Dear VOGONS forum:

This is my first visit, so if I've accidentally posted in the wrong discussion section, please direct me to where this message should go. I was directed to VOGONS.org by Kris Asick (Gemini) from Ancient DOS Games (Pixelmusement/Pixelships) as he was unable to recognize the game I was describing.....

My uncle, who was custom building PC's at the time, put the game on my Headstart LX CD computer (along with a bunch of other games/software), so I have no idea if the game was on a compilation disk, or what. The name of the game was something like Robots, or Robotz, or some similar variation. It had very simple graphics, and between levels, a large robot would declare "Death to all humans."

The game was turn based. You move one square in one of 8 directions, and then the computer would simultaneously move all the robots on the screen. The player's goal is to reach the gate alive, while the robots took the most direct path to reach the player. But, there are several ways the player could die: moving onto a non-existent tile (like stepping over the edge of a cliff), moving onto an electrified tile, or being caught by a robot. There were also solid tiles that act as walls, which can come in handy for stacking the robots behind it.

Robots can be killed on electrified tiles just as the player can, though I don't remember if robots can fall off the non-existent tiles (I think they can). I believe additional points are awarded for each robot killed. As I said, the robots pursue the most direct path to the player, so the player is normally at a disadvantage, unless the player gets the flat surface of a solid tile, or an electrified tile between himself and a robot. If the player can get the robots stacked up behind solid tile (by moving back and forth to simply force the robots to continue their move), the player could then step out from the wall, and behind an electrified tile, thus leading the robots one at a time to their doom. Naturally, once all the robots are killed, the player is free to exit the level... unless he accidentally falls off a non-existent tile or walks into an electrified tile (a stupid mistake I've done a number of times).

So, that's basically all there is to it. The game colors are black, white, blue, and maybe red (don't quite remember if red was a part of the game, or something else). The basic background color/tiles are blue, the electrified tiles have a white arc that moves around inside the tile (with an interesting fried effect if the player enters one). The robots (at least on the between level screen) have a scanning eye that animates back and forth, so there is some animation in the game despite being turn based.

That's the game in a nutshell, and I strongly remember playing it, but I've never been able to locate it, nor properly identify it since then. I've tried many times, with several variations, and I've never been able to find so much of a reference related to the specific game in question (and I have no idea who authored it, or if it was even officially published). I'm pretty certain that it will play on most modern computers, at least with DOS Box, though since I can't find the game, I can't verify that.

Does this game sound like anything you've come across, and where/how should I find it?

Thank you very much for your time and assistance.
Every other game I grew up with I could identify on the internet with a combination of Google and Youtube, except that one. All search returns that sound like they're hinting at it have been completely unrelated, and filtering the results hasn't helped.

Sincerely,
Christopher
Salem, Oregon