Stuff like this always reminds me of this amazing vector-based home gaming machine from the 80's:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectrex
Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic
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Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic
#12If 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…
Maybe you should invest in a Vectrex, the only vector console.
I can remember it also came with a version of Asteroids. This had the CRT magic you describe but despite the charm it looked a bit like an oscilloscope to me. I played this in Woolworths circa 1982 when the thing to buy was a 'proper computer' even if that meant a ZX81 that you soldered yourself.
If I can remember correctly the Vectrex was price competitive with the humble ZX81 when new, now they are bound to be worth a relative fortune compared to those allegedly more useful computers that are worth little.
Size was also good, you could have a Vectrex on your desk, an Asteroids cabinet would be a bit too bulky for that.
Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic
#13I 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 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. He asked of the radar screen, "What's that clock thing in the top?" ("It's a radar screen." -- blank look. "It's a minimap." -- Comprehension!)
I have a MMO Asteroids style game up online. At one point, I hired a high school aged kid to do testing. His first reaction: It doesn't go where I point it! It's impossible to strafe! For the younger kids reading this comment 1) is the point of the mechanic and 2) It's not, if you grok basic physics.
I've noted that the "Asteroids" movement mechanic is generally hugely bastardized and dumbed down for modern audiences in today's games, to the point that it breaks the expectations of anyone who has skill with the mechanic in Asteroids. "Heat Signature," and "SPAZ" are two examples of this.
Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic
#14If you look at the letter from Thomas M. Saunders, Esq. towards the middle of the page, you'll notice a handwritten reference to Skip Paul. This is the same Skip Paul who championed our game, 13 years later, while a senior executive at Universal Studios -- and who in fact decided the character of Crash should be a bandicoot rather than a wombat. (The article also quotes Mark Cerny, who was our producer, and who was brought in to Universal by Skip.)
Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic
#15I 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…
>> Who wouldn't want to be seen with the high-score holder?
Oh, I wish that was true. My small town had Frogger...
Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic
#16So are you gonna play ships or rocks?
Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic
#17I 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…
>>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 room for another person to pass behind them without disturbing anyone.
Now if you are old enough you can take yourself back to those glorious days of fine Texas gals only a year or two out of high school wearing their Daisy Dukes and halter tops or rock-n-roll concert t-shirts. You're the guy with the hot rod 4x4 truck or the newish muscle car and several speeding tickets.
Of course the guy who got all the gals back then had the Good Times Chevy van with the captains chairs and the bed in back with a bumper sticker that said "No gas, no grass, no ass. No free ride." Or maybe the sticker that came out just before all the Jesus people gained a voice in the Reagan years that pictured a baby boy grabbing something in his crotch with the caption "I found it!" It was intended to mock all those people who were being "saved" by the tv preachers and tent revivalists that used to be common. That's where I grew up. Times sure have changed. A lot for the better. A lot for the not so better too.
Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic
#18I 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…
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 but it is still a huge amount of fun. There are so many ways to play - try to stay in one spot for as long as possible blasting rocks; spend the entire time moving and blasting everything as you pass hoping for the best; sit and spin firing randomly in that instant before the spaceship appears on the off chance that your wild shot may hit it.
I also love Galaga. I was so glad to see that on the Roku. We still play that game regularly.
Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic
#19Earlier 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…
@doodlebugging you might want to take a look at this: https://youtu.be/9Oob9CVZF6s
Re: Atari Asteroids: Creating a Vector Arcade Classic
#20I 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…
>> Who wouldn't want to be seen with the high-score holder? Oh, I wish that was true. My small town had Frogger...
If you didn't have Asteroids I feel your pain. Frogger was okay but I loved Asteroids and Galaga. Lots of quarters found those slots back in the day.