Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters (set 1)

Escape From The Planet of the Robot Monsters © 1989 Atari Games Corp.

Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters is a one or two-player game in which the players must rescue Dr. Sarah Bellum from Planet X, where her research facility has been taken over by the evil Reptilons. The game is played from an isometric perspective where players control their avatars using Hall effect joysticks. The Hall effect is the production of a voltage difference (the Hall voltage) across an electrical conductor, transverse to an electric current in the conductor and a magnetic field perpendicular to the current. It was discovered by Edwin Hall in 1879.

The player must shoot their way through a series of simple maze-like levels, releasing the human hostages along the way. Levers must be found and thrown to activate the escalators which allow access to new areas. Gems can be collected to increase the power of the player's ray gun, and food lockers may be broken into for a health boost.

At the end of each level the play switches to an isometric auto-scrolling sequence in which the player controls his character in a small spaceship, and must steer left or right to navigate through a maze of obstacles. If the player reaches the end of this sequence they will progress to the next level.