5 ms·

A very difficult game. I’ve never been able to complete more than 3 screens.

by TedDoesntTalk 4y ago

ihatepython 4y ago
I recommend staying in the middle
- mistersquid 4y ago
  > I recommend staying in the middle Speaking as one grizzled veteran of 1980s coin-op, I've seen with my own eyes a teenager a couple of years older than me "roll the machine". "Rolling the machine" meant scoring 100,000. At that point, the machine score went from 99,999 back to 0. The way I saw it done, the player left 1 asteroid on the screen so as not to advance to the next wave. The player then parked his ship near one of the corners. After some time, a saucer would appear and the player would directly fire on it using the shortest route possible which, sometimes, was not in the obvious direction of the ship because of screen wraparound. Wraparound meant, for example, that the shortest distance between the upper right corner and the lower left and right corners was northeast, not southwest. Saucers always shot at the spaceship on-screen, and so would almost always lose. We younger observers stood in awe when the machine score rolled over. [0] We dubbed this "playing the corners". [0] Wikipedia calls this the "lurking exploit": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_(video_game)#Lurking_exploit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_(video_game)#Lurking...
  - ihatepython 4y ago
    That's a nice strategy. I was just referencing the line from the movie Pixels, staying in the middle probably doesn't work that well.
    - mistersquid 4y ago
      > I was just referencing the line from the movie Pixels Didn't know it was a quote. Added to my queue!
  - CmdrLoskene 4y ago
    We Asteroids snobs always considered this to be cheating. I could never roll the machine in the old days, but nowadays I can roll the emulator without lurking.
  - _tom_ 4y ago
    Another strategy I've seen was to again, destroy all but one asteroid, and then accelerate full speed vertically, and wait for saucers and pick them off, while being a fast moving target the saucers were not great at hitting. Unfortunately, after this strategy became popular, Atari released updated ROMs, with much better targeting from the small saucers, and the strategy stopped working. I suspect this also invalidated the corner strategy.
eschneider 4y ago
I spent way too much time with Ateroids when it first came out. It’s not so hard once you get into the right rhythm.
greenbit 4y ago
No two ways about it, you've got to learn to drive the ship. Trying to hold the center is nigh impossible. Also, the cannon has a short cool-down after 5 rapid shots, so you need to get that 1-2-3-4-5-pause cadence baked into muscle memory. That said, I never managed to last very long on that cabinet.
- Maursault 4y ago
  > Also, the cannon has a short cool-down after 5 rapid shots, so you need to get that 1-2-3-4-5-pause cadence baked into muscle memory. Due to needing the extra shots for defense, a 1-2-pause or 1-2-3-pause cadence can be advantageous.
NelsonMinar 4y ago
To have the authentic learning experience, take a dollar bill out of your wallet and light it on fire every time you start a new game. (inflation adjusted)

A very difficult game. I’ve never been able to complete more than 3 screens.

ihatepython 4y ago

I recommend staying in the middle

mistersquid 4y ago
> I recommend staying in the middle Speaking as one grizzled veteran of 1980s coin-op, I've seen with my own eyes a teenager a couple of years older than me "roll the machine". "Rolling the machine" meant scoring 100,000. At that point, the machine score went from 99,999 back to 0. The way I saw it done, the player left 1 asteroid on the screen so as not to advance to the next wave. The player then parked his ship near one of the corners. After some time, a saucer would appear and the player would directly fire on it using the shortest route possible which, sometimes, was not in the obvious direction of the ship because of screen wraparound. Wraparound meant, for example, that the shortest distance between the upper right corner and the lower left and right corners was northeast, not southwest. Saucers always shot at the spaceship on-screen, and so would almost always lose. We younger observers stood in awe when the machine score rolled over. [0] We dubbed this "playing the corners". [0] Wikipedia calls this the "lurking exploit": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_(video_game)#Lurking_exploit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_(video_game)#Lurking...
- ihatepython 4y ago
  That's a nice strategy. I was just referencing the line from the movie Pixels, staying in the middle probably doesn't work that well.
  - mistersquid 4y ago
    > I was just referencing the line from the movie Pixels Didn't know it was a quote. Added to my queue!
- CmdrLoskene 4y ago
  We Asteroids snobs always considered this to be cheating. I could never roll the machine in the old days, but nowadays I can roll the emulator without lurking.
- _tom_ 4y ago
  Another strategy I've seen was to again, destroy all but one asteroid, and then accelerate full speed vertically, and wait for saucers and pick them off, while being a fast moving target the saucers were not great at hitting. Unfortunately, after this strategy became popular, Atari released updated ROMs, with much better targeting from the small saucers, and the strategy stopped working. I suspect this also invalidated the corner strategy.

eschneider 4y ago

I spent way too much time with Ateroids when it first came out. It’s not so hard once you get into the right rhythm.

greenbit 4y ago

No two ways about it, you've got to learn to drive the ship. Trying to hold the center is nigh impossible. Also, the cannon has a short cool-down after 5 rapid shots, so you need to get that 1-2-3-4-5-pause cadence baked into muscle memory. That said, I never managed to last very long on that cabinet.

Maursault 4y ago
> Also, the cannon has a short cool-down after 5 rapid shots, so you need to get that 1-2-3-4-5-pause cadence baked into muscle memory. Due to needing the extra shots for defense, a 1-2-pause or 1-2-3-pause cadence can be advantageous.

NelsonMinar 4y ago

To have the authentic learning experience, take a dollar bill out of your wallet and light it on fire every time you start a new game. (inflation adjusted)