Mr. Robot and His Robot Factory (1983)

Look: 7/10 Functional, nothing special. I kinda liked the look of the disappearing platform/bomb-platform things heh.

Sound: 8/10 Great sounds overall, especially the jump sound. Got me excited for Mario etc which is coming up so soon! Cool that it has the feature to turn off sound effects too.

Play: 8/10 Like Lode Runner, super impressive and cool to have a Level Editor; now I just have to hope the gameplay is more my thing than Lode Runner was. It was kind of fun getting to know the different mechanics and quirks, getting used to jump distances and timing etc., but it was no Manic Miner heh. Of course, the inability to maneuver mid-jump is annoying as always. But like a lot of the games in this genre, it was quite addictive; even when I'd get frustrated by a poorly done collision mask (one of which turned out to be a feature I didn't realize that apparently sometimes the enemies can still kill you even when you have the barrier? ohhhhh it turns out the part I was thinking of, it was just too far of a jump/fall for my character to survive. derp. most early platformers jumping makes you immune to that but I guess not here) or tacky jump or didn't-collect-the-power-pill-even-tho-I-stepped-on-it, etc., I wanted to keep trying. Sign of an early platformer indeed heh, the genre I already knew I loved (along with RPGs) but have not been loving most the early games. Ironic that my goal of this chronology project was to get to know genres I overlook, like first person shooters and CRPGs, yet I really have just been experiencing the roots of genres I know I like: action-adventures, RPGs, and platformers heh. At least, I can credit the project to me overcoming my aversion to score-based games, arcade games, and shoot em ups. I just was hoping for more growth on my end, with engaging with different genres, early versions of CRPGs, going for hi scores more genuinely, and tackling difficult games without savestates. Alas, I am still I, heh. Anyway, point being: I sucked at this game heh. But I kept wanting to learn the mechanics and improve my play of this specific game, since it is a platformer--a genre I know and love. Welp: as much as this frustrated me, my final thought is that I want to return to this sooner than expected and get further, so that says a lot -- and gives me that Manic Miner "feel."

Feel: 8/10 This game would be so good, and as addictive and completable as Manic Miner, if the fall mechanic was better-defined and not so tacky. It was addictive enough that I pushed through and got to know the mechanics enough to complete Screen B, which I am honestly proud of. As I got into Screens D and beyond, I can't deny--at its core, this is a great, classic early platformer. Those moments where you gasp when you just barely jump over an enemy, since you now know the mechanics but tackily have to get that one power pill that's awkwardly in the middle of the enemy's path. But even onto Screen F, that fall mechanic never became something I really got used to or enjoyed. If I made a well-timed jump I wanna survive it. But after all, frustrating mechanics like that are a part of early platformers and were meant to encourage replayability as we get used to them. Sometimes, some of the most frustrating parts like Screen D comes to mind, was more of solvable by going a different route (going from bottom to top) rather than continuing to hone the route I first chose to go. I didn't even wind up turning to a video, tho some longplays are available which probly would have shown me more quickly the best route for frustrating levels.

Attachment: 8/10 The far jump down in Screen G is what finally frustrated me enough to give up. I will probly return to this to give it an earnest try on an emulator that supports savestates (I will only use them at the start of screens like I did with Manic Miner), but this didn't push me to do that right away like Manic Miner did. I think that's mostly because I still never solved where to jump from for that Screen G drop (welp, as I type this, I realized I should just go back down the ladder lol smh). Anyway, I will probly return to this on a later day to get further, and it also got me motivated to re-try Miner 2049er, since it's turning out that I really like that style of platformers which mostly derived from 2049er.

Completion: To Screen G Playtime: ~1 hour