A remake of Asteroids
Like in the original Asteroids the objective is to score as many points as possible by destroying asteroids and flying saucers. The asteroids come in three different sizes. If the player fires at and hits a large asteroid, it breaks into medium size asteroids. If the player fires at and hits a medium asteroid, it breaks into small asteroids. If a player fires at and hits a small asteroid, it disappears. Different points are awarded for hitting each size of asteroid, and for hitting flying saucers. The player controls a ship that can rotate left and right, fire shots straight forward, and thrust forward. Asteroids Deluxe replaces the hyperspace feature with shields which deplete with use. Other differences include asteroids which rotate and a new enemy which is dubbed a "killer satellite" which would, when shot, break apart into three smaller ships that homed in on the player's position. The screen of the game is wrapped both vertically and horizontally so that if any object moves past the top edge of the screen it reappears on the bottom edge at the same lateral location, and if it moves past the left side of the screen, it reappears on the right side of the screen in the same vertical location. Asteroids Deluxe swaps vector graphics of the original for bitmaps. In 2007, AtariAge self-published a cart release of Asteroids Deluxe for the Atari 7800.
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Fixes most of my problems with the original Asteroids on a surface level but still isn't really better by much, definitely less interesting overall since it's not even remotely as canonical as the original. The homing enemies do give you a real reason to move, but they come in 6 at a time and don't follow you past the borders of the screen which is really annoying to fight against. The shield is a lot more useful than the hyperspeed but it's less interesting and most times you'd want to use it you can also just move out of the way. Overall, it's fine, same as the original Asteroids.
The Killer Satellite is a cool cool addition here, adding a lot more strategic weight to how the player paces out waves of asteroids. Since Killer Satellites only spawn towards the end of a wave, and since they're worth a lot of points, it's sometimes worth leaving a lone chunk or two of asteroid so the game will spawn one or two more; at the same time, the Killer Satellites aren't pure gimmes to the player, since you still have to worry about shooting them all apart, making sure you're keeping track of where the pieces are, keeping ahead of them OR timing it right when evading them, and monitoring for asteroid chunks/flying saucers. Quite a lot of moment-to-moment thinking the player's doing, on top of the original game's consolidation of early innovations. This one holds up quite well.