I, Robot

Big Brother, the robotic overlord, watches his realm with his all-seeing Evil Eyes keeping his servant droids in line. The player commands a rebel droid, bearing the portentous designation of Interface Robot #1984, in its quest to destroy the Eyes and break free from the slavemaster's hold.

I, Robot takes the player through a series of 3-dimensional stages, where the abstract landscape is composed of colored, rectangular platforms. Above all looms Big Brother's Evil Eye atop its pyramid, periodically closing and opening to observe the robot's movement. To destroy it and clear the stage, the droid must deplete the Eye's shield by walking over tiles to change their color. Some platforms will require jumping in order to reach; unfortunately, this violates Big Brother's strict anti-jumping laws: all jumps must be executed while the Eye is closed, or the poor droid will be executed instead.

Aside from the Eye, the terrain teems with roving enemies - some of whom can be destroyed by the droid's laser fire - and other obstacles, like destructible walls and timed barriers. Transporters may sometimes be found, allowing the player to skip a few levels ahead. Every three stages, when the Eye is zapped, its pyramid will open up to reveal a bonus room (which tasks the player with collecting jewels).

Having destroyed an Eye, your droid will blast off into space for a fast-paced shoot-'em-up sequence before arriving at the next level. Here, the void is littered with geometrical oddities: dodge them, or take them out for points. On every fourth level, the space section will pit your robot against the Big Brother's Head, which must be turned away with repeated fire to prevent it from spewing forth deadly spikes.

I, Robot is notable for its use of solid polygon rendering, transcending the wireframe (raster or vector) graphics of previous 3D games. Another innovation is the realtime-adjustable camera angle, which plays more than a visual role: it has an effect on score (lower angles reward the player with a higher multiplier), and in some of the higher levels, must be adjusted to avoid certain enemies(!).

For those times when you're not in the mood for robotic rebellion and laser lobbing, an alternate mini-"game" is included called Doodle City, which lets you produce quaint 3D "doodles" on the arcade screen by manipulating objects from the game.