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Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

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Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#41

Post by StanislavPetrov »

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…

>The store had several other machines over the years including Frogger, Space Invaders, Supreme Commander (is that a real one - the nuclear bomber game), Centipede, etc. and periodically the owner would rotate new machines in and old ones out.

My local 7-Eleven had the same ones with the addition of Pole Position and Tempest.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#42

Post by gene-h »

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.

I can't recommend this more. Especially because the CRTs aren't made any more and eventually all of the current ones will die.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#43

Post by tyingq »

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

Some other options https://trmm.net/Vector_games_32c3#Vector_Display_Hardware

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#44

Post by stevekemp »

evo_9 wrote: post #11

Stuff like this always reminds me of this amazing vector-based home gaming machine from the 80's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectrex

That was a good machine! One of my cousins received a copy for a Christmas/Birthday present and we spent hours playing it.

The gel-overlays were an inspired solution to making the displays more interesting.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#45

Post by doodlebugging »

rdiddly wrote: post #40
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?

Yes! That's it. Missile Command. That and the one where you are the tank driver and you keep having to blast those stick-figure tanks into their respective lines - BattleZone I think.

Some businesses were right on top of the trend for arcade games. Good times.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#46

Post by doodlebugging »

allenbrunson wrote: post #36
doodlebugging wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

You are the king! I could line up a sizable collection of expendable ships but nothing like that. Nine hours would definitely not have been a 25 cent adventure for me.

Your method of staying alive sounds a lot like mine. Make good use of salvos, follow the rocks as they near the edge of the screen while blasting them and just before they reach the edge pivot to face the emerging edge and begin blasting so that many never made the jump. Also, when you get down to the last couple of rocks just put yourself behind them moving in the same direction as you destroy them and accelerate as the last one falls. Then use a slow fan salvo as you rotate and glide to try to score the spaceship but get ready for a quick pivot if you're out of position.

I also am not near as fast on the uptake but that doesn't keep me from getting caught up in it. I have a Wii, an XBox360, numerous pc games and a Steam account, and that Atari emulator. Asteroids is always a favorite. I'll never forget the awesome feeling I had when I sat down to an Apple IIc in my first college computer science programming class and started following the simple instructions we had been given to draw an object and move it around on the screen in Logo or Turtle or something like that.

I was getting a glimpse of the process behind making a game like Asteroids and I went from a person who had no interest in anything having to do with computers to someone who has now spent his life in an industry that depends on high performance computing.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#47

Post by doodlebugging »

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #41
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…

>The store had several other machines over the years including Frogger, Space Invaders, Supreme Commander (is that a real one - the nuclear bomber game), Centipede, etc. and periodically the owner would rotate new machines in and old ones out. My local 7-Eleven had the same ones with the addition of Pole Position and Tempest.

I remember those too now that you mention them. Our 7-Eleven owner rotated games out if they weren't getting much traffic. We regularly had new games show up but one constant was Asteroids. All of us played and every time someone was knocked off the board you could bet that quarters would drop until someone fell and their place in the list was restored.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#48

Post by videotopia »

allenbrunson wrote: post #36
doodlebugging wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

That development cabinet is in a museum now in upstate NY.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#49

Post by gaius »

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…

I thought the youngest generation was pretty quick when it came to figuring out interfaces

Watch kids deal with screens now. They will walk up and put a finger on it and if nothing happens immediately lose interest. They simply don’t do any interface that isn’t exactly like a modern smartphone. Even typing on keyboards.

Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic

#50

Post by allenbrunson »

videotopia wrote: post #48
allenbrunson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

That development cabinet is in a museum now in upstate NY.

huh, i always wondered about that! he seemed in a pretty big hurry to unload it at the time. i suggested some people who might actually want it, but i didn’t email with him for very long.
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