"Robot World Arena" is one of two levels described by Randy Reddig (Double Aught) as "co-op carnage breaks...because all "co-operative" games degenerate into carnage eventually."

Co-op for those of you who haven't indulged is a way of playing the solo levels as a team (i.e. co-operatively). All players teleport to the next level when the first person reaches the exit terminal.

The original idea was to have "Robot World Arena" and "Two for the Price of One" accessible only when you play co-op.

This is true for "Robot World Arena". The exit terminal to "Robot World Arena" on "Rise Robot Rise" is only accessible for about 5 seconds (real time) after activating the switch in the room below. This is not enough time to reach the terminal when playing solo. At least two players are needed. One to flip the switch and one to read the terminal. (See below for a correction on this.)

However you will only be teleported off "Rise Robot Rise" from this terminal if you get the 2nd (success) message displayed. This will be displayed when one player reaches the final room and activates the Enforcers and Hunters. Contrary to some opinion you do not need to complete your mission. Mission? Yeah, remember you're Tycho's boy here.

Your mission is simple, kill all of the enforcers in the
area, as they follow the orders of the captain. You will be
supported by the rest of the crew. They think they're
following orders from Tfear High Command. Bugs are so
obedient.

<Rise Robot Rise (Terminal 0: 1st Message)>

If you keep all the Enforcers alive by killing all the other Pfhor first (yeah that really pisses Tycho off big time!) you will still be teleported out.

As Durandal would say:

Don't believe everything you read.

Indeed it is possible to ignore much of Tycho's commands in Despair and still makes it through to Rage.

The objective on "Robot World Arena" is to have some co-op carnage fun but also pick up two uplink chips. Getting off this level is similar to "Rise Robot Rise". One person must flip a switch to reveal a secret exit terminal another person reads the terminal.

The original idea on "Poor Yorick" was for the co-op players to use the two uplink chips found on "Robot World Arena" to activate two underwater doors in order to reach a terminal (Shakespeare's Sonnet 131) which teleported you to the second co-op carnage break level "Two for the Price of One".

However, these underwater doors are also player activated during solo play allowing a single player to reach "Two for the Price of One". Access to "Two for the Price of One" for the solo player offers the opportunity to grab additional weapons and ammo.

Oddly "Two for the Price of One" takes you directly to "Electric Sheep One" and not "Confound Delivery" which is actually the next level in the game. I can only imagine that this is a mistake.

Having a Rocket Launcher on "Electric Sheep One" allows the solo player direct access to "Electric Sheep Two". The cryptic code string on Terminal 3 of the Marathon level "Arrival" has alot to answer for.

00000378003E000007FE0032000011AE00080001AF420000
06726F636B657421000000000000000006726F636B657421
0000000000000000

Why the second teleporter on "Electric Sheep One" is activate is not clear. Bypassing the first half of the Rage chapter makes no sense in terms of solo play.

The fact that both "Robot World Arena" and "Two for the Price of One" were originally designed for co-op play indicates that the terminals on these levels and indeed the terminals which allow access to these levels were never designed to be seen during solo play. Thus the text could be ignored by the solo player wishing to better understand the Infinity story.

Shakespeare is only for co-op players it seems! ;-)

Charles Lechasseur <clechas@qc.autoroute.net> writes:

on your page, you say that Robot World Arena is reachable in co-op mode only. having reached the level in solo play, i disagree. :)

if you do it _really_ quickly, it is possible to read the term as the platform is coming down. use the alien weapons to activate the switches. of course, you have to get straight on the tiny elevator, which is pretty difficult...

Charles provided a film to demonstrate that it was possible. You can see it here. Concerning his film Charles writes:

i had forgotten that you needed to complete the level in order to reach Robot World, but you can see that it _is_ possible to read the term - and if i had finished the level, i would've reached the secret level.

(after i read the term, the rest of the film is me finishing the level then trying to read the term again, then giving up. you can skip that... :)

Here is another film by Jimmy Mitchell <jmitch@mail.erskine.edu> on Total Carnage.