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Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

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Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#21

Post by ilamont »

stcredzero wrote: post #13
ilamont wrote: post #4

I love that the proposal fit on a one-page mimeographed form. I also find it kind of funny that these are museum pieces now. I played a lot of Asteroids as a 12-year-old - the neighborhood indoor archery range bought or leased one, and nearly every day after school there was a small gaggle of kids playing it. This and "Battlezone" were part of my arcade gaming coming-of-age in the early 80s.

I was a volunteer at a video game museum. I was also a kid playing Space War, Asteroids, and Battlezone. There's a big difference between kids nowadays and kids back then, in terms of how much problem solving and science they're willing to do to figure out a game! Basically, most kids nowadays will just walk up to Battlezone, wiggle the sticks for 2 seconds, which just pivots/vibrates the tank for 2 seconds, then the…

Basically, most kids nowadays will just walk up to Battlezone, wiggle the sticks for 2 seconds, which just pivots/vibrates the tank for 2 seconds, then they give up. (A few adults were like this too.) Of the kids who didn't give up, there was one who didn't figure out the 3D world also existed out of the field of view.

Wow. And I thought the youngest generation was pretty quick when it came to figuring out interfaces and liked old-school games.

Maybe the interest is limited to pseudo old-school interfaces based on blocky graphics, like Minecraft or Nintendo-ish platformers?

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#22

Post by videotopia »

doodlebugging wrote: post #17
felipemnoa wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>and desire among the females Now I know you are being hyperbolic.

I have aged a bit since then. I might be mis-remembering parts of those years and, being a Texan I might be prone to embellishment. But I implore the reader to picture if you can, a 7-Eleven with part of it walled off to form a narrow hallway leading to the bathrooms with a line of arcade games along one wall and just enough room in front of them for two players and couple of spectators to stand and almost enough roo…

https://youtu.be/G5FZRqherbo

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#23

Post by mgcross »

bitwize wrote: post #2

If you haven't seen an Asteroids cabinet in action, I suggest you find one at an arcade museum near you. Actual Asteroids is quite different from any port or emulation of it. The slow-decay phosphor leaves visible trails for your ship and shots, and the machine has control over electron-beam intensity in a way that raster units do not, which means that your shots and enemy saucers glitter in the dark, creating a "spa…

And Tempest too - just isn't the same without the dial/paddle!

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#24

Post by doodlebugging »

videotopia wrote: post #19
doodlebugging wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have aged a bit since then. I might be mis-remembering parts of those years and, being a Texan I might be prone to embellishment. But I implore the reader to picture if you can, a 7-Eleven with part of it walled off to form a narrow hallway leading to the bathrooms with a line of arcade games along one wall and just enough room in front of them for two players and couple of spectators to stand and almost enough roo…

@doodlebugging you might want to take a look at this: https://youtu.be/9Oob9CVZF6s

That's great. The belch at the end!! LOL

That took me back a few years. My Dad's cousin had a 7-Eleven franchise when Southland Corp. still owned them. We could drop in any time and get a Slurpee, Big Gulp, a Tony's heat-em-up pizza, or like he mentions in the video - some nachos with all that chili and cheese. Wow.

The one in my home town was remodeled by the owner after it became obvious that people would be standing around the arcade games dropping quarters all day long if you'd let them. He made it convenient. He added a wall inside the store that led all the people who thought they were just stopping for gas and a quick piss right past the row of arcade games. Many of them stopped long enough to spend a quarter or two more than they thought they would when they stopped there.

Not much to do in that town but make the drag - literally drive back and forth all night on the main highway thru town hoping to attract free beer, lonely women, or some dipshit who thought his car was faster than yours. The pool hall was downtown and the highways in were lined with beer joints and bbq shacks. Pretty good combination when resources were pooled.

From the click-clack in the video I'm thinking his girlfriend Mindy shot the video. I wish I had owned a video camera back in the day. All I have are still photos and memories. Thanks for jogging my memory.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#26

Post by doodlebugging »

videotopia wrote: post #22
doodlebugging wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have aged a bit since then. I might be mis-remembering parts of those years and, being a Texan I might be prone to embellishment. But I implore the reader to picture if you can, a 7-Eleven with part of it walled off to form a narrow hallway leading to the bathrooms with a line of arcade games along one wall and just enough room in front of them for two players and couple of spectators to stand and almost enough roo…

https://youtu.be/G5FZRqherbo

That is just like what I remember. Same time frame too, 1979-1983ish. That is what the store looked like just after school got out for the day and for most of the day during the summer. Young kids jockeying for turns at the machines, pointing out their high scores, etc. I was older than these kids by a few years. Thanks for this!

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#27

Post by blt »

If you have never seen one, I strongly recommend seeking out a real vector arcade machine. The monitor has a beautiful, otherworldly appearance that can't be captured in photos or emulation. Somehow the lack of the raster grid makes the image feel more tangible. In an arcade the vector machines have an aura that even the best raster machines don't have.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#28

Post by tabtab »

Vector game monitors created a look that's either impossible or really hard emulate well with pixel-based monitors and scan-line-based CRT's. A beam of electrons can dwell on a single spot or narrow area for a relatively long period of time, making it glow mega-bright.

It's roughly the same technology as a CRT, except instead of periodic scan lines, the "beam aimer" can dynamically point to wherever it wants on the screen. It's kind of like some laser shows.

I'd love to see one again and show it to my (grown) kids.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#29

Post by stcredzero »

ilamont wrote: post #21
stcredzero wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a volunteer at a video game museum. I was also a kid playing Space War, Asteroids, and Battlezone. There's a big difference between kids nowadays and kids back then, in terms of how much problem solving and science they're willing to do to figure out a game! Basically, most kids nowadays will just walk up to Battlezone, wiggle the sticks for 2 seconds, which just pivots/vibrates the tank for 2 seconds, then the…

Basically, most kids nowadays will just walk up to Battlezone, wiggle the sticks for 2 seconds, which just pivots/vibrates the tank for 2 seconds, then they give up. (A few adults were like this too.) Of the kids who didn't give up, there was one who didn't figure out the 3D world also existed out of the field of view. Wow. And I thought the youngest generation was pretty quick when it came to figuring out interfaces…

Wow. And I thought the youngest generation was pretty quick when it came to figuring out interfaces and liked old-school games.

I think that mostly has to do with subculture and what one's peers are interested in. I never had that much interest in platforming mechanics. (Honestly, I'm about as bad as that game journalist who got called out for his clumsiness with the Cuphead tutorial.) To a lot of hardcore "gamers" that marks me as a non-gamer. However, my clumsiness with platform mechanics isn't any different than most other's illiteracy with the Asteroid movement mechanic. It's just that certain mechanics are subscribed to and practiced more than others.

Also, most successful games nowadays come with fairly extensive tutorials, and even if they don't but are still popular, then there are tons of YouTube videos which can be used as reference. In the 80's, you just had instructions printed on the arcade console and a few screens animating basic game mechanics. We figured things out because we had to, or we got advice from friends who figured things out. In 2018, there are so many games, no one really knows what to do with them all, so you skip over everything that doesn't grab you immediately or you go and do what all your friends are doing.

So yeah, they probably would be as quick, but in 2018, only a very few are going to bother.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#30

Post by acomjean »

tabtab wrote: post #28

Vector game monitors created a look that's either impossible or really hard emulate well with pixel-based monitors and scan-line-based CRT's. A beam of electrons can dwell on a single spot or narrow area for a relatively long period of time, making it glow mega-bright . It's roughly the same technology as a CRT, except instead of periodic scan lines, the "beam aimer" can dynamically point to wherever it wants on the…

You could get a laser projector and port asteroids to it (like this guy did)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FkHjG759ABY

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