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-------------------------------------[ASTEROIDS]-------------------------------
---------------------------------[by Ice Queen Zero]---------------------------
------------------------------------[ATARI 8-BIT]------------------------------
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INTRODUCTION
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I am sure that everybody and their momma has played Asteroids at some point of
their life. You put the quarter in the machine and witness a fine display of
vector graphics in use. Too bad the majority of the systems the game was ported
to doesn't share the same sentiments. You get nothing put a bunch of pixelated
material in color which is a let down. For once, I prefer to play something in
black and white.
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DISCLAIMER
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Asteroids and its characters are trademarks of Midway with a little help from
Atari and all copyrights belong to them.
This FAQ is the sole copyright of Andrea "Azul Fria" Castillo aka Ice Queen
Zero and cannot be put on other sites or posted without my given permission
nor can it be reproduced w/o proper consent.
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STORY
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From the Atari 2600 manual:
On a quiet serene evening the Cosmic Space Patrol sets out for the usual night
cruise through the boulevards of space. This beat was always the same; calm, no
action and no excitement. For some reason this night feels different. Shortly
before 0200 hours some form of intergalactic material is sighted through the
visual particle counter. The material is too large a mass to measure. It is
drifting closer. Look out, it is a giant asteroid boulder and it is headed
straight for the Cosmic Spacecraft. The only chance for survival is to dodge
the boulder or destroy it. Destroying it doesn't mean just breaking it up, it
means vaporizing it. Small asteroid boulders are equally as fatal as large ones
Whew, the boulder just missed colliding with the Cosmic Spacecraft but suddenly
the Cosmic Space Patrol find themselves surrounded by thousands of the deadly
asteroids. The Cosmic Space Patrol must act quickly to save their spacecraft
and spare their lives. The spacecraft is equipped with photon torpedos, hyper-
space, shields, and flip control.
The Cosmic Space Patrol is highly trained to handle this situation. Could you
do as good a job as the Cosmic Space Patrol? How would you protect yourself if
you were caught in a deadly asteroid belt? This is your big chance to fly
through the dimensions of space and fend against asteroid boulders. The longer
you survive, the more space hazards you'll encounter.
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CONTROLS
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Up = Thrust
Left/Right = Rotate Left/Right
Down = Hyperspace
Fire Button = Fire weapon
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GAMEPLAY
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You start off in the middle of the screen and then asteroids of all sizes will
converge onto your ship. The smaller the asteroid then the more points it is
worth when it is destroyed. Bear in mind that shooting the larger asteroids
will split it into 2 smaller asteroids. Let's do the math, You have a large
asteroid to begin with then shooting it splits it into 2 medium sized asteroids
then shooting one of them splits it into 2 small asteroids. Once you shoot a
small asteroid it is gone permanently.
Don't think that standing in one spot will make you safe. That my friends is
far from the truth sometimes you will have to use the thrust to move your ship
to a new place in the field. To stop your ship from moving, turn your spaceship
around and use small thrust to slow yourself down to a stop.
If all else fails, you can pull back on the controller and use a hyperspace to
momementarily disappear and then reappear in a random spot on the field. Use the
hyperspace carefully because you can either warp in the path of an asteroid or
you can die outright.
Don't think that asteroids are your only worries. After getting certain points,
UFOs and satellites will start showing up. They will shoot their bullets at you
in an attempt to destroy you. Kill them before they can kill you. It should be
noted that you can take advantage of the fact you can shoot off the screen and
it will wrap around and appear from the other side of the screen.
Just like many early games, Asteroids have no ending. You keep on shooting away
the asteroids until you run out of lives. The object of this game is to get as
many points as possible before you lose them all.
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OTHER VERSIONS
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Asteroids was released on several other platforms. Other versions include:
Atari 2600, 7800, Arcade, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, I-Phone, Macintosh, Mobile,
PC, and Playstation. Each have their own tweaks and extra features. It was
supposed to have been released for the Atari 5200 but that was cancelled. I
guess you can call this 8-bit version, the 5200 version as well since the 5200
is the console version of the Atari 8-bit series it seems.
There are other games in the Asteroids series that were released for various
other systems such as Asteroids Deluxe and also released as part of a game
compilation.
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As a treat, I will give some insight on the 2600 version since it contains 66
variations for 1 or 2 players. Games 1-33 is for 1 player and 34-66 is for 2
players. Each game alternates between slow and fast asteroids, points needed
for extra lives and ship features: Hyperspace, Shields, Flip, Without Features.
Game 1/34: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 5000 points, Hyperspace
Game 2/35: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 5000 points, Hyperspace
Game 3/36: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 10000 points, Hyperspace
Game 4/37: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 10000 points, Hyperspace
Game 5/38: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 20000 points, Hyperspace
Game 6/39: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 20000 points, Hyperspace
Game 7/40: Slow Asteroids, no extra ships, Hyperspace
Game 8/41: Fast Asteroids, no extra ships, Hyperspace
Game 9/42: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 5000 points, Shield
Game 10/43: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 5000 points, Shield
Game 11/44: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 10000 points, Shield
Game 12/45: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 10000 points, Shield
Game 13/46: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 20000 points, Shield
Game 14/47: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 20000 points, Shield
Game 15/48: Slow Asteroids, no extra ships, Shield
Game 16/49: Fast Asteroids, no extra ships, Shield
Game 17/50: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 5000 points, Flip
Game 18/51: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 5000 points, Flip
Game 19/52: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 10000 points, Flip
Game 20/53: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 10000 points, Flip
Game 21/54: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 20000 points, Flip
Game 22/55: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 20000 points, Flip
Game 23/56: Slow Asteroids, no extra ships, Flip
Game 24/57: Fast Asteroids, no extra ships, Flip
Game 25/58: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 5000 points, No Features
Game 26/59: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 5000 points, No Features
Game 27/60: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 10000 points, No Features
Game 28/61: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 10000 points, No Features
Game 29/62: Slow Asteroids, extra ship after 20000 points, No Features
Game 30/63: Fast Asteroids, extra ship after 20000 points, No Features
Game 31/64: Slow Asteroids, no extra ships, No Features
Game 32/65: Fast Asteroids, no extra ships, No Features
Game 33/66: Childrens Asteroids
Shield: protects your for a couple seconds but it can kill you if you hold down
for too long.
Flip: will flip your ship into the opposite direction to catch asteroids coming
from behind.
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SCORING
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Small Asteroids: 100 points
Medium Asteroids: 50 points
Large Asteroids: 20 points
Small Saucer: 1000 points
Large Saucer: 500 points
Other player ship (7800 version): 500 points
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CREDITS
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Midway - making this game
GameFAQs - hosting this FAQ
You - for reading
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CONTACT ME
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azulfria[at]hotmail[dot]com
[at] = @ and [dot] = .
Don't want any email bots.
Thank you for reading
-Ice Queen Zero