By Richard Speed
Publication Date: 2026-03-16 16:50:00
A former Microsoft engineer is training AI to beat 1982’s Robotron: 2084, an arcade game where a lone human must overcome endless waves of robots following a cybernetic revolt.
There’s more to it than that, of course, but the scenario is dripping with irony – asking AI to devise ways of succeeding when managing with the frenzy of a Robotron session.
Former Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer – famed for Task Manager and Space Cadet pinball – had already trained an AI model to master Atari’s 1981 vector shooter, Tempest.
The next step for the retired engineer is Robotron, into which this writer pumped pocket money, only to rapidly run out of skill in the face of conflicting priorities (rescue the humans, shoot the robots, or try to do both), a brain-melting control system (two joysticks – one for direction and one for firing), and never-ending legions of enemies.
