belty Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 So come on, which is best? *Battlezone, I just can't get away from the shells of the other tanks once there locked on, especially from behind. *Robot Tank, (have been playing this one on Stellatron don't have it for console), can get away and play longer and nice graphics. Do I buy Robot Tank for the console and turn my back on Battlezone which was an era classic in the arcade and on the 2600 back in the day. This really is a lifeboat question, your taking in water, you have two carts (as well as a console, television and miraclelike mains power supply) you have to throw one cart overboard to reduce that essential bit of weight or you sink. But decide wisely you may be drifting for six weeks before rescue so the game you choose better be your favourite. Ahem... I must go now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Personally I prefer Robot Tank. Throw BattleZone over the side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Battlezone is an excellent port of an Arcade game - Robot Tank is an excellent enahancement on that basic theme IMHO, keep Robot Tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lhfreak Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Both games are great, but Robot Tank has a more 'intense' feeling about it when you play. My vote is Robot Tank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BydoEmpire Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 I like Robot Tank better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawgWyld Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Robot Tank, but I also like Battlezone. Couldn't I throw something else over the side to save weight? A sandwich? Another passenger? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Battlezone seems to me to be the more realistic of the two. In Robot Tank I hate how you can just turn so that the enemy shot disappears, is your tank one inch long or something. Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kisrael Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 This is from a Usenet r.g.v.c. post I made in 1999: Battlezone is SO MUCH BETTER than Robot Tank it almost hurts to think about it. The only thing Robot Tank has going for it is the weather conditions and vairiable damage (It's been a while since I've plaid Robot Tank, so some of this is from memory, but I think the general idea is right--) The battlezone graphics rock. Crisp, clear, colorful. You can watch the treads move! That effect alone blows me away. Compare this to the monochrome world of Robot Tank. Look at the effect when your tank gets hit-in Battlezone it looks like your electronics are really shorting out! In Robot Tank, you dodge bullets by TURNING SO YOU CAN'T SEE THEM!! What the hell is this, some kind of bizarre "ostrich defense", if you can't see it the bullet can't see you?? Compare this to Battlezone: you hear a bullet fired at you offscreen, throw it in reverse, and watch the bullet arc harmlessly in front of you. It has an actual PHYSICS MODEL. The physics in Robot Tank are so "cheaty" by comparison. In Battlezone, you move like a tank. In Robot Tank, you move like a hovercraft. Battlezone has up to two enemies at a time. And it's not just the same lame-ass enemy tank: there are also saucers to distract you and mother ships to home in on you. Weather and Damage are cool, but battlezone is a much better game. The closest thing to current day VR that the 2600 has to offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The MilkMan Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 I've played Robot Tank the most out of the two. So I'd keep Battlezone for a change of pace. Once I got back to shore, I'd pick up another copy of Robot Tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Player Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Right now I'd throw both over the side and play Thomas' Battlezone TC hack. This requires two joysticks and has controls just like a tank--and the arcade game of course. Packrat had a nice package at PC5, selling this game with two new spectravideo joysticks. I've long ago mastered Battlezone, but this new controller hack makes it a new game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 I also like Thomas's Battlezone TC. It makes the game harder and more fun at the same time. Great stuff. If I had to choose one of the originals it would be robot tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingray Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Throw yourself over and tread water alongside the boat in hopes of saving the games. -S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 I think Robot Tank has more going for it. The varying times of days, weather conditions, tank damage, attack waves, the "bouncing" effect of the tank treads. Having said that, I'm a huge arcade Battlezone fan. Which is probably why I don't like the 2600 version very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kisrael Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 I think Robot Tank has more going for it. The varying times of days, weather conditions, tank damage, attack waves, the "bouncing" effect of the tank treads. Having said that, I'm a huge arcade Battlezone fan. Which is probably why I don't like the 2600 version very much. Feh, Robot Tank is just a big random sit and spin shooting gallery. The look of the Battlezone treads is terrific. I mean, it is a judgement call, but I think 4 kinds of enemies, 2 enemies at once, and a "real" 3D world beat Robot Tank's faster action, weather, and damage. So, does arcade battlezone have more than one enemy at once? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 Robot Tank is all frills, the gameplay is nothing to be impressed by. It's just a two-dimensional Starmaster. I find Battlezone to be superior in every way. Better graphics, better enemy "AI", more realistic physics, more variety of enemies, far more difficult and rewarding. Even though it bears pretty much no resemblance to the original, which did indeed have multiple enemies. And instead of planes you fought rockets which didn't shoot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackbird Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 I mean, it is a judgement call, but I think 4 kinds of enemies, 2 enemies at once, and a "real" 3D world beat Robot Tank's faster action, weather, and damage. Ironically, for all the above reasons I think that Robot Tank is better... I just enjoy more, I guess. I'm a sucker for weather effects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kisrael Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 I mean, it is a judgement call, but I think 4 kinds of enemies, 2 enemies at once, and a "real" 3D world beat Robot Tank's faster action, weather, and damage. Ironically, for all the above reasons I think that Robot Tank is better... I just enjoy more, I guess. I'm a sucker for weather effects. Fair enough, I was trying to list the features of both games. I am biased, maybe...I've been in love w/ 2600 Battlezone since I was like 8 and begged my cousin to snag me a copy. It just looked SO good... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeV0 Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 Speaking from a PAL territory robot tank wins hands down for graphics which is enough to effect the gameplay in this case. Both great games, just dont get pal battlezone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris-in-NJ Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 When I had both games twenty-odd years ago, I preferred Robot Tank, as the gameplay was just so much more intense than Battlezone. The fact that to this day I have never seen an actual Battlezone arcade game may have something to do with this I had a nice Radio Shack pistol grip joystick with suction cups on its base that I used for Robot Tank; I could get really psyched up playing it with this stick, especially after I'd destroyed three squadrons and the speed of the enemy tanks' missiles became so fast that they'd hit you less than a second after being fired. I liked Battlezone, but it never got as exciting as this IMHO :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 I love the weirdness of gamers' tastes. We all take one side or another and have reasons for doing so. There must be something about Battlezone's style that gets me in a way that Robot Tank doesn't. I remember a similar debate over Starmaster-Star Raiders. I'm one of the few in the Star Raiders camp. We could play this with quite a few of Activision's games, they loved to do pretty conversions of other people's games. Sticking with the 2600 cart versions: Chopper Command or Defender? Freeway or Frogger? Frostbite or Q*Bert? Decathlon or Track & Field? I actually prefer Defender to Chopper Command, no one else seems to feel that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 I mean, it is a judgement call, but I think 4 kinds of enemies, 2 enemies at once, and a "real" 3D world beat Robot Tank's faster action, weather, and damage. So, does arcade battlezone have more than one enemy at once? Nope. Just one at a time. I guess I'm a "purist" when it comes to Battlezone, which is why I found the 2600 version disappointing. It's still a very good 2600 game, but to me it's no more "Battlezone" than the 2600 version of Pac-Man is "Pac-Man". (Admittedly, Battlezone is a far better conversion, but I'm just talking in terms of gameplay.) So I'm biased. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 So, does arcade battlezone have more than one enemy at once? Nope. Just one at a time. Wrong. Two at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 Nope. Just one at a time. Not true, up to two enemies at the time. C'mon, shooting that saucer isn't much of a challenge if you're not dodging tank shells at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whisper Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 Speaking from a PAL territory robot tank wins hands down for graphics which is enough to effect the gameplay in this case. Both great games, just dont get pal battlezone What's the difference then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 What's the difference then? Way less colors which is very unusual for PAL conversions. Hm, maybe someone could make a better PAL conversion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.