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SKTTR · 9th May 2009

Paradroid
(C) 1985 Graftgold / Hewson
Game by Andrew Braybrook. Audio advice by Steve Turner.

Deep in space a fleet of freighters got into some strange alien asteroid field. The machines onboard were going crazy, killing everyone. To save the precious cargo an Influence Device '001' antigravity robot with hacking abilities and lasers is beamed to the first of eight big ships. You take control over '001' and your target is to clear the ship from all droids.

From a top down view you can move in every direction, shooting your weak laser weapon by holding in a direction and pressing the fire button. And you can get into transfer mode by holding the fire button. This is needed to take over better droids, use elevators and get access to computers. Droids in-game are represented by numbers. If you see a '139' or '302' it's one of those easy to hack disposal robots or servant robots or fast-running messenger droids. If you spot a '614' sentinel droid or a '742' battle droid armed with smart bombs and double lasers or the devilish '999' command cyborg you'd better run for an elevator and clear some other floors first until you have control over a really good droid. Every unit has different stats: weapons, energy, drive, brain, sensor, defense, speed, weight, height, special abilities, battery, influence and more.

In hacking mode you'll be presented with a circuit motherboard that can be accessed from two sides. You have a few seconds to make your decision. Often there's a side that gives you an advantage, so you have to look closely how the cables are arranged. When you made your choice the fight begins, a fast 10-second-strategy battle. Let your influence power rush through the wires, look out for the ones that divide, the dead-ends and the ones with power-ups and don't be blind to your enemies moves since he's trying to defend himself as he's influencing you with his own power at the same time. Your goal is to have more wires powered than your opponent. The better your droid is the more influence power you have. With the '001' you can only hack 3 cables whereas with a '302' you can hack 6. Hacking is always very exciting and needs a bit of practice in the beginning, so be prepared to die a lot until you learn a good strategy. And here's a little hint that will make your life easier: You should always have a floor of lowlevel droids. If you get killed as '001' the game's over, but if you get killed while having control over another droid, you just transfer back to being '001'. So with a little bit of thought you have lots of extra lives.

When you cleared a floor of all robots, the lights go out to indicate that there's nothing more to do. In close combat you're trying to defend yourself with your weapons, your hull and your weight. If you're a light little droid you'll be pushed around like a a little girl in a wrestling cage. You'll fire your laser that most of time just zooms through other droids and seems to hit randomly, thinking it's a bug, just to find out much later that defense and speed of your enemies are too high. There is much to be learned as to which droid is best used against one other. You will often run away with your energy drained, hoping to find a safe small storage room that gives you time to take a little breath and hopefully has a replenish platform to fill up your energy (but beware, it sucks points from your score). And to make everything just more exciting, you cannot see what's hiding behind the next corner or what's outside of the room. You can only see the sliding doors open and close and you know they're still around waiting to feast on your robotic brain. Also, you cannot just blast your way through with just one droid, since every droid has a battery that's doomed to run out, so constant switching between droids every few minutes is vital.

Every droid has a security level. You can get info about all lower leveled droids on the computers. You might write down the specific data for each robot on paper. Yeah, you definately want to make your plan to clear even the first ship. To make it all enjoyable rather than frustrating, the computers provide you with helpful maps. They show you everything except the location of the droids. You won't be lost, but you won't be taken by the hand either. Exploring and learning is a major task in Paradroid. Each ship has 20 decks and you can freely roam throughout the entire ship from the start.

The graphics in Paradroid get the job done. They seem sporadic these times but were amazing back in the day. Smooth scrolling in all directions, that was a technical feat in '85. People might say that all the droids in action look the same except for their number and thus makes the action bland, and I say no. First, you're just a robot with sensors so the look is justifiable and involving, and second, if you log into one of those computers you can watch detailed pictures of each droid from the view of a human eye. In-game all you want to know is the number, and the rest is up to your imagination. Me thinks the fact that you can view the different forms of the droids on the computers (and before each hacking attempt) is proof enough of how much love to detail the programmer has put into his game. And yeah, there's another complaint I often heard, but also an easy conclusion to it: If the vibrant colorful decks hurt your eyes, they can be changed to a complete grey shades setting at any time during the game by pressing one of the F-buttons on the (virtual) keyboard. The sound consists of many different robotic bleeps and a low bass loop throughout the entire game. As weird as it sounds, it gives the game an claustrophobic atmosphere and fits with the rest.

09/10 Audiovisuals - Paradroid has a distinctive unique look. Everything seems to be made out of perforated metal. The artificial sound effects burn into your brain. The title theme sounds like a conversation between virus infected robots and is just what the game is all about.

09/10 Gameplay - Just roaming around and shooting lowlevel droids is quite fun, but if you want to get somewhere you need to learn the deep game mechanics that you reveal piece by piece after lots of trying and dying. It's not the halfbaked futuristic magic fantasy story. It all makes sense here.

09/10 Overall - The brilliant mix of action, exploration, strategy, RPG and puzzle made this a cult game. Highly addicting! I could only wish for a way to save the progress, but nah. This is a test for the best! And that whole game was programmed by only one person! Killer!

SCORE: 27/30 EVERGREEN

Note: The Virtual Console version has a graphic glitch in one of the character tiles of the computer consoles that face to the left.
This is a bug ported from the C64 DTV version of the game.

Here's a helpful map I made. It's showing a side view of the Robo-Freighters in Paradroid.
You can see all the rooms and elevators clearly.

PARADROID - ROBO-FREIGHTER MAP

Andrew Braybrook C64 History:

1985 Port: Lunattack
1985 - Gribbly's Day Out
1985 - Paradroid
1986 Remake: Gribbly's Special Day Out
1986 - Uridium
1986 Remake: Paradroid - Competition Edition
1986 - Alleykat
1986 Remake: Paradroid - Metal Edition
1986 Remake: Paradroid+Uridium
1987 - Morpheus
1988 - Intensity
1988 - Magnetron

More info:

Paradroid - A development diary for Paradroid from Andrew Braybrook himself. A must read.
Paradroid - Walkthrough video for the first freighter.
Paradroid - Interview with Steve Turner who worked closely with Andrew Braybrook on nearly all projects.
Paradroid - Retro-Review by Arthouse Games
Paradroid - Review by Zzap! 64 magazine November '85 (Scan)
Paradroid - Graftgold Official Website

9th May 2009	#3
SKTTR Ludwig von Koopa Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5,251	Paradroid (C) 1985 Graftgold / Hewson Game by Andrew Braybrook. Audio advice by Steve Turner. Deep in space a fleet of freighters got into some strange alien asteroid field. The machines onboard were going crazy, killing everyone. To save the precious cargo an Influence Device '001' antigravity robot with hacking abilities and lasers is beamed to the first of eight big ships. You take control over '001' and your target is to clear the ship from all droids. From a top down view you can move in every direction, shooting your weak laser weapon by holding in a direction and pressing the fire button. And you can get into transfer mode by holding the fire button. This is needed to take over better droids, use elevators and get access to computers. Droids in-game are represented by numbers. If you see a '139' or '302' it's one of those easy to hack disposal robots or servant robots or fast-running messenger droids. If you spot a '614' sentinel droid or a '742' battle droid armed with smart bombs and double lasers or the devilish '999' command cyborg you'd better run for an elevator and clear some other floors first until you have control over a really good droid. Every unit has different stats: weapons, energy, drive, brain, sensor, defense, speed, weight, height, special abilities, battery, influence and more. In hacking mode you'll be presented with a circuit motherboard that can be accessed from two sides. You have a few seconds to make your decision. Often there's a side that gives you an advantage, so you have to look closely how the cables are arranged. When you made your choice the fight begins, a fast 10-second-strategy battle. Let your influence power rush through the wires, look out for the ones that divide, the dead-ends and the ones with power-ups and don't be blind to your enemies moves since he's trying to defend himself as he's influencing you with his own power at the same time. Your goal is to have more wires powered than your opponent. The better your droid is the more influence power you have. With the '001' you can only hack 3 cables whereas with a '302' you can hack 6. Hacking is always very exciting and needs a bit of practice in the beginning, so be prepared to die a lot until you learn a good strategy. And here's a little hint that will make your life easier: You should always have a floor of lowlevel droids. If you get killed as '001' the game's over, but if you get killed while having control over another droid, you just transfer back to being '001'. So with a little bit of thought you have lots of extra lives. When you cleared a floor of all robots, the lights go out to indicate that there's nothing more to do. In close combat you're trying to defend yourself with your weapons, your hull and your weight. If you're a light little droid you'll be pushed around like a a little girl in a wrestling cage. You'll fire your laser that most of time just zooms through other droids and seems to hit randomly, thinking it's a bug, just to find out much later that defense and speed of your enemies are too high. There is much to be learned as to which droid is best used against one other. You will often run away with your energy drained, hoping to find a safe small storage room that gives you time to take a little breath and hopefully has a replenish platform to fill up your energy (but beware, it sucks points from your score). And to make everything just more exciting, you cannot see what's hiding behind the next corner or what's outside of the room. You can only see the sliding doors open and close and you know they're still around waiting to feast on your robotic brain. Also, you cannot just blast your way through with just one droid, since every droid has a battery that's doomed to run out, so constant switching between droids every few minutes is vital. Every droid has a security level. You can get info about all lower leveled droids on the computers. You might write down the specific data for each robot on paper. Yeah, you definately want to make your plan to clear even the first ship. To make it all enjoyable rather than frustrating, the computers provide you with helpful maps. They show you everything except the location of the droids. You won't be lost, but you won't be taken by the hand either. Exploring and learning is a major task in Paradroid. Each ship has 20 decks and you can freely roam throughout the entire ship from the start. The graphics in Paradroid get the job done. They seem sporadic these times but were amazing back in the day. Smooth scrolling in all directions, that was a technical feat in '85. People might say that all the droids in action look the same except for their number and thus makes the action bland, and I say no. First, you're just a robot with sensors so the look is justifiable and involving, and second, if you log into one of those computers you can watch detailed pictures of each droid from the view of a human eye. In-game all you want to know is the number, and the rest is up to your imagination. Me thinks the fact that you can view the different forms of the droids on the computers (and before each hacking attempt) is proof enough of how much love to detail the programmer has put into his game. And yeah, there's another complaint I often heard, but also an easy conclusion to it: If the vibrant colorful decks hurt your eyes, they can be changed to a complete grey shades setting at any time during the game by pressing one of the F-buttons on the (virtual) keyboard. The sound consists of many different robotic bleeps and a low bass loop throughout the entire game. As weird as it sounds, it gives the game an claustrophobic atmosphere and fits with the rest. 09/10 Audiovisuals - Paradroid has a distinctive unique look. Everything seems to be made out of perforated metal. The artificial sound effects burn into your brain. The title theme sounds like a conversation between virus infected robots and is just what the game is all about. 09/10 Gameplay - Just roaming around and shooting lowlevel droids is quite fun, but if you want to get somewhere you need to learn the deep game mechanics that you reveal piece by piece after lots of trying and dying. It's not the halfbaked futuristic magic fantasy story. It all makes sense here. 09/10 Overall - The brilliant mix of action, exploration, strategy, RPG and puzzle made this a cult game. Highly addicting! I could only wish for a way to save the progress, but nah. This is a test for the best! And that whole game was programmed by only one person! Killer! SCORE: 27/30 EVERGREEN Note: The Virtual Console version has a graphic glitch in one of the character tiles of the computer consoles that face to the left. This is a bug ported from the C64 DTV version of the game. Here's a helpful map I made. It's showing a side view of the Robo-Freighters in Paradroid. You can see all the rooms and elevators clearly. PARADROID - ROBO-FREIGHTER MAP Andrew Braybrook C64 History: 1985 Port: Lunattack 1985 - Gribbly's Day Out 1985 - Paradroid 1986 Remake: Gribbly's Special Day Out 1986 - Uridium 1986 Remake: Paradroid - Competition Edition 1986 - Alleykat 1986 Remake: Paradroid - Metal Edition 1986 Remake: Paradroid+Uridium 1987 - Morpheus 1988 - Intensity 1988 - Magnetron More info: Paradroid - A development diary for Paradroid from Andrew Braybrook himself. A must read. Paradroid - Walkthrough video for the first freighter. Paradroid - Interview with Steve Turner who worked closely with Andrew Braybrook on nearly all projects. Paradroid - Retro-Review by Arthouse Games Paradroid - Review by Zzap! 64 magazine November '85 (Scan) Paradroid - Graftgold Official Website Last edited by SKTTR; 7th June 2009 at 01:55 AM.