Asteroids

ROID RAGE!

Darran never owned an Atari 2600, but that didn’t mean he never got to experience lots of games for it

» ATARI 2600 » 1981 » ATARI INC

This might be a shock to some, but I’ve never owned an original Atari 2600.

I’ve played the system to death, of course, because my best friend Paul used to own one (it’s probably still in his loft now, actually). I’ve also come close to buying one many times, but largely, I’ve simply made do with owning various Atari compilations instead.

When my Evercade turns up (hopefully before you read this) the first game I’ll be playing on it is Ninja Golf, mainly because I’ve never experienced it before, and I made a big song and dance about it on Twitter (@retrogamer_daz) so I now feel the need to stay true to my word. The second game I’ll be playing, though is Brad Stewart’s Atari 2600 adaptation of Asteroids.

I remember being incredibly impressed with Asteroids whenever I played it at Paul’s house. I’d occasionally stay over at his home on weekends and we’d be allowed to play the 2600 on his parents’ big colour TV. Typically, we’d play the various two-player game modes, taking it in turns to try and best each other’s high scores. Lockdown is going to make any recreation of that impossible, so I’ll play it the old-fashioned way – without friends.

A blast through it now highlights that it remains a decent version, and while it’s clearly a little creaky in places, and the overall difficulty is relatively low, the core concept of Ed Logg’s original arcade hit remains. There are far more safe spots on the Atari 2600 version, most likely due to hardware restrictions, so it’s a lot easier to camp out while you wait for rogue asteroids to float by. Things do get more hectic as the bigger asteroids disintegrate, and the throbbing beat that accompanies the action certainly helps to stir things up, but it’s nowhere near as action-packed as I remember it being.

Still, the ten-year-old version of me thought Asteroids on the Atari 2600 was absolutely amazing and easily the best arcade-style game on the console. Having said that, the ten-year-old version of me also thought sharks swam up your toilet when you used the loo. Basically, the ten-year old version of me was an idiot.