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Robot Odyssey is a logic puzzle game, published by The Learning Company in 1984. It was released for the Apple II and the TRS-80 Color Computer.
Gameplay
In Robot Odyssey, you advance through the game by solving various puzzles. The puzzles are solved by programming your robots to accomplish various tasks. This is done by wiring a synchronous digital circuit, consisting of logic gates and flip-flops, inside of the robots to control their actions. These tasks range from navigating a simple maze to grab a needed item to complex tasks such as minefield navigation and many other challenges.
The three robots at your disposal are exactly identical. They are equipped with thrusters, four bump sensors, a controllable grabber, radio antenna (for basic communication with other robots), battery and periscope for player's use.
The game also introduced the use of chips. When found, each chip has built-in function and can be used as any other component. The build-in functions vary from wall-hanging (has to be connected correctly to all sensors and motors) to clocks (each output having different frequency) to counters. In sandbox mode (called Innovation Lab) player can even wire a prototype chip and burn it for use in puzzle solving mode.
Although the game is recommended for ages 10 and up, but it can prove to be quite challenging even for adults.
Playing Robot Odyssey
This game can be played in an emulator (there are disk images available at the links below). There is also a clone written in Java, Droidquest, which contains all of the original levels and an additional secret level.
Similar games
The engine for the game was written by Warren Robinett, and variants of it were used in many of The Learning Company's graphical adventure games of the time, including Rocky's Boots, Gertrude's Secrets, Gertrude's Puzzles, and Think Quick, all of which are similar but easier logic puzzle games. The gameplay and visual design were derived from Robinett's influential Atari 2600 Adventure.
Carnage Heart involves programming mechas that then fight without any user input.
Cognitoy's MindRover is a relatively recent game which is similar in spirit to Robot Odyssey, but uses different programming concepts in its gameplay.
Chipwits by Doug Sharp and Mike Johnston, a game for the Apple II, Macintosh, and Commodore 64 computers is similar in both theme and implementation, although the interface to program your robot differed.
External links
1984 computer and video games | Apple II games | TRS-80 Color Computer games | Puzzle computer and video games
"Robot Odyssey"