yes, this is true. I was the lead on the port of Robotron to the 7800 at GCC, and all we had to go with was the arcade machine. So first of all we had to become expert players, at all difficulty levels. At GCC we started videotaping gameplay with a camera over the shoulder so we could study movement and derive rules for the "AI", and even just to know how many critters of the various kinds appeared on the different levels.
Needless to say, becoming an expert Robotron player payed off over the years...
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yes, this is true. I was the lead on the port of Robotron to the 7800 at GCC, and all we had to go with was the arcade machine. So first of all we had to become expert players, at all difficulty levels. At GCC we started videotaping gameplay with a camera over the shoulder so we could study movement and derive rules for the "AI", and even just to know how many critters of the various kinds appeared on the different levels. Needless to say, becoming an expert Robotron player payed off over the years...