Welcome

This is my website dedicated to all things I, Robot.

I, Robot was a milestone in video game history -- it was the first video game to rasterize 3-D polygons in real-time. Not vector wire-frame models, but real solid 3D objects. The game's attract mode even boasts about performing hidden surface removal! The game is a testament to the hardware and software ingenuity present at Atari in the early 80's. It's still fun to play, and stands as one of my all time favorite games.

Thanks go out to Dave Theurer, Dave Sherman, and all the other folks at Atari who made this game a reality.

Also thanks to those of you who have shared knowledge and contributed over the years. Hopefully we've documented enough to let this game live on long after the original machines have died.

If any of you out there have any stories about I, Robot, knowledge of prototypes or any other information relating to the development of this game, feel free to drop me a line at lordfrito at manfreda.org.

News

Nov 19, 2023

Added another article to the press section.

Nov 12, 2023

Added several articles to the press section.

Nov 2, 2023

Added excerpts from an interview with Dave Sherman about his involvement in the creation of I, Robot.

Added a new page regarding what happened after the game was released.

Added joystick repair information.

Oct 12, 2023

Updated the I, Robot Development History page to include Atari documents from the Dave Sherman collection auction.

Added a page with I, Robot Repair Information.

Corrected pinout errors and fixed many other small pieces of info.

May 26, 2020

Version 1.02 of I, Robot 2020 has been released.

May 25, 2020

Version 1.01 of I, Robot 2020 has been released.

May 24, 2020

Version 1.00 of I, Robot 2020 has been released! Grab it here:

https://github.com/manfreda-dot-org/I-Robot-Project/releases

More info here: Emulation

May 16, 2020

Added information on the MonoGame version of the emulator.

May 12, 2020

New content.

May 3, 2020

I'm not dead yet!

I've been using Ghidra to disassemble the ROMs. Work is moving along at a good clip, and I've learned a lot about the game structure in the process. Using my new knowledge I created a basic level viewer, with hopes of turning it into a full fledged editor.

I've put up a few new pages here and here related to this work.

Here's a shortcut to the Github project I created for the editor. Reach out to me if you're interested in helping out on this project.

https://github.com/manfreda-dot-org/I-Robot-Editor

March 20, 2011

Site back up... Has it really been 8 years since I updated?

October 10, 2003

Time for my annual update :-)

I have been working here and there on a new version of emulator. Features:

Written in C++, so it is not nearly as optimized as the first emulator -- but then again PCs have improved to the point where I doubt this is an issue. My goal this time was to make the code object oriented, extensible, easy to port and modify.

The MAME team has done a stellar job emulating the mathbox -- so I see no reason to attempt to duplicate their success. My goals is to focus on the unique features that separate my emulator from MAME. Namely, my ability to high-level interpret the mathbox. The new platform will allow for cool things like high resolution support, particle system for dots, etc...

The emulator is nowhere near complete, as sound support, joystick, save states, etc... are not yet supported. However the emulator is playable. I've uploaded it here.

This is a work in progress. Please treat it as such -- no annoying questions, this doesn't work, etc...

I've separated the 6809 engine into its own DLL. You will need it to run the game. It is included in the zip file.

Also, DirectX extension libraries are needed. They too are included in the zip file.

Again this is a work in progress -- I can't promise the video system will run on all PCs -- there may be other problems -- you have been warned.

March 9, 2002

I'm back!

I've finally completed my transition from @home to comcast.net, and the webpage is back up.

Currently working on an update to the emulator. The new project is being written in C++, which should make it easier for me to add features in the future.

January 7, 1999

After 1/2 a year I've finally gotten around to updating this site. Hope you like the new look.

Also, I've been working with Marcus Goodey on extracting the 3-D meshes from the I, Robot ROMs. You can take a look at them here.

June 18, 1998

Version 0.98 released