Jun
05
Asteroids (Atari 2600) (How to Beat Home Video Games 1)
By
Taken from the video: How To Beat Home Video Games – Vol. 1 The Best Games (Vestron, 1982)
Video Rating: 4 / 5
An undisputed classic for the arcades, designed by Ed Logg.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Twitter
Facebook
50 Comments
June 5th, 2011 at 3:24 am
@chaosdragon1212 no,the minigame is based of this
June 5th, 2011 at 3:55 am
is this based off that mini game in san andreas?
June 5th, 2011 at 4:20 am
There is really no “method” for beating this game, other than staying in the middle of the screen/shooting your butt off. After that it all comes down to endurance, LOL. Longest I ever played was probably like around 6+hrs. I wanted & got 1,000,000 points. I had like 50+ ships. I’d save/sacrifice them for pee breaks. I remember my thumb was tired & numb. Oh well, it’s a hazard of hard core gamers. No pain, no gain!
June 5th, 2011 at 4:22 am
yeah all of my friends are wow of my skills now!
June 5th, 2011 at 4:36 am
@braincrisp1 You know Asteroids (arcade) was “Vector” graphics right? (vs Pacman, Donkey Kong, etc being Rastar). Can’t really duplicate Vector (back then). (Vectrex console had a separate monitor). Haunted House! Wow. As a kid, playing with my younger cousin, I remember actually getting “scared” (just a little). You like many same games I do. I remember buying Indy 500 (special paddles). Hey, are you into emulation at all? I have EVERY Atari game & console on my PC + USB Atari joystick.
June 5th, 2011 at 5:10 am
@gjc82071 True, it wasn’t all that bad. I just thought it was kind of corny the way the rocks were all colored and how they didn’t rotate around like in the arcade game. And as for comparing to Puke-man, yeah…a way better game. Puke-man was just plain aweful. Donkey Kong was a disappointment too. Some of my favorites were Missile Command, Haunted House, Dragster, Indy 500 and Breakout. Man, I must have gone thru 30 broken joysticks “back in the day.”
June 5th, 2011 at 6:06 am
@MrSaturn33 Sure could of. As for any mods, yea, maybe “now”, but that was in the early 80′s, pretty much pre-mod, era, ya know? Definitely beyond the technical ability of most 10yos anyway. I know the 5200/7800 have pause buttons. Most, probably all, emulators (which I primarily use now) have pause functions also. About emulators, I often think of what it would be like to go back to 1982 with a modern PC, emulators & all the games for them. Probably mind blowing to say the least.
June 5th, 2011 at 6:45 am
@gjc82071 Wow, the Atari REALLY could have used a pause feature…Come to think of it, I think there’s a way to mod it and make it have one!
June 5th, 2011 at 7:22 am
@braincrisp1 Really? Actually, I thought it was a great 2600 game. Granted, not like the arcade, but still cool & fun. I remember getting this as a kid for Xmas 29yrs ago! I remember playing it in the family room. Wow. Where does time go? Anyway, I mean, it wasn’t as bad a conversion as….Ugghhh….Puke-man, I mean “Pacman”! Donkey Kong disappointed me. (also remember getting it Xmas of 82) Semi-Fun but boring/too easy, only 2 boards. @ least 3 would have been cooler/more challenging.
June 5th, 2011 at 8:03 am
@MrSaturn33 It’s also good to get in a “restroom break”. You will probably lose a ship or 2 (or not), but less than if you had a full screen of asteroids. I usually just stay/ed in the center. As a kid back in ’82, I “Flipped” (1 million points) the game several times in a 5hr sitting. Had like 50+ ships. Periodically I had to “sacrifice” a few for “pee breaks”, & to eat/drink. “Ma, hey Ma? MOM! can ya PLEEZE gi’me a sam’ich an’a glass of Kool-Aid? I got a high score go’in! Ma? MOM!….”
June 5th, 2011 at 8:16 am
Nice! My buddy growing up had this and Moon Patrol. We used to dose acid and play the two all night long, great times! Oh, to be the 80′s and 90′s again.
June 5th, 2011 at 8:22 am
…Seriously? What about the trick where you leave only one tiny asteroid left, and keep waiting for the UFO to rack up points? Everyone knows that!
June 5th, 2011 at 8:35 am
@luchibass1
Simle? it gets freaking hard after a few waves.
June 5th, 2011 at 9:03 am
I was so disappointed when I got this for my 2600. Nothing like the arcade version. Moreover I recall there were like 768 versions you could play.
June 5th, 2011 at 9:17 am
Take a look at the BIT.TRIP CORE Control Boss.
June 5th, 2011 at 10:13 am
this is nothing. try it on harder settings: 6B, 32A. On these settings the asteroids move all over the place. On 32A, you also have to deal with alien ships. Also, how do you use the shield? On my game all you can do is fire with the button, turn with the joystick, and when you push the joystick down your ship warps to a random location.
June 5th, 2011 at 10:50 am
I think most people watched the video in hopes of seeing an end screen.
June 5th, 2011 at 10:53 am
for some reason… I try playing this on an emulator, theres no ship. just moving asteroids.
June 5th, 2011 at 11:19 am
Wow, some people took these games too seriously I guess.
June 5th, 2011 at 11:47 am
make your friends gasp with the flip technique!
June 5th, 2011 at 11:49 am
The ufos don’t show up unless you set the difficulty switch to the A position in this version. This, of course, changes everything.
June 5th, 2011 at 12:30 pm
First game i ever played, lol
June 5th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
@geniepowerz Play it with ufos and u gonna get pwned!
June 5th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
lol i love this it’s really funny
June 5th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
You forgot the Spaceships in expert mode!
June 5th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Just bought one of those with a Battlezone for $100 off of Craigslists!
June 5th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
the first game I ever played. I even remember the smell when you came into the arcade. Can’t believe it was so long ago.
Good times.
June 5th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
never knew it had ufos
June 5th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
I play this at the Pinball Hall of Fame here all the time. Love the trail everything leaves
June 5th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
@laketta hahahahaha. yeah i would love to watch that.
June 5th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
I was never any good at this – hated it – lol!
June 5th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
classic…i was the king of this game at the local arcade…back in the day
June 5th, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Still fun. Great control system.
June 5th, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Heaven on Earth (back then)!!!
June 5th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
m/ Fully Awesome m/
June 5th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Vector Graphics PWN 3D.
June 5th, 2011 at 6:34 pm
I played this in GTA San Andreas
June 5th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
Awesome!
June 5th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
wierd, mine has coloured astroids…..
June 5th, 2011 at 7:38 pm
you cannot go wrong with 4 player asteroids
i still have mine on cartridge, sadly the box is long since gone.
Im betting your copy will still work cos mine does.
June 5th, 2011 at 8:16 pm
@SmokePropaganda Agreed, the 800XL version was amazing. Still have it in a box, wonder if it still works…?
June 5th, 2011 at 8:23 pm
This game’s way better than MW2.
June 5th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
John McAllister 41 years old (!!) broke the record that was 28 years old!!! Good job sir! “old” gamers can still score. Lol.
June 5th, 2011 at 9:41 pm
ah, man, I love this game ….I used to clear the field, but leave one small asteroid, then start speeding through the screen and wait for the those tiny ships to come out so I can blast them as I zoomed by. But when that asteroid got destroyed by accidental fire…. a new set of asteroids appeared and you would be lucky if you could stop in time. lol
June 5th, 2011 at 10:31 pm
I did alot of hyper spacing when the pressure grew in this game. Was gonna say which you could hyperspace for real sometimes. Then again I have hyperspaced from school and jobs time to time.
June 5th, 2011 at 11:06 pm
Use your thrusters, man. USE YOUR THRUSTERS!!
lol. Great capture. I, too, dropped thousands of dollars, quarter by quarter, into this game.
June 5th, 2011 at 11:40 pm
This was the first video game I ever played.
The Atari 400/800XL computer version was epic The only 4 player simultaneous Asteroids ever made.
Even the N64 version was sadly only 2 player.
June 6th, 2011 at 12:05 am
Atari has the original, converted as a flash game, right on its site. Which is a pretty cool move from Atari.
June 6th, 2011 at 12:12 am
you can play it online – just do a google search.
June 6th, 2011 at 12:20 am
someone plz tell me where i can dowload this game for pc!