Arcade Week: Day #3

Yeah it’s good and all but it doesn’t have any adorable alien names. Clearly space invaders is superior.

Atari were quite the force in the early 80’s. So it only made sense to milk that force and create as many games as possible, but remember when Atari genuinely had ideas? This is one of them. Asteroids was a game that took people by storm with its simple yet addicting gameplay. The game was conceived by Lyle rains and programmed by Ed Logg, two people who aren’t given enough respect for their work on this brilliant game. Well let’s dive in already and see their brilliant work!

You play as a triangular ship, shooting down asteroids (the name of the game) and ufo’s once they appear. You can move left and right and turn left and right (obviously) and if you try going off the map you’ll end up on the other side. You can also hyperspace which makes you disappear and then reappear (the strategy is a tiny bit risky however). You get 3-5 lives and the maximum amount of points you can get is 99,990 before the game just decides to turn you in. They can’t stand the fact that you’re a fighter (I said I wouldn’t bring space invaders and asteroids politics into this god dammit).

Overall, asteroids is still a pretty fun game. It’s simple and has aged pretty well. The programming team clearly had a blast (literally) making this and I respect what they tried to do…but space invaders is better I’m sorry!

Simple, very fun, quite addicting, space invaders is better

(played as part of ATARI 50)

This is another vector game where the super-clean look and feel really suit the gameplay and vice versa. The simplicity helps you focus. And the vibe is appropriately foreboding, complimenting the walls-closing-in combat.

The rhythm of the waves of asteroids - starting out slow as you line up your shots on the big ones, then building into a fast-paced frenzy as you splinter them to into careening, dangerous bits, and then easing back down as you pick off the last stragglers methodically, only to brace yourself and start again - that feels somewhat unique and I quite like it.

A big quibble I have with this and tons of games of this era is probably born of a technical limitation - the number of shots you're able to put on screen at once. Whether insurmountable because of the technology, or a deliberate design choice, or a bit of both, it's always frustrating to me. It requires more methodical play, and can and should be doable for a good player, but every fiber in my being just wants to spam and it won't let me! In this game specifically, with many of your targets being far out and moving quite quickly, your three shots at once or whatever just never seems like enough. Certainly not a dealbreaker though. I should probably just get good.

I wish you did more flying with the ship in this, the feel of it is superb. I dunno, do better players than me fly around more? Is that a high level play thing? I tend to try to hang out in the middle and scoot around a bit only if necessary. If there are videos of players out there doing full-speed Rogue Squadron stuff, pulling Immelmans on the UFOs and shit, I wanna see it.

Definitely can see why this is one of the most popular arcades games and for good reason, Asteroids still remains a great time even today.

The premise is simple: shoot down asteroids and any enemies you encounter along the way while not getting destroyed yourself. Shooting down things in an arcade is always fun and I was surprised with the momentum based movement that immediately reminded me of Lunar Lander for a bit.

Challenging and a reason to keep playing, sometimes what more could you ask for back then?

Arcade:
Iconic vector game where you avoid and shoot asteroids, it doesn't get more simpler than that to explain. The game is a classic and really awesome with it's inertia gameplay while controlling the ship's thrusters avoiding small asteroids from bigger ones.

It's a treat to play, it's iconic, it's asteroids.

Played on Atari 50.