VectorGamer Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 I never got into this game BITD. And in recent years I have seen the cabinet show up at expos and I'll play it a couple of times and move on. But lately I've been playing the piss out of this game in MAME. It's now my go to game when I fire up the RetroPie. So much more action than the original Asteroids. Time's yours... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wongojack Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 Yep, I got a cocktail table at a show years ago. It still keeps my attention. A tough but fair game. I'm bad at it (like most games). I think I've only broken 30k a couple times. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted November 4, 2019 Author Share Posted November 4, 2019 Since I've been playing it on the RetroPie my high score is somewhere around 25,000. It's a very satisfying shooter and I apparently underestimated it in the past. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wongojack Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 After a few sessions, I usually end up with a score between 20 and 25k. I've actually left the old high scores on my cocktail machine to give me something to achieve, but I've never beaten any in the top 3. I think the lowest is 38k. I've watched some online videos where people wrap the score. There are no real tricks to this game it seems aside from knowing how to trigger the killer satellites. Other than that you just have to git gud (and I am not gud). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo-Torch Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 I've had my upright for close to 20 years now and I've yet to put my initials in 1st place. Whoever TA is managed to get 36,xxx points decades ago and he or she still remains #1. My Defender kicks my ass even more. It's why they are keepers. Favorites from back in the day that I could play forever on a quarter were some of the first games I bought...and then quickly got rid of because of how boring they became. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynicaster Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 I don't really have a preference between the original Asteroids and Deluxe. They're definitely different, but good in their own ways. One thing common about the games for me is that I just cannot seem to get any better at them. My highest score on the original is 49,900 which I did on a real cabinet a few years ago, and I can't beat this score at home to save my life. I try often, too. Haven't played Deluxe as much but I think my high on that one is around 30k. No matter how much I play these games, sometimes I will still have games where I don't even hit 10k. It's kind of frustrating but I still really enjoy these games. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo-Torch Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 Another big difference of the Deluxe is the floating play field and background that glows with a black light...very cool visual effect that not many games had back then and can't be emulated. Also has a very good sound system, hard to believe the highs and pounding bass come from a single speaker. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 I Love this game!! It's absolutely Classic! I mostly play it on a little MAME multicade (bartop), but I have a broken cocktail version of it that sounds like it plays but the monitor has never lit up for me. I took it to a guy a long time ago (90's sometime) to be repaired, and he pulled out the monitor, (hooked it up to something else IIRC) and said it worked. He was never able to get it fixed so it's in my dad's basement collecting dust unfortunately... Lately on the MAME deal, I'm on a TARG kick, but before that it was Asteroids Deluxe! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kombalar Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 I play it on MAME often. What a tough game it is. Never fully mastered it but I'm lovin' it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 One of my locals had Deluxe. Stupidly hard so I didn't play it much. Technically somewhat superior to Asteroids but I prefer the dedicated sound hw of it to the Pokey sounds from Deluxe. But even Asteroids was hard due to having rotate buttons rather than a stick. I feel that the people that good at it to the point of having 3 hour games would have spent a fair bit of cash getting to that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WispFollower Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 I love Asteroids so much. There aren't many arcade games I get as much of a thrill from aside from maybe Bank Panic. I would like to get an original cabinet with leaf switch buttons in my house some day, but I feel I should try a deluxe first. I have never seen one before, so I'm not sure I can make it happen (locally, at least). The screen interacting with a black light sounds cool. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 Asteroids is my favorite game, so If I ever purchased a cabinet, I would start with Asteroids, but would love to have Asteroids Deluxe too. On 11/6/2019 at 9:57 PM, Turbo-Torch said: Another big difference of the Deluxe is the floating play field and background that glows with a black light...very cool visual effect that not many games had back then and can't be emulated. Also has a very good sound system, hard to believe the highs and pounding bass come from a single speaker. You are correct. These cabinets have a great sound with exceptional base. The only pounding base that I can recall from a cabinet was on Lunar Lander. At the 2019 PRGE I came across a Cabaret style cabinet and this cabinet contained both Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe. I forget the button sequence to switch between the games, but that was really cool. I had never seen an Asteroids Cabaret before. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 The big criticism of this game even back in 1981 was it always seemed like a phoned-in sequel, where it really didn't differ/expand much from the original. Once you get past the nicer presentation, it was mostly just increased difficulty (Chaser ships, and UFOs could now shoot you with a wraparound shot). I mean it was cool, but for the sequel to such a popular game at the time we were just kind of hoping it'd be a little more exciting. fwiw if I do play Asteroids today, yes I default to this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyous Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 5 hours ago, NE146 said: The big criticism of this game even back in 1981 was it always seemed like a phoned-in sequel, where it really didn't differ/expand much from the original. Clearly anyone saying that never made it to the part of the game where you land on an asteroid and enter a freeform colonization stage of the game, terraforming the asteroid and building your own base, managing the procedurally-generated wildlife populations with their own emergent behaviors, and unlocking 4,096-color raster graphics mode. Obviously arcade managers didn't particularly like it when players hit that wave, as it could last for months. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 (edited) Love Deluxe. Have owned a cabinet for 2 years now. My high score is just over 57,000. You can wipe the high scores by going into test mode and holding all the buttons down. In deluxe's defence I would say that it is a well thought out sequel that addresses the original's minor faults. The shield removes the luck factor that hyperspace added to the game. The saucers are far more aggressive and smart - they will take out the last rocks to prevent lurking. The killer sats add just enough variety without spoiling the purity of the original. It also tops the lives counter at 10, and it has a 6 figure score. Graphically it adds rotating rocks and a nice materialise effect for warping in your next life. The sound of the firing is kinder on the ears too. It is a more complete game but by the time it appeared the appetite for that type of game was sated. It was more a refinement than a sequel. I can't really think of any game in the genre that has improved on the two original games. Edited February 9, 2020 by davyK 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wongojack Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 On 2/9/2020 at 12:42 PM, davyK said: It is a more complete game but by the time it appeared the appetite for that type of game was sated. It was more a refinement than a sequel. I can't really think of any game in the genre that has improved on the two original games. I'm not sure if it is better, but Mad Planets is a great game with some of the same gameplay elements that doesn't get enough love. https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8489 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 (edited) Interesting game. What I really like about Asteroids is the control - that inertia/thrust mechanic is something I really like. It's another reason why I love Gravitar and games based on it like Thrust. Edited February 12, 2020 by davyK 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
negative1 Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 i never liked asteroids, or deluxe. too boring, and too hard. space duel was the perfect upgrade, and i loved the colors, and the shapes. it was a horribly tough game also. i don't think people could ever get past 250k, on defaults. the levels got to a certain point, and just stayed hard. just for fun, i played with savestates, and got to a million to see what would happen. of course much later, blasteroids came out, and i loved that game so much after spending tons of money on it, i actually bought the arcade machine, and still have it even today... later -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoundGammon Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 There's an upgrade on ebay that lets you have all 3 games on a Asteroids Deluxe: Asteroids Asteroids Deluxe Lunar Lander 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 1 hour ago, SoundGammon said: There's an upgrade on ebay that lets you have all 3 games on a Asteroids Deluxe: Asteroids Asteroids Deluxe Lunar Lander This would be sweet! Some of the Asteroids cabinets, were actually repurposed Lunar Lander cab’s. Would need to add that large handle thruster to the cab in order to get that true Lunar Lander experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoundGammon Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Here's the link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Asteroids-Deluxe-Multigame-Free-Play-and-High-Score-Save-Kit-Arcade/112453937082 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 (edited) I'm wondering how accurate the sounds are with that board. It's a great deal though. Deluxe uses POKEY for sound - don't think the original does and it's doubtful that Lunar Lander does. There is a version for deluxe cabinets but for original asteroids owners it's a better deal. Deluxe already saves high scores and has a 6 figure score so you are getting slightly less value - people who bought a deluxe more than likely prefer it to the original as well. Having a million counter is nice but I doubt I'll ever have need of it!!!!!!!! Having said all that - it's something I might get in the future. Like the fact that it's solder free so you can always return your cab to original status. Edited February 22, 2020 by davyK 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 (edited) On 2/14/2020 at 6:13 AM, negative1 said: i never liked asteroids, or deluxe. too boring, and too hard. space duel was the perfect upgrade, and i loved the colors, and the shapes. it was a horribly tough game also. i don't think people could ever get past 250k, on defaults. Obviously I disagree with you wrt asteroids and Dx!! It's probably my favourite game ever - damn close to Tetris because of its purity. It's damn tough but extremely rewarding. I actually feel a relationship between Asteroids and Tetris when playing - rotating a piece with limited time and rotating your ship feel the same - you have to decide which direction to rotate in and it can make a huge difference when time is tight. Have to point out that I have played A LOT of both games!! Agree that Space Duel is a great follow up though. What is great about it is the 2 player variations - you can play tied together or separate!! Edited February 22, 2020 by davyK 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 I need to get my original Asteroids cabinet fixed,...Then think about that upgrade if it appears again on eBay... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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