Robot City - Part 8

With important background information out of the way, the search for Dr. Poole's murderer continues. Katherine has some advice (some that probably would've been more useful earlier), Hunter robots are obnoxious, and only random robots know where A87 and the murder weapon are.

This part was incredibly difficult to record. Robot City's layout continuously changes (as you can see by the morphing pathways), so you'll always randomly end up in another section. The robots you come across also appear with no specific pattern, which reduces the exploration elements to wandering through identical streets. It's probably the game's biggest flaw.

But also one of its strong points! Wandering around the desolate city with the creepy atmospheric music in the background is a thrill in its own right. The conversations with robots - not shown here for the sake of making quick videos - can be incredibly entertaining. One in particular spends the entire game not understanding you name.

You can optionally attempt to find Robot A87, who can prove Derec's innocence (but not point out a specific murderer). However, as these robots reveal, A87 is always on the go and takes more work to track down. That's understandable, since skipping the evidence collecting cuts out a significant chunk of the game.

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Robot City is a 1995 adventure game by Byron Preiss Multimedia and Brooklyn Multimedia. Stranded on a distant and self-sufficient robot-run planet, an amnesiac identified as "Derec" must prove his innocence in murder mystery that invokes Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. With help from Alpha, a robotic sidekick capable of deductive reasoning, the players must assemble clues, gather evidence, and use Asimov's laws to manipulate the city's positronic inhabitants. Limited exploration windows provide brief chances to explore new parts of the planet through mine shafts and a massive subway system.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• robot
• city
• Byron
• Preiss
• Multimedia
• company
• inc.
• Brooklyn
• walkthrough
• playthrough
• gameplay
• windows
• 3.1
• CD-ROM
• CD
• 1995
• 90s
• 1990s
• abandonware
• adventure
• mystery
• detective
• asimov
• robotics
• three
• laws
• old
• obscure
• game
• obscuritory

[spiderwebs7215]

Questions: How does one end up losing the game? And is the game timed? Like if you aren't fast enough, is it more difficult?

[Obscuritory]

@spiderwebs7215 There's a couple ways. Every time you get forced back to your apartment by the Hunters or if you get trapped in the rain, you have to find a new way to sneak out. There's a limited number of these, and if you get caught too many times, you'll be locked in permanently. There's also a few ways to die at the end of the game.

[spiderwebs7215]

@Obscuritory I guess that means speed is important then because avoiding the hunter robots never lasted me very long. If I took too long, I always ran into them. I wonder if there is certain sectors or areas that they just hang out in and that one can just avoid.

[Obscuritory]

@spiderwebs7215 I've only ever seen them on the streets and in Compass Tower, so those are probably the places where they get you. I didn't do much exploration/wandering through the streets in this playthrough, so you don't see them as often as usual. Transit stations and the apartment seem safe.

[spiderwebs7215]

It's funny...I never finished the game and wanted to so badly this year but with what computer are you playing this on?

[Obscuritory]

@spiderwebs7215 I'm actually running this on Vista! Using a program called DOSBox, I'm running a copy of Windows 3.1 at the same time, and Robot City is playing through that. It's a little complex, send me a message if you want to know the details.

[kugotsumin]

why is accelerated city growth part of the protection level? it's destroying the planet lol

[spiderwebs7215]

@Obscuritory Hm, well although I love and miss this game, if there's a lot of money (buying whatever program you are using) and work involved, I'm not sure if it's worth it. Is there?

[Obscuritory]

@samisreynolds Hell, I guess you're right. Need to stop freaking out over getting super-duper crystal clear quality on these. Even the HD test I did on Part 6 looks a little odd.

I'll leave parts 7 and 8 as they are and move onto 9. :D

[samisreynolds]

@Obscuritory No, the quality is great!