Robinson Technologies
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Robinson Technologies is a company founded and run by Seth Robinson in 1989, when he created the BBS door game, Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD). He currently operates the company with the help of his wife, Akiko Robinson, in Hiroshima, Japan. Seth's full name is Seth Able Robinson and the character Seth Able the bard from LORD was named after himself. Also, the final boss in Dink Smallwood was also named Seth.
The company is known for the wicked sense of humor of its creator, a sense of humor found in Legend of the Red Dragon and Dink Smallwood as well as most of the games that Robinson created or has helped with.
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[edit] Company history
[edit] Legend of the Red Dragon
In 1989, Seth Robinson had created a game for his Amiga-based BBS that he called Legend of the Red Dragon, or simply LORD for short. The game was not immediately popular, but it took off after he ported it to the PC. Originally only featuring text-based menus and fighter, the game allowed for early multiplayer RPG play before the advent of MMORPGs. It allowed for multiple players (if the BBS had enough phone lines) to play at once. Later, the game would feature a form of graphical menus using RIPTerm.
IGMs, or In Game Modules, was a popular addition to LORD. It allowed for others to add onto the game and pretty much customize it in any way they wanted. In fact, many IGMs were their own encapulsed game. However, some IGMs were written to be cheating devices, allowing players to do evil things to other players, to give themselves money and gems, and pump up forest and player fights.
Seth Robinson sold the rights to LORD to Metropolis Gameport in 1998.
[edit] Planets: TEOS
The second game released by Seth would be another text-based game, Planets: The Exploration of Space. It would be commonly referred to as Planets: TEOS, it was a space-based trading game, which had players flying to all kinds of planets, buying, selling, and trading items in order to make money. The game even allowed fights that were very similar in style to LORD, allowing players to attack others when they were offline. Players could also attack planets in order to take control of them.
The game featured two sides, the Alliance and the Maraken. Players could join and fight for each side. Players could even own planets for withever side they belonged to. However, they could also play independently and even start their own "guilds" called cartels. It also had a huge Star Trek influence, including references to the Borg and characters from the different Star Trek shows.
Seth Robinson sold the rights to TEOS to Metropolis Gameport in 1998.
[edit] New World
In various releases of Planets: TEOS, a game that Seth had been working on was advertised. This game, New World, would never see release, due to events that were never made public. Instead, another game that Seth came up with inherited the name, Legend of the Red Dragon II: New World. Fans wanted a new game from Seth and wanted New World as well, so he released the official sequel to his original hit, Legend of the Red Dragon.
This game is completely different than the original Red Dragon, with many differences. Instead of a text based menu concept, the game was changed to an ANSI-based graphical map concept. Players controlled a smiley face-like character that could roam around, much like modern MMORPGs. The game was never as successful as the original Red Dragon, but it did gather a cult following.
Seth Robinson sold the rights to LORD II to Metropolis Gameport in 1998.
[edit] Dink Smallwood
In 1997, Robinson Technologies released an adventure/RPG title by the name of Dink Smallwood. This was an effort made by Seth Robinson to move away from BBS door games and into something more profitable. The title featured a zelda-like isometric view and spotlighted the wicked sense of humor of Seth Robinson.
In an attempt to keep the game alive for a little longer, Seth took the idea of IGMs from Legend of the Red Dragon and created "DMods", an addon feature where players could create their own adventure for others to explore. Anyone could create DMods and distribute them as they wished.
On October 17, 1999, Robinson Technologies has released the game to the public for free and can be downloaded without charge from their website.
[edit] Teenage Lawnmower
A 3D action/simulation/interactive story game, where players mowed lawns to make money to support their family. It was an Independent Games Festival finalist at GDC 2003.
[edit] Dungeon Scroll
A spelling game with a dungeon RPG theme. Players spelled words from letters they were given to deal damage to baddies they run in to in the dungeon. It was an Independent Games Festival finalist at GDC 2004.
[edit] Funeral Quest
A multiplayer Flash game, players take the on the role of running their own funeral parlor.
[edit] Other projects
Since the creation of Robinson Technologies, Seth Robinson has worked on many games and various programs. He at one point even had his hands in a video game arcade. Since the release of Dink Smallwood, he has worked on many ports of games to cellular phones and various games for several websites. Some of the phone ports he has worked on includes Duke Nukem.
Robinson Technologies has released several games and programs. The following list are the major notable games that have been developed and released by Robinson Technologies.
- Toolfish Utility Suite
- Reckless Thief
In a January 2006 news post on his website, Seth Robinson alluded to have been working on a brand new game or two.
In October of the same year, the company unveiled the NovaShell game creation system, the technology powering their next game. NovaShell is available on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux under a zlib/libpng-style license.
[edit] Employees
Seth Robinson has had several people help him out with Robinson Technologies over time. They include:
- Akiko Robinson (his wife)
- Shawn Teal
[edit] Trivia
- In the sysop.doc file for Planets: The Exploration of Space, it is noted "RTSoft *IS* Seth A. Robinson and Shawn Teal".
