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I, Robot (Atari 1984,
s/n UR00112)
I, Robot is a very rare game. According to
the Killer List of Videogames: 'Legend has
it that only 1000 were produced. Atari was
only able to sell 500 in the US so the rest
were shipped to Japan. If this is true, the
serial numbers must not be sequential. A
production run of 1200 to 1500 is probably
more likely'. There is even a rumor
that the 500 units headed for Japan never
actually made it and ended up on
the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
This was
the first game to feature 3-D filled
polygons and was an early precursor to other
3-D arcade hits like Atari's Hard Drivin'. Game play took a little
while to get used to and because of this I,
Robot was a flop in the arcades.
It basically boiled down to gamers not
wanting to spend a ton of money to figure
out how to play the game proficiently.
This game has achieved somewhat of a cult
following and is sought after by many
collectors today. Unfortunately, many
I, Robots were probably converted to other
games or destroyed because of their failure
to grab quarters. Below are some links
to more info about this
game.
Wikipedia
Short TV Piece from the UK
Jeff Anderson
Atari I, Robot Technical Page
Derek Litton
The Killer List of Videogames
The Great Game Database
Brian's I, Robot Registry
Dan B's I, Robot Tech Page
I, Robot Serial #29
I got VERY lucky and found this machine at a
local operators warehouse while looking at a
Tron he had for sale. This particular machine is
about 95% thru its restoration process. It
mainly needs
an upper back door, a little black touch
up, and the crack in it's control panel
repaired but it is pretty much complete at
this point.
My machine is serial number
UR00112 and has a new Wells Gardner K7200
series monitor in it instead of the older
and notoriously unreliable original Disco
monitor. |
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Before/During Pictures (left
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After Pictures (right
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