A port of Asteroids
Asteroids for the Atari 2600 is a port of the arcade space shooter released in November 1979. The player controls a spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers. The objective of the game is to destroy both, asteroids and saucers. The triangular ship can rotate left and right, fire shots straight forward, and thrust forward. Once the ship begins moving in a direction, it will continue in that direction for a time without player intervention unless the player applies thrust in a different direction. The ship eventually comes to a stop when not thrusting. The player can also send the ship into hyperspace, causing it to disappear and reappear in a random location on the screen, at the risk of self-destructing or appearing on top of an asteroid.
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Not much to say hear. It's Asteroids, it's a good time.
Played (with a friend) as part of Atari 50.
Well, I guess they tried. Again, it's missing literally anything aesthetically interesting about the original and there's still not much of a reason to move around. All the flashing and that horrendous audio track is really nauseating tbh, pretty much no reason to come back to this over any of the several better versions in this pack.
Well, I guess they tried. Again, it's missing literally anything aesthetically interesting about the original and there's still not much of a reason to move around. All the flashing and that horrendous audio track is really nauseating tbh, pretty much no reason to come back to this over any of the several better versions in this pack.
Perhaps the easiest version of Asteroids.
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 1: Atari Vol 1
Asteroids often for me is very take it or leave it but hoo boy. I get what they were going for with this port and I sort of dig the multicoloured rocks but somewhere along the way the coding for the Asteroids just failed completely and they move so lazily in such predictable patterns.
Its entirely possible to rack up megapoints by just staying absolutely still and shooting from the centre, never once touching the thrusters to actually move around the stage.
So basically its babys first Asteroids. Its not the worst but its so simple that it basically gets stale rather fast.
Asteroids often for me is very take it or leave it but hoo boy. I get what they were going for with this port and I sort of dig the multicoloured rocks but somewhere along the way the coding for the Asteroids just failed completely and they move so lazily in such predictable patterns.
Its entirely possible to rack up megapoints by just staying absolutely still and shooting from the centre, never once touching the thrusters to actually move around the stage.
So basically its babys first Asteroids. Its not the worst but its so simple that it basically gets stale rather fast.
(Atari 50)
Playing this after the arcade version is really making me appreciate the value of modern consoles being able to easily pull off arcade perfect ports
Playing this after the arcade version is really making me appreciate the value of modern consoles being able to easily pull off arcade perfect ports
I had a few weeks of school in the cool, yet warm twilight of an April evening. I had a spontaneous and undiagnosable urge to play Astroids, God would only know why.
I booted up the game and just became entranced. My mind was full of questions. Why is the spaceship stuck in between a bunch of astroids? Is help on the way? How long will this situation take? While every arcade game has the secondary goal of simply surviving, surviving is also part of Astroids aesthetic/theme, even the music creates tension and dread. PAC-MAN’s goal is to eat, and while the power pellets are an offensive and defensive tool to aid in that, the goal of survival is not as intertwined to the main goal as the more astroids that are shot, the more screen space you have to work with.
The awkward moving is genius as it helps create interesting situations and rewards skill full movement, even if you can get away with just sitting there in the early game.
The 3 options available to you by pressing down, while I don’t think are necessary balanced in my possibly not correct opinion (I am basically going off first impressions here) they don’t necessarily need to be. While the warp might suck as a panic button, it is still a panic button and it teaches you to not get yourself into those situations in the first place.
The shield, while will blow you up within 2 seconds of holding in the same vain to Jigglypuff’s shield in the Super Smash Brothers series, feels so rewarding to use as it is a very effective dodge.
The final option allows you to flip 180°. This is extremely interesting as not only does it allow you to speed up aiming, it allows for interesting movement such as moving away from a set of astroids, then flipping 180° to safely shoot at them. In short the warp is there to teach you as it is probably the first one you will use being set to game 1 and the other 2 are designed to be useful, but require thinking.
TL;DR:
I played Astroids and started contemplating the loneliness and cruelness of space and sometimes Earth.
I booted up the game and just became entranced. My mind was full of questions. Why is the spaceship stuck in between a bunch of astroids? Is help on the way? How long will this situation take? While every arcade game has the secondary goal of simply surviving, surviving is also part of Astroids aesthetic/theme, even the music creates tension and dread. PAC-MAN’s goal is to eat, and while the power pellets are an offensive and defensive tool to aid in that, the goal of survival is not as intertwined to the main goal as the more astroids that are shot, the more screen space you have to work with.
The awkward moving is genius as it helps create interesting situations and rewards skill full movement, even if you can get away with just sitting there in the early game.
The 3 options available to you by pressing down, while I don’t think are necessary balanced in my possibly not correct opinion (I am basically going off first impressions here) they don’t necessarily need to be. While the warp might suck as a panic button, it is still a panic button and it teaches you to not get yourself into those situations in the first place.
The shield, while will blow you up within 2 seconds of holding in the same vain to Jigglypuff’s shield in the Super Smash Brothers series, feels so rewarding to use as it is a very effective dodge.
The final option allows you to flip 180°. This is extremely interesting as not only does it allow you to speed up aiming, it allows for interesting movement such as moving away from a set of astroids, then flipping 180° to safely shoot at them. In short the warp is there to teach you as it is probably the first one you will use being set to game 1 and the other 2 are designed to be useful, but require thinking.
TL;DR:
I played Astroids and started contemplating the loneliness and cruelness of space and sometimes Earth.