One Man and His Droid (C64)

One Man and His Droid

Platform: Commodore 64 Year: 1985 Developer: Mastertronic Limited

One Man and His Droid is an action puzzle game created by hobbyist Clive Brooker on his ZX Spectrum 48K from easter to September 1985. It has only buzzer sound effects. He demonstrated it to video game publisher Mastertronic, who quickly named it and hired people for this Commodore 64 port, which adds more colorful flashes and background music.

You are a droid (herding dog) who deals with ramboids (dim rams on planet Andromadous). Each of the 20 levels consists of 2 parts: First, you have to make your way past over 200 ramboids. Second, you have to fence 7 ramboids into a teleport, at least 4 in the correct order. After completing a level, you get additional time, but not 9999 again. In later levels, you must dig tunnels.

The game got good reviews, but is still slagged off by gamers who don't understand it.

Screenshots

The loading screen. The title sequence. Up against the stream. Small instructions. Doesn't hurt... I hope. I was aiming for 6400. :-(

Music

Rob Hubbard was already known, and Mastertronic a good client. Besides an evergreen that was voted 50th favorite top SID by HVSC Crew and SID fans, Hubbard delivered 14 sound effects, 6 of which are unused. As usual for his driver at the time, each sound effect consists of two voices which drown out the melodies, leaving only bass and drums.

Recording

The song was recorded from the game on a real PAL C64C with an 8580 R5 4091.

#	Title	Composer	Length	Listen	Download
01	Maintune	Rob Hubbard	5:57		Download

(Source: Hubbard's demo.)

Credits

• Ripper: HVSC
• Recorder: Professor Chaos
• Game Credits:
  • Not Credited Composer: Rob Hubbard
  • Not Credited Arranger: Rob Hubbard
  • Not Credited Foley Artist: Rob Hubbard
  • Not Credited Programmer: Rob Hubbard

(Game lacks audio credits. First known sources: ZZAP! 64 No.11 March 1986, code recognition.)

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

Audio Devices

This game uses the computer's built-in SID chip and sounds the same on every one of them. The NTSC release has not been identified yet, so it is unknown whether the song was adjusted, or plays higher and faster.

Releases

UK Title: One Man and His Droid Platform: Commodore 64 Released: 1985-12-?? Publisher: Mastertronic Limited     France Title: One Man and His Droid Platform: Commodore 64 Released: 1985-12-?? Publisher: Mastertronic Limited     Spain Title: One Man and His Droid Platform: Commodore 64 Released: 1985-12-?? Publisher: Mastertronic Limited     Italy Title: One Man and His Droid Platform: Commodore 64 Released: 1985-12-?? Publisher: Mastertronic Limited     Germany Title: One Man and His Droid Platform: Commodore 64 Released: 1985-12-?? Publisher: Mastertronic Limited     USA Title: 2onONE: One Man and His Droid/Nonterraqueous Platform: Commodore 64 Released: 1986-??-?? Publisher: Mastertronic, Inc.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/c64/one-man-and-his-droid - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/c64/577800-one-man-and-his-droid - GameFAQs.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Man_and_His_Droid - Wikipedia.
• csdb.dk/release/?id=128996 - Hubbard's demo.

View One Man and His Droid
One Man and His Droid
One Man and His Droid II
Notable Songs	Space Game - One Man and His Droid (C64)
Notable Personnel	Rob Hubbard
Notable Companies	Mastertronic