The
Robot Odyssey Resource 
Last Updated 1/30/01
The
Robot Odyssey Resource
Introduction
Robot Odyssey was a computer game released
in 1984 by the Learning Company. It is part adventure game, part
puzzle game. An apple ][ and Tandy version were released, and you
can play them today using emulators. It's a terrific game, as fun
as it always was. Too bad not very many games today compete!
The objective
of Robot Odyssey is to escape from Robotropolis, a dangerous underground
robotic city. To escape, you have to program your robots to solve various
mind-bending puzzles. This game originally said something like "for ages
10 and up", but believe me, it will challenge adults too! Some of
these puzzles are really devious (You'll understand when you get to level
4).
and .dsk files (see download). The .dsk files
are the original Apple ][ 5.25" disks 
which have been converted to PC files. I recommend AppleWin emulator
to run the Apple "disks". It is fast and easy. You can try
other emulators if you want. ApplePC is my second favorite.
It has some additional features, but is DOS based and not quite as user
friendly. You can find other emulators at the Asimov Apple ][ Archives
(see links). You can also try the Tandy version
if you want, but I havn't played around with it much so I probably can't
answer many questions about it.
Now that you've got the emulator downloaded
and installed, it's time to play! Here are the game commands:
Movement - 'I','J','K', or 'M'
Slow Movement - Control+'I','J','K', or 'M'
Grab - Spacebar
Save game - Escape key, than 'S'
Load Game - Select from main menu
Load Chip - pick up a chip, than 'L'
Menu (from game) - Escape key
Chip Information (in innovation lab) - pick up a chip,
than '?'
Toolkit - 'T'
Soldering iron - 'S'
Remote Control - 'R'
You should definitely go through the
terrific in-game tutorials before you enter Robotropolis to learn how to
program your bots.
The only thing not included in the tutorials is information about the premade chips stored on the 2 RO disks. Luckily, the information can be found here.
The original 5.25" Apple disks were copy protected, and the original .dsk files had "bugs" which came from the transformation from the 5.25 disks to PC files. There are "new" versions available to bypass the bugs, at least until the end of level 3. But the bugs are no big deal and easily compensated for.
Run the game with the "new" disks until the end of level 3 and everything should work fine. After that, you might have to go back, partially, to the old disks. At the end of level 3, it will say "Be sure the Robot Odyssey I disk is in the drive". Now, use the "ro1.dsk" disk instead of "ro1_new.dsk" You will appear at the beginning of level 4. From now on, use the old disks instead of the new ones, except: When about to SAVE your game or LOAD a chip, put the "ro1_new" disk in the AppleWin "drive", do your saving or loading, then go back to the ORIGINAL disk. Simple.
(Warning : Too many solutions will ruin the game!!!) Here
are some selected solutions to puzzles in Robot Odyssey.
They are in no way the only way to solve the puzzles
and many are not ideal, but they work.
Lost in one of the mazes? Don't know what to do? Check out these maps (Note : They're big images).
ro1.dsk
- Original Robot Odyssey disk 1ro2.dsk
- Original Robot Odyssey disk 2ro1_new.dsk
- "new" Robot Odyssey disk 1ro2_new.dsk
- "new" Robot Odyssey disk 2blank.dsk
- For savegames. You don't need to download this, you can copy one
of the other disk files and use the copy as a save disk.rocky.dsk
- The precurser to Robot Odyssey, Rocky's Boots was aimed for a slightly
younger audience but it is also fun.
