1981
Atari 2600
Thanks to the quirks of the alphabet, I get to begin this exercise with one of the true classics of the field, Asteroids. Asteroids is a timeless game, worthy of inclusion on any Greatest list, as fun to play today as it was 29 years ago.
The arcade original, that is. However, I’m playing the Atari 2600 port.
This is a game I’ve played off and on for my entire life without it ever leaving a strong impression. Usually when I start a game of Asteroids my reaction is, “why am I not playing Space Invaders?” I then swap out my copy of Asteroids and play Space Invaders. But not today. This time I keep playing Asteroids.
If you somehow don’t know, the entire point of Asteroids is to shoot giant space rocks from your space ship without being hit by the rocks as they crumble into smaller rocks. The winning strategy for the Atari version is to never move your space ship from the center of the screen.On my very first play attempt today, I maxed out my extra lives and rolled over my high score. This consumed about 45 minutes of my life. It turns out that this game is as much fun as you’d expect from a simulation of shooting rocks while standing still.
Fortunately, I have options, for the coolest thing about the Atari is that almost ever game for it comes with alternate versions. Asteroids, for example, has 132 seperate variants. That means I can make it harder. Much harder. After some tinkering, I find that variant 6A (Fast Asteroids, Hyperspace, exra life every 20,000 points, flying saucers) makes for a solid game, a rough but passable imitation of the classic original.
4 comments:
Yipee, its here! I will read it again!
Can your blogger associates keep up with your new video game playing daring?
I really like what you're doing here Isaac. It's a good idea, and I'd like to contribute as well, unless it's something you'd like to keep as your own idea. I'd have to get myself a working 2600 controller, but I like the idea of going through every game I own and writing a little bit about it. That's a tremendous undertaking, but it could be a lot of fun.
I never had the luxury of playing Asteroids in the arcade. I very rarely was allowed to go to any arcades at all in the days of Atari and Nintendo. So my entire experience with this game as a child was from the awful 2600 version. As a result, I hate Asteroids.
The problem with playing Asteroids on the Atari 2600 is that the controls are wretched. Putting the "warp" function on the down direction on the stick is madness. I would be spinning in place firing my "pew pew" torpedoes at the multicolored rocks, and suddenly my ship would vanish. Apparently I accidentally moved the stick down and warped to another part of the screen. Usually that part of the screen was soon occupied by more colorful rocks, and I was dead. The key, as Isaac mentioned in his review, was to not move at all. Just spin around and shoot.
There are 33 different variations on the game. Each seem pretty much the same, the only exception being what the down direction does. There is a "shield" variant, which gives you about 2 seconds of invulnerability, which, if held longer than said 2 seconds, results in death. There is also a "flip" variant which allows you to turn the ship 180 degrees by pressing down. None of this matters, since sitting in the center and spinning is the only strategy required.
The game does support 2 players. However, as Isaac stated, it's extremely easy to continue indefinitely on a single play. I recall playing with my little brother back in the day, and he would just give up and leave the room after 10 minutes. Certainly not an entertaining time for player 2, as long as player 1 is actually looking at the screen and holding a controller.
I also found it very hard to play this game with sound on for more than 5 minutes. The fire sound is grating on the sanity, as does the ominous Jaws-esqe background music.
Asteroids gameplay gave birth to some fantastic games we enjoy even today. I give credit where credit is due. Asteroids is the grand-daddy of games like Blast Factor, Stardust HD, and Geometry Wars. It has been copied numerous times over the past 27 years. However, this shoddy port doesn't really hold up to the test of time. Actually, I didn't like it in 1985, so I don't know why I expected that to change.
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