Asteroids

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Asteroids
Ed Logg.jpg
Asteroids co-developer Ed Logg next to a gold-colored special version of the slot machine
Studio Atari
Publisher Atari
Senior Developer Lyle Rains and Ed Logg
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 September 1979
genre Shoot 'em up
Game mode 2 players take turns
control 5 buttons (left, right, fire, thrust, hyperspace)
casing Standard and Cocktail
Arcade system M6502 (@ 1.5 MHz)
Sound CPU: -
Sound Chips: Discrete
monitor Vectors Resolution 256 × 231 (4: 3 horizontal) Color palette: monochrome
information
  1. 7 in the ( KLOV )

Asteroids is a classic arcade and computer game .

The game is about dodging asteroids . In the center of the picture is a small triangular spaceship . Asteroids fly around this spaceship in chaotic order. The spaceship can be steered using buttons.

history

The slot machine Asteroids was developed in 1979 by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg for Atari and is one of the greatest successes of all time in the history of computer games. Atari has sold over 70,000 machines worldwide. As a result, the game was for almost all home computer and PC - platforms ported . There are two official successors ( Asteroids Deluxe (1981) and Blasteroids (1987)) and an unmanageable number of replicas.

The Atari 7800 source code for Asteroids was available in physical form along with Dig Dug , Centipede , Robotron: 2084 and eight games when the Atari Corporation closed in 1996, reconstructed by the Atari Museum and later published.

Asteroids belonged to the second tier of computer games that the Museum of Modern Art added to its permanent exhibition on June 28, 2013.

Game flow

Asteroids Cabinet

The player's spaceship is in two-dimensional space . It can rotate on its own axis and fire shots in all spatial directions. Igniting its rocket engine accelerates it in the forward direction. Contrary to the law of inertia, however, it slowly brakes again in a vacuum without any further action. Rapid braking is possible after a 180 ° turn with the help of the engine.

The aim of the game is to shoot all asteroids and sporadic UFOs at each level . Cyclical boundary conditions apply to the playing field, i.e. all objects (including the projectiles ) that leave one edge of the playing field reappear on the opposite. If the spaceship is hit by an asteroid or shot at by a UFO, it is lost. Depending on the DIP switch settings , the player has a total of three or four spaceships.

The asteroids move in random, straight paths across the playing field. When bombarded, they break up into several smaller chunks, which according to certain principles fly in other directions and at different speeds . The smallest chunks can be completely destroyed with one shot. When all asteroids and their fragments have disappeared, the next level begins.

technology

Shape of a large asteroid of the arcade version (in-game color-inverse)

The Asteroids slot machine is a so-called vector game. In other words, the entire game graphics consist only of lines that are displayed on a vector screen . This technology enables the objects to move smoothly and smoothly, which is not possible on a computer monitor similar to a television set due to the rasterization of the pixels . The hardware is based on the one hand on a 6502 standard CPU on which the game program is executed, and on the other hand on video hardware developed by Atari itself, the Digital Vector Generator (DVG). Since the CPU would be too slow to control the vector monitor for the graphic display in addition to the actual game logic, the DVG takes on this task. The CPU writes graphics commands for the DVG in a specific RAM area. These commands are used e.g. B. to position the electron beam at certain screen coordinates, to draw lines, to set the brightness, to call DVG subroutines , etc. The DVG reads the graphics commands and converts them into corresponding signals for the vector monitor.

Asteroids has a number of sound effects that are implemented in terms of hardware using a separate circuit for each effect. The CPU can activate these circuits via certain memory addresses ( ports ) and thus trigger the corresponding sound effect. The pulsating bass "heartbeat" is particularly successful, as it gets faster and faster as the game progresses and thus increases the tension in the player.

The software of the Asteroids machine is housed on only 6  kB ROM memory. There is also a vector ROM with a further 2 kB, which essentially contains the graphics for the game elements in the form of DVG subroutines.

Offshoot

Complex variant XPilot

Spacola

Spacola is an Asteroids variant for the Atari ST / TT series, which comes from Meinolf Amekudzis (née Schneider) company "Dongleware".

story

The player's task is to initially deliver a load of Space-Cola to a specific space station. There are a ton of sectors in the game with a variety of space stations and mines. All occupants of the various space stations are obsessed with Space-Cola and try to get hold of the cargo. The aim of the game is therefore to reach the appropriate target sector, which is only possible if you have acquired the book for the game, read the target sector from a table and docks to the corresponding space station. In higher missions you have to deliver toilet paper and other household items.

particularities

Useful extras can be found during the search to improve protection and armament. The game is completely controlled with the mouse. Based on the movie Spaceballs, there are three speed ranges.

Starscape

Starscape is a newer Asteroids variant for the PC, which brings a background story as well as new strategy elements into the gameplay, such as research and resourcing. Destroyed asteroids leave various minerals here, which can be collected in order to promote research, or which can be used for the production of new spaceship parts. The levels do not follow linear here, but can be controlled via a navigation map.

particularities

In Starscape, the player not only takes responsibility for his spaceship, but also for his spaceship base, the "Aegis", which can defend itself against enemies independently of the player, destroy asteroids, collect minerals (research provided) and repair the player's ship.

The aim of the game is to repair the Aegis' hyperdrive. The necessary parts for this have to be conquered by the level bosses in the 5 galaxies. The player ship can be upgraded with various cannons, rockets, drives, protective shields, batteries, etc. The spaceship class itself can also be changed. Clues to the locations of the level bosses in the respective galaxies are given by conquered data capsules of larger enemies, who are also mineral collectors themselves, produce masses of smaller enemy ships and travel through the galaxies to occupy the stars or levels with them.

Each galaxy also offers a few pure asteroid levels, largely without enemies, in which the player can withdraw relatively safely and collect resources.

Alternatively, Starscape also offers a pure survival arcade mode.

Others

In 1973 there was the arcade game Asteroid by Bally Midway with similar graphics. But this was not so well known.

In April 2008 the computer magazine c't called for a programming competition on the occasion of its 25th birthday . Participants should create a computer program that would play asteroids on its own. Asteroids was emulated in the MAME and could be played remotely by the programs. 138 programs had been sent in by the end of June, the results and recordings of all games were published on the c't website.

In 2010, after a long dispute with other film studios , Universal Pictures acquired the right to direct an Asteroids film. Production is carried out by Lorenzo di Bonaventura ( GI Joe - Cobra , Transformers , Shooter ), screenwriter is Matthew Lopez ( Bedtime Stories ). Jeff Kirschenbaum is supposed to direct.

Web links

Commons : Asteroids (video game)  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Starscape

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kevin Parrish: Atari 7800 Source Code Rescued - Atari released the source code for the 7800 console and games . tomsguide.com. July 7, 2009. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
  2. ↑ 7800 Games & Development . atari-museum.com. 2009. Retrieved January 9, 2012: “ These games were rescued from Atari ST format diskettes that were thrown out behind 1196 Borregas when Atari closed up in 1996. The Atari Museum rescued these important treasures and recovered them from the diskettes. "
  3. ↑ Paul Galloway: Video Games: Seven More Building Blocks in MoMA's Collection ( English ) In: Inside / Out. A MoMA / MoMA PS1 Blog . Museum of Modern Art . June 28, 2013. Retrieved June 29, 2013.
  4. ↑ Article from c't 9/08 on the c't website
  5. ↑ Results on the website of c't Germany ( Memento from August 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Golem.de : Asteroids: Slot machine classic is filmed