I almost kicked Asteroid's ass last night

[dphirschler]

The game started out great.  I was at 27,000 with 5 ships and still on my first guy.  But I wound up far short of my all time high score which is somewhere in the 70,000 range.  I thought that this was the night I would finally beat it.  One thing going against me last night was the fact that I was extremely tired and not really "in the zone".  So I was probably subconsciously making stupid mistakes just to end what looked like a never-ending game.  I ended up with a disappointing 37,000.


Darryl

[Frostillicus]

I didn't know you could beat asteroids - I thought it was one of those endless games that built character.  

I read an article about that somewhere once...about how early arcades taught us the harsh realities of life: No matter how much you play or how many quarters you put in, the game just keeps getting harder and harder with no ending in site.  

[dphirschler]

Yes, I know.  But I feel like if I can crack the 100,000 mark I will be a God.


Darryl

[SirPoonga]

sounds like you set the dipswitches in your favor

When I got my astreroids coin op.  We had a high score paper posted on the wall beside it.  So we had a record even when we turned the power off.

BTW I wish I had that list I got the highest score while very inebriated.  I could never get close to that score. Drunk luck I guess.

[JackTucky]

Is 78K really that good?  The guy at the local pizza place (in 1983) used to break 500K all the time.  He was the one who showed me how to just shoot ships instead of rocks.

I had an Asteroids Deluxe dedicated and used to get over 100K all the time.

Am I THAT awesome?

I sold the Asteroids and married a girl. Not sure if that was a fair deal or not  

Art

[Frostillicus]

Well it depends on how you play - you can sure rack up a high score if you just keep waiting for the ships.  That's generally thought of as a cheap(or cheating) way of playing, I think they fixed it in later versions (deluxe?).  Not like entering codes, obviously, but kind of like the turtle trick in super mario bros(kills the fun).

[JackTucky]

Yaah, asteroids deluxe you couldn't really wait for ships.  They kicked your arse.

Cheap way though?  I thought that was the way to play    Like tax loopholes, use 'em if you got 'em.

Art

[dphirschler]

I would love to watch somebody score 500k.  That to me just seems unreal... unless they are just hunting for saucers.  I don't know many people who can play Asteroids well enough to score above 30k.  Even my friends who are into coin-op don't get into that game as much.

Flying that ship around seems natural to me.  I am not as good an aim, but I can fly that ship well.  So, I can practically fill the screen with lots of fast-moving little rocks and fly around it all day.  And the saucers get blown up when a rock hits them.

But I still think that anyone who scores more than 100k is a God.


Darryl

[rampy]

Observation:

does anyone else (regardless of the game) do really well on their first guy... and are primed to get high score/advance to a higher level/stage... and then die.  Then you rapidly lose the remainder of your guys?

I also find the converse true... If I someone accidently "waste" the first few guys... the last guy I'll go ballistic and rampage through levels/points "in the zone" barely escaping death... till it catches up with me eventually, and then I wish I had done that well on the first guy...

There should be some video game corrolary or Murphy's Law or something...

*shrug* TGIF, I guess...
rampy