''Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters'' is a multidirectional shooter released in arcades by

Atari Games Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade video games, active from 1985 to 1999, then as Midway Games West Inc. until 2003. It was formed when the coin-operated video game division of Atari, Inc. was transferred by its owner Wa ...

in 1989. The game is styled after

campy Camp is an aesthetic and sensibility that regards something as appealing or amusing because of its heightened level of artifice, affectation and exaggeration, especially when there is also a playful or ironic element. ''Camp'' is historically ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

B movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

s of the 1950s. It was ported to the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spec ...

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

, SAM Coupé, and

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

Gameplay

According to the introduction, Planet X is a synthetic industrial planetoid whose most notable feature is the research laboratory of the buxom and brainy Dr. Sarah Bellum. Evil aliens called Reptilons invade the planet, capture the good doctor, and force the rest of the humans to manufacture a robot army to take over the Earth. ''Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters'' is a one or two-player game in which the players must rescue Dr. Sarah Bellum from Planet X, where her research facility has been taken over by the evil Reptilons. The game is played from an isometric perspective where players control their avatars using

Hall effect The Hall effect is the production of a voltage, potential difference (the Hall voltage) across an electrical conductor that is wikt:transverse, transverse to an electric current in the conductor and to an applied magnetic field wikt:perpendicul ...

joysticks in the arcade version. The player must shoot their way through a series of simple maze-like levels, releasing the human hostages along the way. Levers must be found and thrown to activate the

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a Electric motor, motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the st ...

s which allow access to new areas. Gems can be collected to increase the power of the player's ray gun, and food lockers may be broken into for a health boost. Bombs can be collected and used to damage or destroy all enemies within a certain distance of the player. At the end of each level the play switches to an isometric auto-scrolling sequence in which the player controls his character in a small spaceship, and must steer left or right to navigate through a maze of obstacles. If the player reaches the end of this sequence they will progress to the next level. Defeating the boss at the end of the final level awards bonus points for every bomb and life is still in reserve and ends the game.

Controllers

Players control their avatars using

joysticks, a form of analog joysticks. This allows players to aim in 16 directions (22.5° apart) instead of the 45° directional control offered by traditional 8-way joysticks. There are 3 buttons; fire, duck and jump.

Reception

References

External links

*
''Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters''
at Arcade History

{{Atari Games 1989 video games Amiga games Amstrad CPC games Arcade video games Atari arcade games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games Cooperative video games Domark games DOS games Multidirectional shooters Multiplayer and single-player video games SAM Coupé games Video games about robots Video games developed in the United States Video games set in outer space Video games set on fictional planets Video games with isometric graphics ZX Spectrum games