Snow, fog, falling night and you in the cabin of a tank whose radar has just been shot out. Robot Tank wasn't just another war game for the Atari 2600 — it was a small miracle of simulation on a console that theoretically shouldn't have been able to handle it at all.
The game was designed by Alan Miller and published by Activision in 1983. Miller, one of Activision's founders, was known for his love of systemic mechanics, and Robot Tank is proof of that. He evidently drew inspiration from the arcade hit Battlezone, but added layers that turned a simple tank duel into a small campaign full of tactics.
You play from a cockpit view and eliminate squadrons of enemy robot tanks. What sets Robot Tank apart are the changing conditions: you fight in rain, fog, snow and in the dark, with each weather worsening visibility. On top of that, when you're hit, you don't immediately lose a life — instead a specific system gets damaged. You lose the radar, the crosshair, the clear picture or mobility. The game thus models damage in a way that was almost unheard of on a home console in 1983 and foreshadowed later simulators.
This approach made Robot Tank one of the deepest titles on the Atari 2600. You advance through squadrons, try to survive as long as possible, and each hit forces you to improvise with destroyed instruments. It is more a harsh lesson in survival than a mindless shooter.
Robot Tank appeared in Activision compilations and thanks to emulation is today easily accessible on handhelds and in the browser. It belongs to the titles that show how inventive Activision's programmers could be when they decided to push the boundaries of 8-bit hardware.
Why play: A surprisingly deep tank simulation with a damage model that was ahead of its time. A must for fans of Battlezone and tactical survival.
Game 21 of 69 for Atari 2600
