Jeff Minter is remaking another Atari classic, and yeah, it is definitely a Jeff Minter game

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Jeff Minter, the legendary indie developer who's been doing his own weird thing since the early 1980s, has a new weird thing in the works: a remake of I, Robot, an arcade shooter originally released by Atari in 1984.

I, Robot challenges players to find their way across a "3D kaleidoscopic visualizer" while dodging the gaze of the all-seeing eye, which will blast you into oblivion if you jump while it's watching. Escape the visualizer and you'll have to blast your way through a tube crawling with enemies determined to stop you. It all sounds very "classic Atari," jazzed up with Minter's addition of "arena levels that will ignite your synapses with onslaughts of lethal enemies."

The I, Robot remake will include 55 platforming and arena levels, with bonus tube-shooting between each, wrapped in procedural music, "Llamasoft's unique brand of mind-melting visuals," and online leaderboard. And if it all gets a bit much, you can opt instead for the "Ungame" mode, which will let you horse around inside the chaos with no enemies around.

"I, Robot — a reimagining of an obscure Atari arcade cabinet featuring a robot who has problems with authority — is quintessential Minter," said Atari's vice president of games Ethan Sterns, and even though I haven't played the remake myself, I have to agree. Even if I knew absolutely nothing about it, I'm pretty sure I would look at the announcement trailer and immediately think, "Yeah, that's a Minter game."

He has a very distinct style rooted in the earliest days of home computing, as seen in trailers for earlier releases like Akka Arrh and Polybius, and while it can be divisive—Minter's infamous Space Giraffe earned a 2/10 rating from OXM, and a 92% from us—it's also proven enduring: In 2024, Atari released an "interactive documentary" about Minter and his work, reflecting the impact he's had on the indie game scene.

The original I, Robot, for the record, may not count as an Atari "classic" in the strictest sense:https://www.pcgamer.com/ftcs-new-disclosure-guidelines-for-influencers-leaves-no-room-for-misunderstanding/ Wikipedia says it flopped badly at launch, and no more than 1,000 units were made. But in the years since then, it's earned retroactive praise for its advanced graphics—it was apparently the first commercial videogame rendered with real-time 3D polygons—and was recently included in Atari's 50th anniversary compilation.

Jeff Minter's remake of I, Robot doesn't have a release date yet, but it's expected to be out this spring on PC and various consoles, including—of course—the Atari VCS.

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Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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