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Asteroids |
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Manufacturer:
Atari Year: 1979 Class: Wide Release Genre: Space Type: Videogame Monitor:
Number of Simultaneous Players: 1 Maximum number of Players: 2 Gameplay: Alternating Control Panel Layout: Single Player Controls:
Sound: Unamplified Mono (requires one-channel amp) |
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DescriptionYour space craft is dangerously situated among fast moving asteroids in an asteroid belt that can destroy your ship on contact. Armed with a front mounted weapon and the ability to hyperspace, you fly through the debris, destroying each rock one piece at a time. Alien saucers visit the playfield from time to time with an eye towards destroying your ship!Know anything more about this game? Cabinet InformationThe first Asteroids cabinets used a different coin-door. The quarters were placed through one of two round openings (large enough for the quarter to fit through). The quarter is placed flat against a wall just inside the opening and released. The quarter drops down for a credit. The display showing the cost of a credit is labeled between the two coin openings. The lettering describing the game play is also in yellow (instead of white) on the monitor overlay. The picture of the Asteroids cabinet at the top of this page is one of these first machines.Cheats, Tricks and BugsThe original version of the game had a feature that allowed the player to hide their ship in the score field indefinitely without being hit by flying asteroids.Game PlayThe most famous play tactic for Asteroids is the "hunting" strategy. The player destroys all asteroids except for one that almost clears the playfield and makes it relatively safe. This allows the player to hunt for alien saucers without worrying about being smashed by a lot of flying debris.MiscellaneousBOOTLEG: AsterockPlay a JAVA emulated version of the game by visiting http://web.utanet.at/nkehrer/JAsteroids.html Scarcity in collections (VAPS.org)Very Common - There are 281 known instances of this game owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 261 of them are original dedicated machines, 4 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards have been placed in another game cabinet, and 16 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.Of the 42,694 video games (3,154 unique) tracked by the Video Game Preservation Society, this game ranks a 94 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on ownership records. - There are 14 VAPS members currently looking for this game. Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. Some common games show up as very rare here because collectors don't want them (they are common because arcade operatos might be sitting on tons of them in warehouses), while some fairly scarce games are grabbed by collectors every time they show up. Additionally, some games made in the last 5 years are still making money for operators and are thus not yet affordable to the typical collector. For a clue to value, compare how many people have this game vs. how many people want this game and then click on the eBay links to help determine an accurate price range. TechnicalThe Wells-Gardner 19V2000 black and white vector monitor is a direct plug-in replacement monitor for an Asteroids machine. The pinout is almost identical to Asteroids Deluxe.TriviaAfter its release in the US, many arcade operators had to make larger coin boxes for the games so they could hold all of the quarters that these machines collected.eBay ListingsClick here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for the Asteroids Videogame machine and items related to it.Click here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for machines and parts made by Atari. Alternatively, check out the IAM/KLOV custom report of the hottest coin-op machines on eBay, powered by Ace.com (updated throughoutthe day).
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