Designed by Ed Logg
Programmed by Ed Logg and Bob Flanagan
Art by Sam Comstock and Mark West
Music by Hal Canon, Brad Fuller and Earl Vickers
Originally released as an arcade game by Atari Games in 1987.
Commodore 64 conversion by John Scott for Tengen, and released by Domark in 1989.
Amstrad CPC, MSX and Sinclair ZX Spectrum conversions by Teque Software Developments Ltd: Programming by Barry Costas and Dave Colledge. Music by Matt Furniss. Released by Domark in 1989.
Atari ST conversion by Teque Software Developments Ltd: Programming by Barry Costas. Music by Ben Daglish. Released by Domark in 1989.
Commodore Amiga conversion by Teque Software Developments Ltd, and released by Domark in 1989; no further credits are known.
Atari Lynx version by NuFX, Inc:
Programming by Patrick Quinn
Music and sound effects by Matt Scott
Released by Atari in 1991.
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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS
Because April has in the blog's recent history been dedicated to American games, I decided to try and work on this comparison of Xybots, an Atari arcade classic, during April, in the hopes of getting it out before the end of the month. You can see by the date of this comparison's publication, whether or not I succeeded in my mission.
Anyway, the comparison of Xybots has been a long time in my to-do list, because it was originally suggested by my gaming and podcasting colleague, Bob Engstrand, too many years ago to count, and besides, the blog seemed to be in sore need of another title for the archive starting with the letter X. It just so happens, that Xybots has also become one of my all-time favourite Atari arcade games in the last 15 years, which is why it took a while to gather the courage to write this one. For all I know, Xybots is a rare example of a brilliant, if somewhat misunderstood, arcade game, because it never really seemed to get a home conversion that would do it proper justice, so a clone of it has never really been attempted, either.
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DESCRIPTION & REVIEW
According to the story told to us by the game upon launch, Major Rock Hardy and Captain Ace Gunn have been sent to an unnamed, once peaceful planet, which has been invaded by an alien robot race called Xybots, to destroy these things from an underground multilevel fortress. I suppose arcade gamers in those days, in general, hardly needed any more elaborate backstory to be fully ready to take on the challenge, but then, who really cares about these things, if the game is playable?
While not particularly unique as a concept, Xybots is still not the easiest game to describe. What we have here is a three-dimensional maze-shooter, in which the camera angle is on ground level, behind the player. The way the camera moves behind the player is similar to Dungeon Master and similar games, where the movement is tile-based, but you still move the player character in all possible directions, including strafing and turning left and right, which also makes the camera turn with you. The idea is to destroy all robots from each maze, collect items while at it, and reach the exit, after which you are able to buy some upgrades. Naturally, the game gets progressively more difficult with larger mazes and tougher enemies, but because there is no real end to this game, we can get through this comparison with comparatively little effort.
The most important thing about Xybots is, that it was primarily designed as a two-player game, so the focus here is on how the game plays on different platforms as a two-player game, if such a thing is even achievable now. (I'm looking at you, Lynx version.) That is not to say Xybots isn't enjoyable as a single-player game, but the participation of a second player makes the game much more purposeful. If you're not familiar with Xybots, you will see what I mean later on.
In terms of historical importance, Xybots acts a link of sorts between games like Konami's Contra, Sega's Crack Down and the aforementioned Dungeon Master, but there are also some elements of Atari's earlier hit, Gauntlet, included here. It's a 3D game before the age of 3D games properly even began, so you can see how far we still were in 1987 from games like Wolfenstein 3D, but more importantly, it's one of the earliest 3D games that were designed for two players. Has it aged well, though? Personally, I don't really think it was that brilliant to begin with, but it is perfectly playable, once you get used to it, and for gaming historians, it should be an interesting game to investigate.
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PLAYABILITY
Because of the way the game is built, I figured the loading times comparison will be a bit useless, as none of the 8-bits would be able to pull this off without a segmented loading system, which will make the tape versions rather unbearable. However, as far as I know, it was released on disk as well as cassette on all 8-bit platforms, so they're on the same level of discomfort in that way, if we don't take their own specific loading times into consideration, which we don't.
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| Loading screens, left to right: Sinclair ZX Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad CPC. |
Unless you're playing the ATARI LYNX version, the game starts by selecting a player by pressing the fire button on either player's designated controller, whereas the LYNX version requires two devices to be linked together, so obviously, we won't be getting that far into that realm here. Once you have done so, you are taken straight to the first level, which gives us a fairly well designed run-through of all the necessary things to know how to play the game - or at least, the ARCADE original does. The game is easy enough to figure out, though. Walk forwards or backwards, strafe left and right or turn, and walk diagonally. Uniquely, the ARCADE version's joystick rotates, so you can turn it to turn the player. Of course, if you're like me, and are forced to play the game on MAME or some other device with an emulated version of the arcade version, there will be designated buttons for turning.
In the LYNX version, you turn by pressing the second fire button (B) while going left or right, but uniquely, this version doesn't have diagonals. Oddly, neither do the AMIGA and ATARI ST versions. There is no jumping in this game, but you can shoot your heart out, and there's also a button for using a Zap-gun, which immobilizes enemies for a while, but using the Zap also takes a chunk of your energy. In the joystick-operated versions, turning left and right happens by keeping the fire button pressed down while pulling into the wanted direction, which can be rather inconvenient, because you will often accidentally turn, when you were just intending to shoot while strafing. If it only worked instantaneously, this would be less of a problem, but regardless of the version using this turning method, it always works with a notable delay. The MSX version is particularly bad in this regard, because both players use Space as the fire button, since the joystick controller is also mapped for cursor keys and Space. Playing on keyboard doesn't help on the MSX, but the SPECTRUM and AMSTRAD versions have the joysticks differently mapped, so you can use the keyboard controls (Z, X, P, L and Space) without any further unwelcome effects. This is, of course, where the dual-button systems reign supreme, but apart from the original and the LYNX port, there were none other - except for the unfinished NES port, which we will get to at the end of this comparison. I almost forgot to mention, that in the home computer ports, using a Zap-gun happens by pressing the designated firing button and down simultaneously, which is also rather inconvenient, if you're just intending to go backwards and shoot. The LYNX version uses the left shoulder button for this.
As you get along, you can pick up coins for purchasing upgrades from shops between levels, lamps for recharging energy, and keys to open doors (which only require you to walk through the center of the door, when a key is held), behind which you might find hidden warp exits amongst other things, as you already do in the first level. It shouldn't come as a spoiler, because the game is sort of designed that way. In later levels, you will also be required to travel through teleports.
Regarding the shops, you will only see as many items for sale as your budget allows, so if you have only five coins, you will only see items that cost up to five coins. These upgrades include, but are not limited to: max health upgrade, more powerful shots, quicker shots, energy loss slowdown and keys. Again, the LYNX version differs in this from the others, by having over 30 coins to start with after the first level is finished, and you see all the unavailable items also in the list.
Having two characters to select from affects the gameplay in no particular way, other than what part of the screen you need to be looking at. Selecting the character named Rock will get you the left side of the screen, and Ace is on the right side. Having a friend will provide you with additional firepower, but all the collectables amount equally for each level - similarly to how it goes in Gauntlet.
Thankfully, the similarities to Gauntlet have been kept low enough not to cause a copyright infringement, but more importantly, not to make the game any more difficult than absolutely necessary. You only get a pre-determined number of various kinds of enemies per level, since Xybots doesn't have spawners, and as far as I know, there are no immortal or unnecessarily hard to kill enemies here. The viewpoint makes the game difficult enough with its regular enemies, because you only see what's behind you from the map. Playing the LYNX version doesn't give you that advantage in real-time, because it's either full-screen action or full-screen map screen, which is accessed by pressing down the right shoulder button.
I would hazard a guess most of you have never played Xybots more than to get far enough to get bored with it, if that, which is why I have limited my investigations up to the fifteenth level. The gameplay stays largely the same from a certain point on after the teleports are introduced. Aside from the expected game speed differences due to the 3D graphics, and what has been mentioned so far, the only real gameplay difference I can really see is in how the enemy behaviours have been managed, and where each of the enemies in each level are situated.
First, you need to know there are four types of general enemies. Saucers look like bell-shaped alien spaceships, and they carry things like coins and keys. Normally, they patrol large areas, but when they drop an item and notice you're close by, they will go kamikaze on you, and they do charge fast. Warriors are the big Transformers-style robot-looking things, and are generally more aggressive than Saucers, since these can also shoot, but have a similarly small patrol area, and move slowly even while attacking. Tanks are similarly slow but aggressive and patrolling as Warriors, but they wear side armours, so they're more difficult to get down. Flies appear later in the game, and because of their flying movement patterns, are a bit harder to kill than others. There's a fifth enemy type, Guardians, which look like Warriors in a different colour, but they are more aggressive and tougher to kill, and don't show on the map, unless you purchase the upgrade making them visible. If an enemy comes wearing a different colour than usual, it means it will take more shots to go down.
The LYNX version differs from the others by all enemies requiring at least two shots to get them destroyed. Otherwise, most of the enemies seem to have slightly different spawning points, and the Warriors seem to be idling for the most part, until you get within a certain range of them, which is when they will activate. This, however, doesn't always hold true, because some of the Warriors can be roaming around, so I'm thinking it might be either a bug or a feature to make the game less predictable.
From what I have been able to gather, all the 8-bit versions are designed similarly, and for starters, the Saucers are more aggressive from the start, and start to kamikaze on you even while carrying items. Conversely, the Warriors are more cumbersome and slow in their roaming movements, and don't have much of a range of movement in battle mode, usually only moving left and right so you don't have to worry about backing out when they approach. Dealing with Tanks is mostly a matter of luck, because the relative lack of graphics and animation renders them impossible to predict, so basically, from the third level on-wards, the 8-bit versions can be brutally annoying to play.
The AMIGA and ATARI ST versions fare considerably better than the 8-bits by having better graphical capabilities, which makes dealing with Tanks a lot easier. However, the gameplay is otherwise surprisingly similar, only made better with the better processing power and such, so that the game runs smoother and faster. As I said before, the main problem with these computer versions is the single-button joystick design, coupled with the massively delayed turning, which makes progress from level 4 on-wards a massive pain.
Level fifteen is where, at least in the original ARCADE game, you get to fight the Master Xybot for the first time, and once every ten levels from then on-wards. This is a completely different level, in which you shoot at Master Xybot's glowing weapons, and try to dodge his shots to the best of your abilities while at it. This level looks suspiciously similar to one of the boss fights in Konami's Contra, but let's not worry about that too much, and just focus on the fact that it exists.
The design of Master Xybot remains the same for most versions, the logical reason being the similar screen setup across versions, where possible. In the ATARI ST and AMIGA versions, this guy makes his first appearance already in level 11, and the 8-bit home computers have him appear in level 16. His earliest appearance is in the LYNX version, on level 10, and at least when playing in a single-player mode, the design is rather different, with both of his weapon stacks placed on the same screen, but now keep moving left and right. Instead of firing from most of available barrels, though, the LYNX version only gives him one shot for each stack at similar intervals as in the original, which is more or less a second apart.
Finally, we could go into more detail about the differences in the 8-bit versions' slowness, but since I don't have an actual frames-per-second measuring device, I can only go by feel here. As far as I can tell, the SPECTRUM version seems to run the fastest overall, and suffers the least slowdown with increased amount of action in the occupied area, and the MSX version doesn't really differ notably from it. The AMSTRAD version feels the overall slowest of the four, but similarly to the SPECTRUM and MSX versions, has no notable slowdown in the more action-y bits. The C64 version runs a bit quicker than the AMSTRAD version initially, but suffers the most from slowdown during the heavy action bits. The only reason why the MSX version gets the lowest placing of all is because of the shared fire button for both players.
This, I suspect, is enough to put all of these versions in a logical order, although I do need to mention something annoying about the LYNX version that might or might not be an emulation-related issue, because I have no way of testing the game out on an actual Lynx. At least on RetroArch with Handy core, Xybots seems to freeze randomly every now and then, which, if a real problem with the actual Lynx game, would render this version much less playable in long term. Perhaps one of you readers can throw in a comment if you have any actual proof to support this or contradict.
1. ARCADE
2. ATARI LYNX
3. COMMODORE AMIGA / ATARI ST
4. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM
5. AMSTRAD CPC
6. COMMODORE 64
7. MSX
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GRAPHICS
Perhaps the most disappointing thing about Xybots is, how the game looks. Unless you're playing the original ARCADE game, or the LYNX version, just about 99% of the game happens on the same display setup, which we will get into in a second. The 16-bit home versions do have a short opening sequence, but that's the only extra.
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| Title screens / opening sequences where available. Top row: Arcade. Middle row: Atari Lynx. Bottom left: Commodore Amiga. Bottom right: Atari ST. |
Exclusively in the ARCADE version, there's a lot more included in the attract mode, featuring a high score table, a comprehensive demonstrative run of the game in action featuring on-screen messages pointing out noteworthy things, and finally, a comprehensive list of supplies and their effects included in the shops.
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| In-game screenshots from the Arcade version. |
Your primary point of focus is, of course, the enemies and their movement. The secondary point of focus is any non-moving items on the floor, which can either be picked up or used to move to another place - the next level or another transporter. The only time you ever really need to see something on the walls is when there is a keyhole to be found in the middle of one wall piece. All of these can be seen in the level map in the top middle area of the screen, which in later levels will become less revealing from the start, so you might need to either buy some upgrades or trust your ability to move around without the aid of a fully featured map. The top left and right areas show each player's inventory, upgrades, score, health, and remaining credits. At the very middle of the screen is the level indicator.
As you can see from these shots, the original ARCADE version has plenty enough of variety in its mazes' wall patterns and colour design choices, and all the enemy and player sprites are highly detailed and exquisitely animated. My favourite bit is the heroes blowing smoke off of their gun barrels after killing the last enemy in the level, but the dissolving and reforming effects when using the transporters are pretty cool, too. It's also worth noting, that all the elements shown in the minimap are colour-coded, and therefore are easy to follow and plan your movement on.
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| In-game screenshots from the Commodore Amiga version. |
More notable is the lack of any interesting information in the inactive player's "Press fire" screen, and the much more heavily coloured maze floors and wall patterns. Although having lots of colour is preferable to no colour, the high contrast colours makes the game look somehow cheaper than the more sedate palette in the original. The animations are somewhat cut down, with my favourite one being sadly missing. At least the teleportation effect is as it should be. Another unfortunate omission is the lack of animated sequences between levels, as you only get loading screens with white text on black background, and then you get straight to the shop menus.
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| In-game screenshots from the Atari ST version. |
The ATARI ST version looks otherwise exactly the same as the AMIGA version, except for the colour choices for each level. Here, we see more pastel colours and less intense colours and contrast in general. Although it doesn't look like all that much here, when you play the game it makes a surprisingly considerable difference. What I didn't notice until now is, that the colours for Rock and Ace's clothes are switched for both the AMIGA and ST versions from what they were in the original - not that it matters a huge deal.
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| In-game screenshots from the Atari Lynx version. |
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| In-game screenshots from the Sinclair ZX Spectrum version. |
We start the 8-bits with the ZX SPECTRUM version, which gives us a fair presentation of what the game will more or less look like across all the 8-bits. Not exactly, of course, but thereabouts. The action screens are monochromatic, colour-coded as blue for Rock and red for Ace, which is a bit odd, since their names at the top of the screen are red for Rock and green for Ace. This monochromaticism also makes the levels look precisely similar to each other, so the only real indicator to which level you're on is the map screen. The inventory parts of the screen are blue-and-white for both players, and the map screens change colour for each level, but are otherwise monochrome. For the most part, the animations in the action screen are nice enough, and the graphics are detailed hi-res, but as I mentioned before, the Tanks don't have enough of animation frames to make them a properly functional part of the game. Unfortunately, this is really the best you will get out of the 8-bits, because the SPECTRUM version also runs the fastest and smoothest with both players in the game, and when there's more than one enemy in the immediate vicinity.
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| In-game screenshots from the MSX version. |
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| In-game screenshots from the Amstrad CPC version. |
Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what to make of the stylistical design choices in the AMSTRAD version. I quite like the fact, that the player's names and sprites match colours, but then, all the mazes are black-and-white. As you see, the screenshots only have four colours: green, blue, white and black - and that's all you're ever going to get here. At least the maps have more colour-coded information in them, but that's really the only positive side I can think of with this, because the AMSTRAD version is rather slow in addition to uncomfortable to look at. At least the SPECTRUM and MSX versions had up to six different colours on screen simultaneously.
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| In-game screenshots from the Commodore 64 version. |
On a final note, if you're very familiar with Xybots, you might have noticed I left out some important graphical bits from these sets. This is merely because I realized there was no way I could actually get all the necessary shots for all versions - largely because of the way the MSX version has mapped its controls - so I gave up on that idea. Besides, all the above gives us enough data to come to a conclusion, which is as follows.
1. ARCADE
2. ATARI LYNX
3. COMMODORE AMIGA / ATARI ST
4. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM / MSX
5. COMMODORE 64
6. AMSTRAD CPC
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SOUNDS
I cannot really claim to be a big fan of the sound design in Xybots, mostly because there is nothing particularly special about it, even in the original ARCADE version. The game starts off with some explosions, followed by an alien voice saying "The human has been neutralized" and "Intruder alert" while a short, jingly piece of sci-fi theme music plays in the background.
Inserting a coin switches from the title screen (or wherever the demo mode happened to be at the time) to the regular game screen with the prompt to either press fire to start or insert a coin in the other slot to have a second player join in. The two coin insertion sounds are bell sounds of two different pitches. The in-game sound effects are the usual plastic sci-fi action sound effects, such as beamy shooting noises, tinny explosions, quick melodic inserts for picking up items and finishing the level, transportative and elevatory noises, more robotic voices speaking nonsense, and some items (coins and energy items) emit some sort of energy droning noise to notify you of their vicinity.
Somewhere lower in the mix, you can hear fitting-enough background music, which is hard to focus on, because the sound effects are so high, or up-front in the mix, and take 95% of the focus. There are at least a few different in-game tunes, though, which is a nice touch, if low in priority.
The ATARI ST version's sounds kick in only after the opening animation, when the game asks you to change to disk B, so it's basically loading music. And what a smashing tune it is, making you wish it would be featured at least already in the opening to give it more time to shine, because when you get to the actual game, you only get sound effects, and a short jingle to notify, when you have killed all the enemies in the level. The sound effects are much as you would expect them to be, with only the alien robot commentary missing, but it's not something you would actually miss, if you haven't played the original version to know it exists.
For the AMIGA version, some of the alien robot commentary has been retained, and the voice sample of your man grunting when losing a life is also there. Because of the necessity Amiga has of using samples as the way to compose anything and use sound effects, the sounds are rather close to their original counterparts, only less tinny, which makes the AMIGA version actually more enjoyable on the long run. However, you get no music at all here.
As you might have guessed, the LYNX version starts off similarly to the original version, including the explosive beginning and the sci-fi styled theme tune, but no alien robot speech samples. Of course, this means there is no robot commentary anywhere in this version. The sound effects are otherwise just as close to the original as you could ever wish, but perhaps more importantly, the soundtrack is more prevalent, is more interesting to listen to with more tunes in it, and makes you actually want to play the game more just to hear more of it. A spectacular accomplishment for a home conversion of an arcade game, and perhaps particularly so for a handheld one.
When it comes to audio on the 8-bits, usually it's the COMMODORE 64 version that beats the others by a country mile. Well, three out of four versions were made by the same team, and while the C64 version is not part of that group, it does feel as if Matt Furniss might have been responsible for the C64 version's title music, too. All four versions have the same tune in common, and it only plays at the "title screen" of sorts, when you press fire to start the game. It's not a bad tune as such, but the percussion track feels kind of random, so it doesn't quite reach the impactfulness of Ben Daglish and Matt Scott's tunes for the two Atari versions. Of course, there are two SPECTRUM versions for the 48k and the 128k computers, which means there are two different soundtracks as well, and the 48k version features no music whatsoever.
Logically, it also follows, that the 48k SPECTRUM version has slightly different sound effects from the 128k version, as well, since it's the single-channel beeper that has to squeeze out all those funky sound effects instead of an actual sound chip with many channels. But between the four more capable 8-bit computers, I cannot really pick one over the other as a preference, because they're all too similar between themselves. I suppose the theme tune in the C64 version doesn't sound as good as it could, but the percussion track feels all over the place in all four 8-bit versions, so whatever.
1. ARCADE / ATARI LYNX
2. ATARI ST
3. COMMODORE AMIGA
4. AMSTRAD CPC / MSX / COMMODORE 64 / SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM 128k
5. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM 48k
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OVERALL + VIDEO LINK
It comes as a shock to absolutely none of you, that the original version is quite clearly the best of the lot in most ways, particularly in gameplay. What might have come as a slight shock is that a handheld version is only second to the original, and miles above the rest, even without an instantly accessible two-player mode. The rest of them are just rough approximations, many of them passable rather than worth checking out. This is how the scores are laid out here at FRGCB:
1. ARCADE: Playability 7, Graphics 6, Sounds 5 = TOTAL 18
2. ATARI LYNX: Playability 6, Graphics 5, Sounds 5 = TOTAL 16
3. ATARI ST: Playability 5, Graphics 4, Sounds 4 = TOTAL 13
4. COMMODORE AMIGA: Playability 5, Graphics 4, Sounds 3 = TOTAL 12
5. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM 128k: Playability 4, Graphics 3, Sounds 2 = TOTAL 9
6. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM 48k: Playability 4, Graphics 3, Sounds 1 = TOTAL 8
7. AMSTRAD CPC: Playability 3, Graphics 1, Sounds 2 = TOTAL 6
7. COMMODORE 64: Playability 2, Graphics 2, Sounds 2 = TOTAL 6
7. MSX: Playability 1, Graphics 3, Sounds 2 = TOTAL 6
If only the MSX version would have had the controls mapped more appropriately, it would have been more playable, but as it is, it's a bit useless. Otherwise, the C64 version is overall the weakest of the lot.
Mostly because of my lack of time for personally compiling videos for comparisons at the moment, but also because there was conveniently another comparison video available from one of our YouTube friends, here's one from Retro Core's Battle of the Ports series:
Before we close this entry completely, there's still the unreleased NES prototype to examine more closely...
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NINTENDO PROTOTYPE
Programming by Lisa Ching
Graphics and animation by Kris Moser, Mark West and Greg Williams
Audio by Brad Fuller
Not released by Tengen in 1990.
Since most of the games released by Tengen for the NES were unlicenced, and the only licenced games being three that were released in 1988 (the rest of them released later), it is undoubtable that had Xybots ever been finished for the NES, it would have been an unlicenced release. While this is not exactly the most interesting part about the unfinished NES version of Xybots, finding more info about it online lead me to this rather fantastic little article about Tengen's NES games and the lawsuit they had with Nintendo. Worth reading, if you're into this sort of stuff.
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| NES prototype, opening sequence. |
There are a few notable ways in which this version differs in playability to most other versions. Firstly, the way the turning is handled is notably slower and more deliberately animated, during which time practically stops. Secondly, how uneffective the depth effect is, and how far away you can actually see the enemies. These things affect not only the general pacing of the game, but also your ability to fight the enemies. Thirdly, there are a couple of added maps in the early part of the game, starting with a very simple tutorial level with you locked into a large room with a key and a door to open it with, followed by one Warrior and a couple of items to pick up before you reach the exit, and the game explains the purpose of all the items as you go. From the screenshots below, you can also see the layout of the screen is very different from the original, with the info stuff on the right side of the screen, and the two player screens on the left side. Also noteworthy is, that even before you start the game, there is a long text scroller after the title screen, which explains in some detail, how Xybots on the NES is to be played.
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| NES prototype, in-game screenshots. |
Why ever did the NES Xybots never get finished is beyond me, because there are plenty of worse licenced games on the console that should have never seen the light of day. Even in this unfinished state, the NES version is more playable than most of the finished and released versions, simple because it's faster, its controls are more cooperative, and there are some interesting new features that would have made the finished product arguably better than some of the released versions. Perhaps it was too late, or perhaps Tengen just couldn't bother with manufacturing more games for a company that was so hostile to work for. I'm just glad this prototype came to the public attention in 2007, so we can at least imagine what could have been.
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Thanks for reading; I hope that will quench your thirst for comparisons for a while, because as of tomorrow, I will be moving to my new headquarters, and getting all the stuff set up properly will take more time that I'd care to admit. See you next time, whenever that may be!
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