Rating: 4.8/5
In Robotwar, the object is to create a robot to fight in the arena against other robots. You do this by writing code. Using a programming language built for the game, you create lines of code in a text file and use it to run your robot. Robots are equipped with "radar" and a gun and can move. Basically, you'd create code that would enable the robot to patrol the playing field, looking for and shooting at opponents. You could, using the text file, move robots from one computer to another and have epic battles against your friends' robots. The language is simple to learn, but building solid code takes patience and attention to detail. This game was a great way to introduce people to the basic priniciples of writing code, as there were only a handful of commands, but you could use variables and if-then statements. The graphics and sound are about as exciting as one would expect a game written in 1981 for the II+ to be, which is to say, rather bland, but that was not the point of the game at all, it was all about who could be king of the code.
You also need an emulator to run this game. To grab one quickly, please check out our Apple2 emulators section.