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As reported by Polygon, Tastemakers is releasing a new Arcade1Up series of 4 foot tall home arcade machines for just $399 each. Set to come out this fall, the only catch is that these 3/4 scale arcade machines have to be self assembled, although Tastemakers is promising that the process is a simple one. The Centipede headline cabinet also comes with Breakout, Millipede, and Missile Command, and features a trackball, which is good for everything but Breakout, which really needs a spinner. The Asteroids Deluxe headline cabinet also comes with Asteroids, Major Havoc, and Tempest, and features the classic Asteroids-style button configuration, as well as a spinner, which is needed for both Tempest and Major Havoc. The Capcom machine appears to just have Street Fighter 2. All of these cabinets feature a 17" LCD screen. While that rules out a true vector display for the Asteroids Deluxe machine, I have to say that that one is the most appealing to me because of the more authentic controls. Of course, the Centipede machine does have a certain appeal, even if I can't see myself enjoying Breakout with a trackball. Hopefully the Tastemakers custom emulator is up to snuff and the build quality is reasonable considering the amazingly low price.
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Hi Everyone, Asteroids Attack was my first long play homebrew published by Game Select in 2019 e again 2022. Again, @ZeroPage Homebrew help me a lot testing the game since first versions and many ideas by people were applied. Some weeks ago we started international sales from a new batch of boxes. The game is made in Brazil. At the time I didn't make any post here on the forum and now some people suggested leaving a record, so more people can have access to the game. Homebrew Awards: Asteroids Attack in the year 2020 was nominated by the Atari Homebrew Awards as one of the best original games of the year, ranking fourth and also nominated for best sound and music, ranking second. I was really surprised by the nomination, as this was my first game, the one that wasn't just a test and I really put in a lot of time on it. Synopsis: The newly discovered Planet X, on its first pass through the Solar System, upsets the harmony of the asteroid belt, hurling thousands of asteroids towards Earth. Upon learning of the destructive power of the event, a fleet of ships were sent with the mission to destroy all asteroids that threaten the planet. But during the mission, something terrible is discovered, and the asteroid horde becomes the least of their problems. Musics and Sounds: It was a requirement that I really put a lot of my time on it. Each of the game's waves has a different background music in a total of nine songs. Each of these songs are known. I took a small piece of music from the arcades games of the 80's from the most loved games by Brazilians. A lot of people will listen and say, "I've heard that somewhere". My favorite is from wave 8, Tiger Heli. Some Technical Information This is a 32k game and no free space. I used the Standard Kernel because the playfield scrolling was essential for the game, it's the starfield. I needed it to generate the speed effect. Now, after some experience and getting to know the Batari Basic tool better, I know that I could generate this effect in another way, allowing me to use the Multisprite Kernel and minimize the flicking effect. Maybe in the future I'll remake the game. Easter Egg The Asteroids Attack EASTER EGG was revealed some months ago As promised, a year after the release of Asteroids Attack, we're revealing the game's Easter Egg. Still not able to save the Earth? Now you will have another chance. Take your game out of the closet, clean the dust and put your Atari to work. ### EASTER EGG ### He gives you infinite continues. ### CONDITION ### You can not have any left ship, only the game play one, that is, your last life. ### CONSEQUENCE ### Your score will be reset. ### HOW TO ACTIVATE? ### At that moment, pause the game by setting the Color switch to B/W position. Then activate the Game Select and Game Start keys at the same time. Back to the game returning the B/W switch to the Color position. All your reserve ships will return. Videos to enjoy Here a small gameplay trailer. A real gameplay. (A special edition with intro animation) And an unboxing. (Please, use subtitles in english) (Special edition unboxing) Talking about the demo version What I notice is that most of the demos released take just the first stages and put them in a loop. In Asteroids Attack, as I did in Space Pac-Man, I didn't want to do that, because the player couldn't have a good experience and could pass the perception of a boring game, since the first stages are easy. So the demo version was carefully planned to give a balanced gameplay experience. The demo you have 3 short waves plus Earth return. International sales are open A new batch of the game is on sale again, please contact us at atarigameselect@gmail.com. You can also get a lot of information on our homepage at http://www.gameselect.com.br. Downloads Download the demo and a pdf copy of the complete original manual below. Asteroids Attack (2020) (Demo 2, Game Select).bin Manual Asteroids Attack-Eng.pdf
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A while back Tempest shared a great idea of adding a menu screen for Atari games which had their options laid out in a matrix at the back of the manual. I really loved that idea because it breathes some new life into these old games. Menu screens are great because they take away the awfulness of having to use the select switch to cycle through all 112 options of Space Invaders, and lets you know what game you are selecting in Video Olympics. You can also choose valid game types for the amount of players that you have. Example: Games: Video Olympics - Video Olympics Menu.zip Space Invaders - Space Invaders Menu.zip Super Breakout - Super Breakout Menu.zip Asteroids - Asteroids Menu Combat - Combat Menu Indy 500 - Indy 500 Menu Warlords - Warlords Menu Hangman - Hangman Menu Championship Soccer - Championship Soccer Menu Outlaw - Outlaw Menu - START -
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Hello, this is Al E. Gator. And this is my episode. I'm discussing my favorite game of all time: Asteroids. I'd like to hear some of your memories of this here game. What were your highest scores? How long did you play it at one time? Stuff like that. Hope you is all okay and having a good summer.
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NOW RELEASED: 2021-12-14 The first information from the producer, via a Tweet. Trailer now out.
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Hey all, I bought an Asteroids Deluxe arcade cabinet (1979/1980) about 6 months ago, but after doing a lot of work on cleaning and fixing up various parts, and trying and get it working, I think I need to give up on it and pass it on to someone who knows more about these cabinets so that they can give it the life it deserves. Any advice on where to post something like that? Local Craigslist seems too limited. I'm only looking to get the $ I put into it back. I'd appreciate any advice.
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From the album: My Collection
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Team Pixelboy and resident custom controller expert doubledown are seriously considering teaming up to offer retrogaming fans a high-quality Asteroids controller, which would reproduce the look and feel of the original arcade cabinet of Asteroids. We are also considering involving long-time collaborator Mystery Man to create an arcade-accurate version of Asteroids for the ColecoVision, and include this game as a pack-in cartridge with the controller. This proposed Asteroids controller would also be compatible with the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 versions of Asteroids (and would be compatible with several other games as well) so the ColecoVision pack-in cartridge would be completely optional at purchase time. The proposed controller has an estimated price tag of 150$US (this does not include the cost of the pack-in game) and because of the required investments in part purchases from various vendors, we feel we should gauge public interest before we commit to this project. It should be noted that we need at least 50 solid pre-orders to make it worth the trouble for us, so we invite you to submit your input in this poll. The results of this poll will influence certain technical details, but in the end, if we decide to go full steam ahead with this special project, we will reserve ourselves the right to set the final specifications of the controller as we see fit. BASIC SPECIFICATIONS We envision two variants of this controller, which we like to call the Asteroids Upright Edition - VVG Enhanced Controller and the Asteroids Cabaret Edition – VVG Enhanced Controller. The first features the full-color artwork from the upright arcade cabinet of Asteroids, while the other is in black and white, and features the artwork of the "cabaret-style" cabinet of Asteroids, with some woodgrain decoration applied on the sides of the controller for added nostalgia. As the proposed Asteroids controller is designed to replicate the look and feel of the arcade cabinet, it would feature 5 buttons, plus a sixth button for extra ColecoVision compatibility. All buttons will be leaf-switch push-buttons (we’re currently looking at GGG CLASSX push-buttons with their True-Leaf Pro switch upgrade) and will be of matching size, style, color, and layout of the original arcade cabinets. The buttons will be wired as follows: - ROTATE LEFT = Joystick Left - ROTATE RIGHT = Joystick Right - HYPERSPACE = Joystick Down - THRUST = Joystick Up - FIRE = Left trigger button - (Unmarked sixth button) = Right trigger button The placement of the unmarked sixth button (mapped to the right trigger button of the ColecoVision controller) made us consider two sub-variants, one where the sixth button is located in the center of the controller, below the Hyperspace button, and the other sub-variant has the sixth button placed next to the fire button, in order to have the two fire buttons next to each other. On the "upright" full-color model, the sixth button will be either red or blue, depending on its position on the controller. The selected button color will help the sixth button blend with the color of the artwork. On the "cabaret" black-and-white model, the sixth button will be black, regardless of its position. All other buttons will be white, on both the "upright" and "cabaret" models. Here are some pictures to illustrate: Asteroids (Upright) - VVG Enhanced Controller - 6th Button Centered Asteroids (Cabaret) - VVG Enhanced Controller - 6th Button Centered Asteroids (Upright) - VVG Enhanced Controller - 6th Button Right Asteroids (Cabaret) - VVG Enhanced Controller - 6th Button Right As you can see, the buttons are placed high on the controller's surface, in order to provide sufficient resting space for the player's palms and wrists. We feel this is an important ergonomic comfort factor, especially for long play sessions. The controller's enclosure will be a Hammond Mfg. 14.00" x 8.25" black aluminum, sloped-top housing. While we feel the enclosure looks (and for the most part feels) very nice, we believe it falls short in two aspects, namely its assembly and its weight. The enclosure itself is constructed as two "c-shaped" powder-coated aluminum forms, assembled with four #6 sheet-metal screws on the bottom side; two along the front edge, and two along the rear. The concern we have with this is that nothing supports the upright sides from flexing outward (creating an unsightly gap) and nothing supports the large, flat, top surface from bowing downward. To remedy both of these issues, and to give the controller a more solid feel overall, we want to install two steel angle braces which will connect the sides of the enclosure to the underside of the top surface. Additionally the steel braces (one mounted on each side, and running front to back) nicely bump up the "bare" enclosure weight from 2.36 lbs (1.07 kg) to 3.15 lbs (1.43 kg). Lastly, we will ditch the manufacturer's assembly screws, and new #8-32 machine screws will be used for the housing assembly. All of these modifications strengthen, and beef up the enclosure to our quality standards, but do require additional hardware, and add approximately 1 to 1.5 extra hours to the overall build/assembly time of each controller. The surface artwork would be photo-quality inkjet printed (with photo inks) on premium photo paper (Epson or HP depending on availability), then dual-side, heat-laminated, with 5 mil glossy laminating media with UV protection. So unless someone were to "scratch" or "stab" the controller's surface with a sharp tool/knife/keys purposely and/or maliciously, it should last indefinitely. A few aspects of this proposed Asteroids controller are currently undetermined, including the cable length and a few other minor details, but we intend to include some sort of cable management on the rear of the enclosure, such as a cable wrapping cleat or something similar. Four adhesive backed round rubber feet will also be placed under the controller for improved stability. Important note: There will be NO keypad on this controller, so don't bother asking about that. PACK-IN GAME CARTRIDGE For the ColecoVision pack-in cartridge, if we actually decide to go ahead with that, we are considering two possibilities: A 32K cartridge with just Asteroids on it, or a 128K multicart with Asteroids together with hacked versions of Carnival, Omega Race, Space Fury, Star Trek, Victory, and perhaps one other game. All these extra hacks would have small alterations to make them fully compatible with the Asteroids controller, and also to remove any need for a keypad. Note that the added sixth controller button would be useful for Star Trek and Victory. Also note that the multicart option will likely be more expensive than a cartridge with just Asteroids on it. PRE-ORDERING AND PAYMENTS If the results of this poll demonstrate that there is sufficient interest in the proposed Asteroids controller, the project should follow this general time line over the course of 2020: 1) We will record initial pre-orders from all interested customers without requesting any advanced deposit. 2) We will get the Asteroids game (or multi-cart) coded by Mystery Man and properly beta-tested. This will likely take several months. 3) Once the pack-in cartridge is ready, we will contact all customers again and ask for a Paypal deposit, which will be sent directly to doubledown. 4) With the money collected, doubledown will order parts and get started on the Asteroids controllers. 5) Once all controllers and pack-in carts are ready to ship, we will notify customers and ask for remaining payments (including shipping fees). If you have any questions about this proposed time line, feel free to post such questions in this poll thread, and we'll try to answer them to the best of our ability. CLOSING NOTE While we are considering several options, we are ultimately looking to produce one singular model of the controller. By that, we mostly mean that the sixth button will always be in the same spot on all the manufactured controllers. If there is a clear public consensus regarding the upright versus cabaret schemes (i.e. full color versus black-and-white) we will only produce controllers following the preferred scheme, unless some people are ready to pay extra to get exactly what they want in terms of artwork. We will let this poll run for a couple of weeks before making any kind of final decision regarding this project. Thanks in advance for your input.
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I did an analysis and write-up on the arcade version of Asteroids that goes into the details of the game design and physics: Asteroids: By the Numbers. I'm curious what people think about it, especially veterans of the game who are intimately familiar with the mechanics. I thought about going into collision probabilities and survival times against the aliens, but didn't know if there would be enough interest to warrant the time investment. Note that the numbers in the article are estimates based on screen measurements and weren't extracted from the code.
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Make me an offer if the Real Sports stick appeals to you....it plays GREAT. Will also sell the Starplex controllers for 30$ each, shipped in the US only. PRICE DROPPED on remaining RealSports controller. $65 shipped, OR, $80 shipped with your choice of Starplex-like controller (See bottom) Buy yourself something nice for Christmas so I can too! Each stick is $80.00 $65.00 shipped. Shipment to US only via USPS mail with tracking. Payment via Paypal. See bottom for Space Invaders/Starplex style controllers bundle pricing *****XEVIOUS STICK SOLD**** Xevious mini-stick micro switch joystick from (where else) China two new Sanwa buttons Original 7800 cord, wired for proper 2 button play Real Sports 7800 Arcade Stick for all those awesome Real Sports 7800 games... New Happ Stick New Happ Buttons Original 7800 cord, wired for 2 button play This one has a small scuff on the top right, a small wrinkle in the vinyl on the back, and other minor imperfections. The vinyl was all hand-cut and laid. *****COMMANDER JOYSTICK SOLD***** Atari 7800 Commander, 1 of 3 New Seimitsu Stick with cut down Atari 7800 control knob New Sanwa Buttons fancy pants chrome logo Original 7800 cord, wired for 2 button play Space Invaders/Starplex style controller Generic buttons in generic cases, overlaid in different vinyls. Fatty, chrome, and black. White buttons are left/right. Green thrust, blue warp, red fire. All feel great in the hand. Real Atari 2600 cords. If buying any of the arcade style sticks above, you can choose any one of these controllers for an additional $20, coming to a $100 total. First buy of the big boy controller, first choice on the starplex jr. (I have sold 4 of these Starplex style controllers previously, each at $40.) If, after a period of time, nothing is selling, I will consider selling these separately.
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I've got a new discovery of a special joystick that can get digital control games on the Atari 2600 and 5200 like Asteroids (2600), Gravitar (2600), Meteorites(5200), and Star Trek (2600 & 5200) to be more analog for fine-tuning the placement of your shots. This can also be helpful on The Earth Dies Screaming and Wizard of War. On the flip side this variance in movement of your onscreen character may not be such a good idea in certain digital games because it may slow you down when you need to always be full-steam-ahead (ie. PacMan, Dig Dug, Frogger, Q-bert, etc...). But on the certain digital-control games which require specific shot placement or character placement, it's going to enhance your control. I am really excited to tell you that Gravitar is especially awesome with this new method of control. I have yet to try Pitfall or Pitfall II with this method, but I can imagine there'd be a benefit with them as well. So I'd like to go over the details of how to set this up on the 2600. First you will need an original Playstation flightstick made by Madcatz. This controller has a switch to enable digital or 'pulse' digital control. The latter mode is similar to what is offered by the Atari Trakball for the 2600 and Atari 8 bit computers when it's in joystick mode. It delivers pulses when making smaller movements to slow things down a bit. In other words, it gives a pseudo-analog movement of your character/ship. To get it to work on the 2600, you'll need the following adapters between the 2600 and the flightstick: 1) Best Electronics Sega Genesis controllers to Atari Systems Adapter cable (Source: Best Electronics- call their 800 number to order) 2) A Tototek Joypad Converter (Version MD). This allows Playstation controllers to work on a 9 pin port of a Sega Genesis. (Source: Tototek website) Alternate method: 1) Buy a hard to find adapter made by Innovation that converts Playstation controllers to 15 pin PC gameports called the Smartjoy Emulator Adapter. (Source: Ebay (as of right now these are quite expensive)) 2) Obtain an inexpensive 15 pin PC gameport to 9 pin Atari/Amiga/Amstrad controller adapter (Source: Ebay seller Ikonsgr74) Methods for getting the Madcatz Flightstick connected to your 5200 are found here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/284238-new-discovery-for-going-beyond-digital-control-on-your-5200-games/?do=findComment&comment=4140266 If you want to see a presentation/tutorial on this, here you go: https://youtu.be/igynk3Tfy6E
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In my latest episode of my Youtube channel I discuss Asteroids and the various ports of the game. I know that most of us have probably played this game more than we care to admit, but I still love it and had a blast (pun intended) playing it again for this episode. Enjoy!
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I made a custom sound font for this game in the 1990s (available below). This shows off a little bit of the sounds: This game was originally for Macintosh OS8 OS9. Very fun Asteroids with bonus pick-ups and digitized sound. It was released as muti-platform PC using SDL. The game can be downloaded here: https://www.libsdl.org/projects/Maelstrom/ My custom sound font is attached. You back-up the existing Maelstrom_Sounds. Unzip my attached file, and replace the original with my sound. Maelstrom_Sounds.zip I usually remap the controls to the keypad as 4=left 6=right 5-fire "where your thumb rests"=thrust and then "to the left of where your thumb rests OR spacebar"= shields Then you can play with one hand. Or remap the controls to a controller pad. Comments appreciated. I spent a lot of time finding samples that match what is going on in the game. Some of the default sounds were just too good to change, so I left those alone.
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I had some extra Coleco shells and Atari boards and thought maybe I should try to put them together. Threw in a bit of graphics work for good measure, and here's what came out: Yes they are playable! This was a lot of fun....I really like how Coleco incorporated the arcade marquees in their titles. I'll definitely be giving some other games this treatment as well.
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*PRICE DROP*: $40 per controller shipped, or $75 for the pair. I have for sale two handheld button style controllers based on the Asteroids arcade panel/Starplex Controller. Price is $40 each, shipped in the US only, by Priority Mail. The white buttons are Left and Right, respectively. Green is up (Thrust), Blue is down (Warp) and Red is the fire button. These work great for Asteroids and most games that uses that control scheme. These also work very well for certain other games which don't require quick up/down input or diagonals (like Joust.) Of course this controller would be awful for anything needing quick up/down input or diagonals. Vinyl overlay is a glossy carbon fiber. New cases, new no-brand buttons, with vintage cords from otherwise junk controllers.
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ok, it's no Meteors, but when I put it on my LTO cart I was pretty pleased with it. Not polished or complete but what the heck. It's sort of like Asteroids but you are Invincible (for now). 90 seconds. 1 point for each Planetoid you hit. High Score is saved (until reset at least) If you like it great. Might add to it in the future. God Bless all of you that do sounds and music. I have no skills in that area and this game shows it. comments, ideas, suggestions and/or help are always welcome. I'm throwing this into the forum So I can concetrate on something else for the new contest, though I haven't landed on any good ideas for the contest yet. Enjoy PLANETOID_20180131.rom Planetoid_20180131.bas
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Megaoids - Blasteroids type game now available on cartridge for $39.95 just in time for CyberMonday. The game was influenced by the arcade Blasteroids game. Instead of lives, you have shield energy that go down everytime you collide with an asteroids or exotic matter. The shield energy gets recharge when making contact with those glowing spinning orbs that pop up after destroying the asteroids. This also has fast moving laserbolts, can shoot multiple bolts at once. The game is full of sound effects, power ups, and exotic matter that redirect, grow, or clone the asteroids. I made a game many years ago in Turbobasic XL, many years ago around 1990. I decided to rewrite it totally in assembly language. I took the original font from its Turbobasic counterpart and updated it for this machine language version. As many of us know a 100% machine language port can run and play much smoother. There are more things can be done at the assembly language level that is hard to do in Complied Turbobasic. The Turbobasic version ran into limitations and I always wanted to do better. The orbs are now animated and move, no longer have slow downs, have stars in the background, and many more things move at the same time. The game is available here. http://members.tcq.net/video61/main.html We have also release Laser Blast X on the same day. Megaoids was originally intended to be release in early October but was delayed due to personal issues with a member of our team.
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Greetings, when i was age 9-10, 1982-1983, in Denmark, I think that i played a game on a 2600 in a local Radio/TV store, however i cant seem to find it, ok my memory is sketchy. When thinking of it it reminds me somewhat of asteroids, but you had a dot, moving around your ship, and when you shot the shot would go in the direction of the dot, does a game like this exist? or is it my imagination? -lasse
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Asteroids Asteroids 5200 controller: Has it been found?
Prosystemsearch posted a topic in Atari 5200
Have any other prototypes been found yet? I would love to see repros be made for Atariage. Atariage already did the Redemption, next should be the asteroids controller. -
From the album: Novelty Items
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Asteroids is by far my favorite game to play on my Atari 2600, in that I can easily let it eat huge chunks of my time without getting bored. There's something so simplistically exciting about all those narrow escapes, those across-the-screen snipes, and evading those crafty UFOs. There's three different power-ups to use in Asteroids, and I was wondering which power-up you guys may prefer the most. When going for the ultimate challenge, it's implied a little bit that you'll go in with nothing but your wits, but let's say you're playing for funsies or just for more variety - what's your pick? The Flip, the Hyperspace Warp, or the Shield? My personal go-to is the Flip - being able to pull a quick u-turn is invaluable in situations when asteroids or UFOs have sneaked onto your six. Hyperspace has a habit of dropping me off in the worst possible place, and the Shield almost feels too easy, even with the two second self-destruct switch. The thing about these features, though, is that I often forget that I have them, so even with the Flip equipped I find myself manually turning around.
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I am trying to sell all of these games, but before I do I need to find out how much they are. If anybody can either help me with a link, or a toy appraiser in the Baltimore, Md., York, Pa. or Harrisburg, Pa. areas, I would appreciate it. I do not have a system to test if they work or not, but if they are worth it, I will buy one. They have not been played in around 35 years.
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I am starting to see why games take so long to finish. you never reach the end but you want to start start working on something different. Anyway, I was messing around with the Colorsquare demo/line drawing example from GroovyBee and I can't say how exactly but I ended up with something that is starting to look a little like Asteroids. totally concept at this stage. there is no collision detection, the astroids don't blow up and split into two but I think it looks kind of neat. If you try the ROM it should display a screen with a space ship on it. Left side of disc rotates ship counter clockwise. Right side of disc rotates ship clockwise. Up on disc fires thruster to move ship. There is some overlap so you can rotate and move at the same time. Pressing any button will fire the gigantic torpedo. (Color Square Bloxel) When you fire the first time the "Asteroids" will show up. This is just to randomize their speed and directions. Thoughts?? Source and Rom if anyone wants to play with it. SHIP_012416.BAS ship_012416.rom
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It may have taken a long time, but it finally happened. When I was a kid, we used to go over to my dad’s Aunt Helen’s house. Her teen kids’ Atari was in the shag-carpeted, wood-paneled, beanbag-sporting basement rec room that we lil’ sprouts would gather in at family parties. That machine was like magic, completely mesmerizing me with electronic gaming. We’d gather around it on the floor and play while the grown-ups socialized upstairs. I can’t remember all the games they had, but I have very distinct memories of about a half-dozen that flickered across that screen: Kaboom, Megamania, Frogger, Pitfall, Space Invaders, Keystone Kapers, and Asteroids. As I grew up through the NES age, I never lost my love for the classics, but my secret shame among my group of “retro gaming” friends (though we didn’t have a term for it in the late-‘80s and mid-‘90s), was that I never liked Asteroids. It was iconic, and I remember enjoying whizzing along in a spaceship and shooting stuff when I was a tot, but as someone who liked video games, I just never took to it. I wouldn’t tell anyone -- that’s like saying you hate Pac-Man or Donkey Kong. It’s understandable to hate Defender -- it’s too hard! But Asteroids? Everybody loves Asteroids. Except me. The strange gravity, lack of reverse thrust, the arcade’s “button only” controls, the unfairness of the hyperspace respawn (always right in front of a space rock!). It just made me mad. Repeatedly. So I was never any good. And in that "Silver Age of Console Gaming", I had enough other games with more flash and “tighter” space shooter controls to draw my attention, so I never got good at the older model. Of course, I couldn’t knock the game. I mean... It’s ASTEROIDS. It wasn’t a bad game. I just hated it. So, flash forward to this week. Money’s been tight lately, and while I still have the urge to buy games and stuff, I’m generally trying not to cross any of the “high-ticket” items off my wishlist. I’ve got all the games I can reasonably play (via flash carts and an already fleshed-out collection), so to scratch that collecting itch, I’m sticking to cheap stuff ($10-ish). That lends itself to filling in some small gaps in my Atari collection. The other day, my wife and I took a trip to a game store that I knew had a shelf or two of boxed Atari stuff in varying conditions, thinking, “Maybe I’ll find something fun.” [The guy that works there is a motormouth schmo with ears like a hawk who loves to eavesdrop. I told Mrs. S as we went in, “Don’t encourage him. Just get in and out without interacting. Do not engage.”] One of the categories on my wishlist has been to get decent-condition boxed copies of those “Aunt Helen’s basement” games. The idea that, if all my other stuff went up in smoke, I could start over with just those games, in boxes, in good condition. To once again seed the garden. After all, those were the ones that sparked my love in the first place, and should therefore be crown jewels in my collection. I've already got several of that handful. comb through what they've got, and spot a copy of Asteroids. The top flap is a little thrashed in spots, but with a supposed "buy-one, get-one” deal, I can score it for $5. I hem and haw and almost don’t but then I do. "Sure, why not?" The fact that I'm not a fan makes the box damage easier to swallow. Even though it’s at the bottom of my short "boxed Atari wishlist”, I decide it’s a classic and cheap and will be a nice addition to the collection. As a gamer, I don’t tend to collect cardboard boxes. To each their own, (except people that only buy sealed games and never open any -- I don't understand that at all), so when I buy a boxed game, I try to make sure to get the game out and play it a bit to make sure I’m not just paying for paper (again, to each their own). To my mind, I bought a GAME. Why not have a little fun with it? Sure, I’d played Asteroids plenty of times. Usually for a couple minutes, and usually immediately before playing something else in frustration. But damn it, why not give this chestnut a fresh chance? If it didn’t take, I could put it on the shelf and that’s that. Well, after about 5 minutes in a dark room with a six-switch, wood-grained gaming console and a big CRT television, I started to get hooked. I was into it. I paged through the manual and turned on the UFO/satellite. I experimented with hyperspace/shields/flip (I like traditional hyperspace the best). I put my nose right up against the TV and blasted those things into debris. Probably lost an hour to it before I had to get some sleep. Then, yesterday, after a few more unexpectedly long rounds of the game, I finally got around to loading a new rom onto my Harmony Cart: Space Rocks. Why hadn’t I played it before? Well, I wasn’t much of an Asteroids fan. But, boy howdy, it is the finest version of that game I’ve played outside of an O.G. arcade cab. I could not have picked a better moment at which to first experience it. I can only imagine the glee with which it was met by longtime Asteroids devotees. It’s all the gameplay I’m suddenly realizing I like, along with a masterful presentation, lots of options, and great graphics. In the dark, I can even see the phosphor glow around the “vector” style graphics option. But not only is it sooooo much fun, but even though I’m new to the game, it’s giving me everything I would want from an Atari VCS/2600 home versions of (*ahem* “based on”) Asteroids. I already thought that SpiceWare's Darrell Spice Jr. was a genius because of his re-imaginings of Warlords ("Medieval Mayhem") and Berzerk ("Frantic") for the Atari VCS/2600 system, but now consider my mind officially blown. Mr. Spice, thank you so much for your work on these games and for generously releasing a ROM to the public to play in our flash carts and emulators, along with the physical release. Once money starts flowing again, Space Rocks just jumped to the top of my list of “homebrews to buy on a cart”. [in fact, I’m repeatedly stunned by what some of the modern programmers can do. I have later consoles, 8- and 16-bit, and even though those can theoretically get “closer”, some of these games have been perfected for me on the Atari console. Even with additional processing power, Space Rocks, and the sensational Pac-Man 8K, are not only my favorite versions of those games “for an Atari console”, but my favorite ports of those games ever.] I actually like the game enough, I think I’m going to build my own Starplex controller. I’ll post some questions elsewhere soon about how to wire up a DIY box full of buttons. I’ve wanted one to use as my secondary Stargate controller, anyway, and this is a better excuse, especially since I can’t afford the forty bucks to buy one right now. I might even try to pick up another copy of the game in a sharper box, I’m loving it so much. [Though, feel free to PM me if you’re looking to unload a Starplex in a week or two. That woodgrain is something else. ] So yeah, sign me up as a freshly-minted Asteroids fan. It’s funny... 30 years on and still making new discoveries about games I thought I was “so over". Maybe one day I can even learn to enjoy RPGs. tl;dr: I used to not like Asteroids. Now I do.
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Hi all, I am hoping someone on here with some experience repair an asteroids PCB can help me troubleshoot a minor issue I am having. My left rotate is sticking intermittently. I have replaced the buttons so I know it is a problem on the logic board but I don't know where to look. Every once in a way the ship gets stuck rotating left and then i can rotate right and it will eventually fix itself during game play. It only crops up once in a while. Any ideas?