark after the house went to bed. I'd turn up Wolfmother on Pandora and just play. I still do best when animated music is in the background.

very well explained. cant think, but must do. ever drive a car and get to a destination without remembering the details of the drive? kinda the same thing.
 
Pretty sure I haven't scored 1,000,000 on Robotron...

...combined, in every game of it I've ever played.

Pretty sure I've cleared the second screen, though.
 
tip

tip. on the tank screens forget about saving the family members and focus on destroying the tank making quarks. when the tanks are created do not stay at the edges because their fire bounce bombs will ricochet and eventually enough of them will get you, stay in towards the middle of the screen and the tanks will shoot at you instead of the walls. the bombs will be easier to dodge and shoot at . also by focusing on blowing up the quarks in the beginning of each screen, less tanks will be created, making it easier to finish the screen.
 
The click for you will be when your skills become internalized and you quit actively thinking about what you are doing. Like driving a car on a long trip on the interstate, you quit thinking about every time you adjust the steering wheel.

Try music. My "click" moment happened when I played late at night in the dark after the house went to bed. I'd turn up Wolfmother on Pandora and just play. I still do best when animated music is in the background.

Makes perfect sense. My son is 16 and learning to drive. Same thing I suppose learn how to do it and then quit trying and just do it. I feel like I'm almost there.... Strokes of brilliance and luck combined with stupid mistakes. When I first got my robotron my goal was to set the world record. Naive I know, but hey.... I was excited. I've since adjusted that to being able to marathon. Lol. I'm gonna go play.
 
I'm not even near the on-ramp yet..

If you can get to wave 5 then I'll disagree with you. :)

Here are the basic plateau's. http://www.robotron2084guidebook.com/gameplay/plateaus/
Eugene Jarvis learned a lot by partnering with Steve Ritchie on Defender, they are evil genius.....even the best player can't beat Robotron. The Vid Kidz ensure their game always wins in the end. that's the whole funny joke of the matter.....we....keep.....trying.......
 
Last edited:
One of the most frustrating things about Robo is that you can be doing great....having the best game of your life....tons of free men...then....BOOM.....you start making foolish mistakes, crashing into mines and grunts etc......all of a sudden, you have lost 5 men on a straightforward wave. You fight to clear the wave but once your men start to drop, the mental part kicks in and before long, the once promising game is over....

I have been trying to get my kids to play...The don't love Robotron but they are huge fans of their successors.....smash tv and total carnage....They thought the weapons in smash were great but once they saw total carnage, poor robotron was forgotten....trying to change their minds but that ain't easy.......

Sometimes when reading online, it seems like everyone and their dog can break a million on robotron but I really wonder how many are decent at it....

If we put say 1 million as the cutoff, any guesses as to how many gamers can achieve that?? I have no real way to make any sort of educated guess...How about you guys, any swag (scientific wild ass guess)?
 
I think my best game is 378,980 and that was only playing about 15 or so games. But was playing militiaman which brings out the best in me. But havent gotten anywhere close since. Am building a jrok cab so will be playing a lot soon
 
I have been trying to get my kids to play...The don't love Robotron but they are huge fans of their successors.....smash tv and total carnage....They thought the weapons in smash were great but once they saw total carnage, poor robotron was forgotten....trying to change their minds but that ain't easy.......


My grandson was interested in robotron when I was playing and building a mame cabinet. he could get through 2 or 3 waves when he was 4. but it was too hard, too quickly. That turned into a fascination with robots so we built a couple toys out of wood and put a lego robot on the christmas tree one year (like Robotron version of Elf on the Shelf)

For a month, he enjoyed playing Max Adventure! on the iOS which is a robotronish kid version of smash TV.
But then he discovered Tomb Raider which has his full attention during alloted video game time as he is 5 1/2 now. I was playing Tomb Raider in my late 20's! kids nowadays.
 
From my very first quarter I dropped in Robotron I was pretty damned good at it. Can't explain it, but I just beat it down. It feels so natural to me. Honestly, I never took the time to study strategy or try some of the tips I read here. Although one of these days I may try some to see if it improves my play. I just go with whatever Im doing like people before me said, it's like driving a car. When I play people ask me for tips or ask why did you do that or go over there. I have no clue. I just have at it.

Now get me in front of Defender/Stargate and I'm average at best. But I really never gave it a good run. This is one game I could definitely benefit from tips and strategy.
 
I have broken a half million on difficulty 5 on old mame (that runs too fast), the 19 in 1 (that runs too fast) and the old arcadeshop multiwilliams board (that ran too fast).

Every time I ever try to play a real machine it breaks on me in some fashion (one on location and two in collectors gamerooms). So I am still unsure what I am capable of with the game running at the right speed.
 
Back
Top Bottom