Asteroids

The Atari 2600 version of Asteroids is not a thing of beauty, however it is a game that is simple to play. So simple that even I, a child could make the high score board loop over. I used to think that was so awesome, that I was great at the game, then I picked it up as an adult and was able to do it again. This time my thoughts were not how awesome I was, but how easy this game is. You are a pilot, in a space ship flying in space. Suddenly asteroids come at you, wave after wave! You must use your blaster, something every ship has, but the government keeps it from us! While blasting the asteroids you may have to take out a satellite or two. Things become really scary when aliens attack in their small UFO that has a blaster as well! Space is a scary place full of a bunch of junk that must be eradicated! The game does a good job for an Atari game with the movement of the asteroids and the way they fragment into pieces and it is somewhat enjoyable to play. Unfortunately, the difficulty does not seem to get any more difficult as the game progresses. Hence, the ease that a gamer will have making the score loop around back to zero. Not like Yar's Revenge where the difficulty becomes noticeably greater the further you last or nearly any other Atari game of this era. Then again, a lot of those games got to hard like Space Invaders where they shot across the screen once and crushed you!

This particular version of ASTEROIDS was released in 1981 for the Atari 2600 home gaming system. While it's still fun, it pales in comparison to the 1979 arcade version.

First of all, the graphics are substandard, shoddy, and generally inferior to its predecessor. The arcade version showcased clear and very well-defined vector-based graphics that were truly top-notch for the time. The 2600 version has a bunch of brightly colored messy blobs that are constantly flashing because of the unavoidable "too many sprites on the screen at one time" dilemma. It's a real eyesore, and becomes too tough to stand after a while.

Secondly, the sound here is irritating and repetitive. The constant high-pitched noise of the spaceship firing is seriously headache-inducing. Also, in the coin-op version the ambient background sounds really helped get the adrenalin pumping, and sometimes made the game just too nerveracking to handle. In this version, these sounds just plain don't work.

Lastly, and most upsettingly, this game is just too damn easy! Even on the maximum difficulty level I was able to max out the high score with very little effort. While playing the arcade version, it was a one-of-a-kind, exhilarating experience if you made the high score list. With this particular version, however, the gameplay is way too monotonous to really want to bother trying.

In spite of this game's many faults, though, it remains a classic, important addition to any Atari afficionado's cartridge collection. Just be sure to play it with the volume down!

Great things to say about this game are its crisp graphics for the day, physics, and smooth game play. In addition to turning and shooting, there's thrust to move and 'hyperspace' to vanish and re-appear in a random location. Both thrust and hyperspace can get you out of a fix in a hurry, but the risk is high of ending up in a worse-off spot. U. F. O.s add flavour and points to the mix as well.

Controls needed the most help, everything was button based whereas a joystick would've really come in handy and be a more natural fit. There's no on-screen intro, story, or conclusion to the game which isn't necessarily a surprise for the day but would certainly motivate a player to succeed or at least keep coming back.

Important arcade game in history, well worth a few quarters.

This is available in the Atari 50 anniversary celebration along with around 150 other classics most of which I haven't gotten around to playing yet.

The emulation is smooth. I didn't encounter any problems with that at all and based on having played other stuff in an arcade I believe this to be a very accurate authentic way to play it.

I think it's noteworthy that this is something that when it was remade they didn't try to really change it too much.

25 years ago I had a more refined version of this and all they changed was upgrading the visuals. Comparatively the DX ball games change a ton from the original which I think is called Arkanoid or something along those lines.

This succeeds in part due to the same thing it's kin sometimes does. It takes a very simple concept and runs with it.

You control a rocket ship. It uses tank controls so you have to turn rather than strafe and there is no button to brake, rather you'll simply have to turn to face the opposite direction and then briefly use the throttle.

You can shoot pretty fast and they allow several projectiles at the same time. There are occasional Ufos of two different sizes and you'll want to take those out before they disappear. In part for the value and also because you don't really want them doing your job for you.

At first they might appear to have unpredictable movement patterns but after a while you will work it out and be able to predict where they'll go which is of course a good place to aim your fire.

If anything moves past the leftmost edge of the screen it will appear on the right with the same speed angle and position. Vice versa and the same is true for up and down. This is extremely important to keep in mind if you want to do well at this.

What you are especially intended to do here is destroy the titular asteroids. If you do so more will appear this time moving faster. When you shoot one it will immediately be taken out.

Nothing in this can withstand even one direct hit. Now this was not the first time that you could blast something in one of these.

However when you do so here it will come apart into 2 medium sized ones Taking out those will lead to an additional 2 small ones and when they're gone that's it.

That means that when you see one of them technically there's 5 total. The smaller they are the faster they move. And they'll go off in other directions than the one you just took out was moving.

Hypothetically you can take out all of them within a short space of time once you have the practice but it may not be the best way to go. It depends tremendously on how much there is already flying around.

Each thing you take out will give you points and when you get 10 thousand of them you get another life. You start out with three total. So you can see how this could have absolutely eaten quarters back in the day. It is definitely addictive.

This is very much one of those where once you've played for minutes you'll have tried everything that it has to offer. I don't think it's an accident that the number of Titles in the earlier mentioned collection is so high. Some of them are very short.

In addition to what I've already mentioned this also has a feature referred to as hyperspace. Essentially if you press the down arrow you go there and then return at a random point and while it can get you out of a sticky situation it can also land you in a new one you'll have to play the odds if you use it.

Graphics are of course dictated by the limitations of the technology. I do love when they use that as sort of a secret weapon. It's set in space so of course it's empty and black. Similar to how you spend a chunk of the first Prince of Persia game in a dungeon which is Gray black and unadorned. It makes perfect sense but is of course also necessary.

The sound design is great. There's a crunchy visceral quality to it. Explosions feel big and earned. The music gradually increases in intensity in a very effective way. It walks this interesting razor's edge between calling too much attention to itself but also not being easy to just ignore since obviously the idea is for us to notice and act accordingly.

Like other arcade games this is very much a case of you are meant to play it for a while before you get any good at it. There are very specific rules for how the different things herein behave and you learn them as you go until you get to a point where you can get a really impressive high score.

It doesn't really start small and easy or give you a lot of advantages early on the way that more recent video games often do. I'm not saying that one of these approaches is better than the other and again it is in part because of what they could do back then.

The way that we consume this media has also changed tremendously. When this kind of stuff was first coming out you had to go to a specific building or you had a limited selection at home.

Today we have so many that you actually have to look at some of the longest ones and decide not to rather than having access to a number of different ones.

This does not feature rewind or save states despite the core engine having it elsewhere such as in the Disney Afternoon Collection. That does make a lot of sense since whether you've played this for a few minutes or an hour it is essentially the same.

There's not such a thing as level design. It stays the same, just big and empty throughout. I think the frequency of the alien ship changes over the course of this and that's about it other than what I've already mentioned.

I quite appreciate that you can read certain things about this in this version. This includes the original flyer. I had no idea that the phrase Easy to learn hard to master was quite this old. It does apply incredibly well to this.

This is also one of those that is referenced in a bunch of different places even today. Michael Biehn has a podcast. There's a sentence that just a few years ago you could not have convinced me would describe reality. In it you can actually see a machine with this behind him. It also pops up in movies and shows. 8/10.

Rated E

Pong released in 1972 was the first video game ever made. It was made for the Atari system and didn't have good graphics due to its time yet its a good game.Same for Asteroids.That game was also in the CD I got in the cereal box.This game came out in 1979.THis game is better than Pong.Better graphics and gameplay.What you do is you use your spaceship to shoot asteroids.No real plot but back then no one cared about plot.THis game was great for its time.Now its just okay.Its one of the few games that actually work in my atari CD-Rom.Get this game if you can find it for free or for a very cheap price.

7/10