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Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

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Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#31

Post by smcameron »

acomjean wrote: post #30
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

A buddy of mine built his own RGB laser projector for about $400 back in 2013 or so, and got MAME to work with it. But the games typically try to draw too many lines for a laser projector to keep up with, so you either need multiple, and split up the lines among the projectors and carefully align the projectors. Anyway we learned that filming laser projections is hard, and doesn't look like it does in real life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2JKr-Vkz8A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA6pvAZ3nq4

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#32

Post by stcredzero »

tragomaskhalos wrote: post #7

I had always assumed that Asteroids was a spin-off of Space War, seeing as the latter also used vector graphics and one of the player ships was the same design as the Asteroids ship. I loved Space War, but it was incredibly rare (in the UK)

Space War was the very 1st arcade videogame I played, ever!

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#33

Post by stcredzero »

mgcross wrote: post #23
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!

I would say that Tempest is even more of a true classic. It's immediately accessible even to today's audience.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#34

Post by Domark »

When I was a kid, my parents would drop my off at a daycare called Kids Time Out.

This was the early 80s and they had a cocktail version of Asteroids. I mastered it! I could play it all day!

One of my favorites to this day, along with Gauntlet, STUN Runner and VR Racing/Daytona USA.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#35

Post by cbm-vic-20 »

blt wrote: post #27

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.

For me, it's the intensity and brightness that really stand out. In Asteroids, the ship and rocks are clear, smoothly drawn straight lines, but the shots from enemy ships are intensely bright points that actually make a small circle around it on the CRT also glow faintly.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#36

Post by allenbrunson »

doodlebugging wrote: post #18
videotopia wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah man. Awesome stories. The thing I remember about Asteroids was that it looked like nothing else. The straight lines and glow of the vectors were hypnotic.

Exactly. The anticipation you felt knowing that you were a carefully timed shot away from being attacked by the spaceship; the feature that allowed you to shoot past the edge of the screen and hit rocks before they crossed the edge in front of you; the sad feeling seeing your ship in fragments and the frantic check of the screen to see how many you had left. Awesome game. It definitely is not the same on the emulator…

oh boy, can't believe i am going to do this. but. if there is one topic i am qualified to write about, it is asteroids.

in my early twenties, i was good enough that i could play for hours. i could have like 50 or 60 extra ships piled up, going all the way across the screen. my longest game on a single quarter was nine hours. i finally had to stop because i was hallucinating.

based on that, i can say for certain that, no, there is only one right way to play, assuming you want to get good enough that the game can't get rid of you.

first, you have to get really good at flying your ship around. you must use the flight mechanic to your best advantage, so you can position that ship as easily as you can drive a car.

second, you have to get good at hunting the small saucers. i knew several good players who used different strategies, but the most reliable was to get rid of most of the rocks, fly slowly left to right across the screen, and learn how to "strafe." you were allowed a maximum of four bullets onscreen at once. you have to learn to press the fire button so quickly that all four of them line up together, which you gracefully place in the path of an oncoming saucer, so that it has no choice but to fly into your sheet of bullets.

i can't play the game at all anymore. my reaction times have gotten way too slow. also, after about 30 minutes, the tendons in my wrists start to hurt. the game makes you hold your hands in a very unnatural way.

i exchanged emails with ed logg once. he offered to sell me his original prototype asteroids machine, the one he developed the game on. i was not interested. i love the game and all, but not enough to haul around a 600-pound boat anchor for the rest of my life.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#37

Post by CmdrKrool »

doodlebugging wrote: post #5

I wish I had a quarter of all the quarters I dropped down the slot in an Asteroids arcade cabinet. I just know I would go right out and find another machine and start blasting rocks. The 7-Eleven where I grew up was just a convenient place to get a Slurpee or a Big Gulp before they got their first Asteroids machine. Word got out in the small town where I grew up and we would all take any opportunity to go down and tr…

How common was the later revision (small saucer fires immediately when it appears, and can aim at you across the wrap around) compared to the original?

MAME makes the newest revision the 'default' (in terms of their ROM naming) so I sometimes feel like that's the one I 'ought' to play but it's very much harder than the original, which I enjoy more (while currently I'm not good enough to deliberately 'hunt' the saucers anyway).

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#38

Post by ddingus »

CmdrKrool wrote: post #37
doodlebugging wrote: post #5

I wish I had a quarter of all the quarters I dropped down the slot in an Asteroids arcade cabinet. I just know I would go right out and find another machine and start blasting rocks. The 7-Eleven where I grew up was just a convenient place to get a Slurpee or a Big Gulp before they got their first Asteroids machine. Word got out in the small town where I grew up and we would all take any opportunity to go down and tr…

How common was the later revision (small saucer fires immediately when it appears, and can aim at you across the wrap around) compared to the original? MAME makes the newest revision the 'default' (in terms of their ROM naming) so I sometimes feel like that's the one I 'ought' to play but it's very much harder than the original, which I enjoy more (while currently I'm not good enough to deliberately 'hunt' the saucer…

In my area, there was one. A good player could tell straight away.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#40

Post by rdiddly »

doodlebugging wrote: post #5

I wish I had a quarter of all the quarters I dropped down the slot in an Asteroids arcade cabinet. I just know I would go right out and find another machine and start blasting rocks. The 7-Eleven where I grew up was just a convenient place to get a Slurpee or a Big Gulp before they got their first Asteroids machine. Word got out in the small town where I grew up and we would all take any opportunity to go down and tr…

You thinking of Missile Command, hoss?

We used to play in the back room of a barber shop, of all things. Not much in the way of amenities, but he was the only guy who had the foresight to get some games, what can I say?

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