Asteroids glitch?

[rhindlethereddragon]

I have noticed that sometimes, when I'm shooting asteroids on the bottom left side of the screen, the bullets go right through the asteroids. Furthermore, I've also (sometimes) noticed spaceships flying RIGHT THROUGH large asteroids unfazed. Anyone know why this is?

[Nukey Shay]

A couple of things lead to the problem...

 

Asteroid sprites are drawn on seperate frames than the rest of the sprites. So hardware collisions are not possible to use.

 

Collisions between objects are not checked every frame, so it's possible that two moving objects can swap positions before a collision routine has a chance to calculate that they occupy the same location in the meantime.

[rhindlethereddragon]

A couple of things lead to the problem...

 

Asteroid sprites are drawn on seperate frames than the rest of the sprites. So hardware collisions are not possible to use.

 

Collisions between objects are not checked every frame, so it's possible that two moving objects can swap positions before a collision routine has a chance to calculate that they occupy the same location in the meantime.

 

Very interesting! Thanks for the answer.

[rhindlethereddragon]

I also wonder why you can have only two shots on the screen at one time with Asteroids while on Moon Patrol you can have FIVE shots on the screen at once!!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I also wonder why you can have only two shots on the screen at one time with Asteroids while on Moon Patrol you can have FIVE shots on the screen at once!!

That's also because the programmer wanted it this way.

[Trinity]

Oh yeah???

 

Is there a hack out there somewhere with more shots. That would be fun. You could clear up a screen in no time at all!!!LOL

[maiki]

One day there will be a Harmony cartridge hack utilizing its 70 MHz CPU... you will see the Asteroids Storm then...

[scogey]

Could this be as simple as the range of fire not reaching the target rock?....I seem to notice from the middle(start area) I cant reach asteroids at the outer edge of the screen. I agree with the ones that go right through being a glitch...thats legit

[earthdefence]

Could this be as simple as the range of fire not reaching the target rock?....I seem to notice from the middle(start area) I cant reach asteroids at the outer edge of the screen. I agree with the ones that go right through being a glitch...thats legit

 

I've read about that glitch/bug in Asteroids... never tried taking advantage of it though

[tetrode kink]

One day there will be a Harmony cartridge hack utilizing its 70 MHz CPU... you will see the Asteroids Storm then...

I doubt it. From what I understand, the Harmony's sole purpose is to feed the VCS data at the rate at which it asks for it - i.e. at the rate the 6507 CPU in the VCS expects it. If the Harmony sent data to the VCS any faster, the VCS couldn't use it. In order for more shots to be onscreen at once, the game program will have to be modified, and that wouldn't necessarily involve the Harmony to run it.

Edited October 26, 2010 by tetrode kink