Extra Men Every: None
Turns Per Player: 5
High Score To Date: Yes
Difficulty Of Play: 5
Letters For Highest Score: 3

Extra Men Every: 25000 Points
Turns Per Player: 3
High Score To Date: Yes
Difficulty Of Play: 5
Letters For Highest Score: 3

Arcade - Robotron: 2084 - Marathon - 54,144,225 - Dane Tullock

Goal: Highest score using 1-credit (no restarts/cumulative scores) by one individual player.








Romsets Allowed:


--Any official release from VidKidz (Larry DeMar/Eugene Jarvis)


--2015 Tie-Die


--1987 Patched Blue


--1982 Blue


--1982 Yellow/Orange (Red marker across yellow label)


Note- The gameplay, enemy dynamics, and wave layouts are 100% identical across the romsets.








Settings:


--Extra Man Every- 25,000


--Turns Per Player- 3


--Difficulty of Play- 5


--Letters For Highest Score Name- 3








Illegal:


--"Trapping" a brain on the right side of screen in order to take extended breaks.


--Having another person run the controls while player is taking a break.


--Cumulative scoring- Which would be restarting a game due to hardware/software/user malfunction and adding the multiple scores as part of a tabulated final score.


--Using any form of pause mechanism to halt the game code, either hardware or software.








Technical Information To Assist Adjudication:


--The life counter rolls back to 0 after 255 (ie "Clocking" the lives).


--The internal score counter rolls at 100 million. Between 99,975,000 and 100 million is a math anomaly which will award the player 1 life for every item scored on screen, to be paid back in full after 100 million BEFORE the player can accumulate new bonus lives.


--1982 YO roms were first in production, they lack cocktail settings and factory default to 5.


--1982 Blue roms were next, they have cocktail mode, factory default to 3, and have a wave 1 “bozo” mode (die on wave 1 and rest of wave 1 is difficulty 0)


--1987 Patched Blue roms, fixes the glitch where an angled enforcer explosion on a sidewall can trigger game reset. Coded by DeMar and release by Williams to Digital Eclipse for their PC release. Same code found in the XBLA and Midway releases.


--2015 Tie-Die roms, onscreen life counter, 10 million digit on display, enforcer explosion glitch fix, and ability to test game at 99,900,000 if Letters for Highest Score Name is set to 4. Coded by original Robotron programmer, Larry DeMar with endorsement by the other Robotron programmer, Eugene Jarvis (The VidKidz).

Highest Score in exactly 60 minutes.

Time starts when the Player 1 start button is pressed, which is also exactly when the start-game sound happens and the arena rectangle is drawn on screen.

When 60 minutes is reached, the on-screen score at that moment is the player's final score.



Onscreen timer or visible "handheld" timer preferred to ease the adjudication process, but not required.



Difficulty 5

25K Bonus Lives

3 Lives to Start

Free-Play Setting is Acceptable.

Technical Preservation- Machine can be on prior to starting game and does not have to be powered-up as part of the submission for TGSAP (These are machines over 3 decades old and require technical care to keep running, excessive power-cycling is not appropriate in most all cases)

NOTE- Ending game after 60 minutes isn't required, but the submission should include end-of-game initials entry.

The Psychology of the Challenge:

This challenge involves a more complex game strategy by the player.

At times it will be useful to sacrifice the player's own life to earn extra bonus points by saving human family members.

Other times, it will be important to not sacrifice the player's life so the human bonus level increments up to 5k and stays there as long as possible during the wave.

The most crucial tip is to learn to identify the specific Human being targeted at the start of Brain waves, which will help maximize the amount of points acquired on those waves (Mikey trick).

It all comes down to Risk vs Reward, which side of the equation will you lean toward! With great risk comes great reward, or DOES IT?!?!

Arcade - Robotron: 2084 - 1-Hour Timed High Score Challenge! - 60 - Johnny Gallegos
Arcade - Robotron: 2084 - 1-Hour Timed High Score Challenge! - 4,702,950 - Johnny Gallegos
Arcade - Robotron: 2084 - 1-Hour Timed High Score Challenge! - 25 - John McAllister

Goal: Highest score on 1-credit using Difficulty 10 and 50K life bonuses.





Romsets Allowed:


--Any official release from VidKidz (Larry DeMar/Eugene Jarvis)


--2015 Tie-Die


--1987 Patched Blue


--1982 Blue


--1982 Yellow/Orange (Red marker across yellow label)


Note- The gameplay, enemy dynamics, and wave layouts are 100% identical across the romsets.





Settings:


--Extra Man Every- 50,000


--Turns Per Player- 3


--Difficulty of Play- 10 (maximum setting available)





Illegal:


--Using any form of pause to halt the game code, either hardware or software. Game code must be actively running for the whole scoring session.





Development Tech Notes-


Eugene Jarvis has long-stated that the only real way to play Robotron is on max difficulty. And when the player bumps up the life bonus to twice the default, it makes a challenge which puts a stop to even the most extreme players. The term "endurance marathon" becomes an amusing taunt by the devious "Robotrons of 2084" as they always win.....

Arcade - Robotron: 2084 - VidKidz Extreme Endurance Marathon (VKE) - 1,107,025 - Rick Gehlert

Score at very end of wave 40, which marks the successful completion of all 40 hard-coded waves designed in the game.



Settings:

--Extra Man Every- 50,000

--Turns Per Player- 3

--Difficulty of Play- 10



Romsets Allowed:

--Any official release from VidKidz (Larry DeMar/Eugene Jarvis)

--2015 Tie-Die

--1987 Patched Blue

--1982 Blue (at time of writing wolfMAME only supports blue, but it will change in future)

--1982 Yellow/Orange



Development Tech Notes-

Eugene Jarvis has long-stated that the only real way to play Robotron is on max difficulty. And when the player bumps up the life bonus to twice the default, it makes a challenge which puts a stop to even the most extreme players.



This challenge can be used to test your Robotron Quotient (RQ) which is your score divided by the wave number providing average score per wave. It was a development calculation the VidKidz used to assess how well a player was performing during their arcade observations. The psychology of Risk Vs. Reward: Can you obtain more reward while putting yourself at more risk?

Goal:

--Highest score on 1-credit using Difficulty 10. (ie Maximum Difficulty Extreme Settings, X-Enduro)



Romsets Allowed:

--Any official release from VidKidz (Larry DeMar/Eugene Jarvis)

--2015 Tie-Die

--1987 Patched Blue

--1982 Blue

--1982 Yellow/Orange (Red marker across yellow label)

Note- The gameplay, enemy dynamics, and wave layouts are 100% identical across the romsets.



Settings:

--Extra Man Every- 25,000 or greater (Tie-Die allows 30k, 40k, 50k, 60k, 70k, 75k)

--Turns Per Player- 3

--Difficulty of Play- 10 (maximum setting available)



Development Tech Notes:

--Eugene Jarvis has long-stated that the only real way to play Robotron is on max difficulty. The term "Extreme Endurance Marathon" becomes an amusing taunt by the devious "Robotrons of 2084" as they always win.....

--Many of these new challenges were created with the assistance of the VidKidz- http://williamsplayersunite.com/main/vidkidz-robotron-challenge/

--Reaching 1-Million on this challenge would qualify the player to be considered a Master Level Player by the Robo-Community. See the Robotron2084Guidebook for more info about Extreme Robo-Players.

Get Ready to smell what the Rock is cookin'! Find your toughest partner, or feistiest opponent and make em your accomplice, then step into the arena for a good old fashioned tag-team throw down. 100 waves of dual player mayhem sharing one credit!



Challenge: 1-Credit / Dual Player highest score by end of wave 100. You don't have to reach wave 100, but the score challenge stops at end of wave 100. (This means both players share game play on the same credit, taking turns from the same game play session)



Tag-Team Rules: Each player must complete at least 10 consecutive waves, and no more than 20 consecutive waves before tagging out. Playing less than 10 waves or more than 20 waves per turn is an automatic DQ! Cuz Stone Cold said so!



Using 35th Anniversary Settings:

Difficulty 0 or Higher

20K Bonus or Higher

20 Lives To Start, or Less

Any romset (1982, 1987, 2015, etc)

Extra Men Every: 25000 Points

Turns Per Player: 3
High Score To Date: Yes
Difficulty Of Play: 5
Letters For Highest Score

Goal:

Any score received from wave 1 up to the end of Wave 100.

Meaning the challenge has a finite ending at the completion of wave 100, but reaching wave 100 is not a requirement for submission.





Settings:

Any Lives Setting

Any Difficulty Setting

Any Bonus Life Setting

Any Romset





Side-note: If using 2015 Tie-Die romset, the letters for high score cannot be 4 because that is a test mode which starts the game at 99 million.





Footnotes:

Robotron was designed by a group of programmers known for making VERY difficult games intended to quickly extract coins from the player's pocket. Stepping into the Robo-arena, all players experienced the sense of intimidation yet only a select few experienced the sweet taste of triumph. Robotron is like a dynamic version of chess which will will get the adrenaline flowing like very few games could back in the Golden Age arcade. Robo can be enjoyable for friendly competition at all levels of difficulty. This challenge will get the player started off on the right foot and maybe even help realize the true challenge is not against Robots....it is against yourself.



This challenge can be used to test your Robotron Quotient (RQ) which is your score divided by the wave number providing average score per wave. It was a development calculation the VidKidz used to assess how well a player was performing during their arcade observations. Novice players tend to be in the 25 to 27k range, expert players in the range of 27-31k, and the masters in the 32-34k range.