Talk:Asteroids (video game)

message: There was a recent record attempt where someone played this for 27 hours. I will pull it up. Mark Richards 23:45, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: How did he get 40 million points if the score wraps round at 100,000? 212.219.190.6 13:29, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Not that hard to conceive that wrap arounds are counted.  I.E. 40 million means 400 wrap arounds. --Marty Goldberg 14:03, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Asteroids Record 

message: An automated Wikipedia link suggester has some possible wiki link suggestions for the Asteroids article, and they have been placed on this page for your convenience.Tip: Some people find it helpful if these suggestions are shown on this talk page, rather than on another page. To do this, just add  to this page. — LinkBot 10:24, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[User:LinkBot/suggestions/Asteroids|Link suggestions]] 

message: What is the basis for the inclusion of Asteroids in the "1981 computer games" category? Perhaps someone released a conversion in 1981. Versions were probably released in 82, 83, 84 and 85 too, but I don't think that warrants Asteroids inclusion in those years' categories. If there are no objections, I plan on removing this. Fourohfour 17:56, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  1981?! 

message: Regarding the page move, I made this comment to the user responsible. I don't have a problem with people moving stuff where there is a reasonable case, but I do believe they have a duty to carry it through properly. The way things are just now, it appears that the page move was simply making a point, and has done nothing except to add a small level of additional unneeded complexity into the system.
Either Asteroids should be a disambig page, or it should be the game article. There is no point simply redirecting Asteroids to Asteroids (game). The question is, what should go on the disambig page? The game, yes. The planetary bodies, yes. Anything else.?
Fourohfour 10:04, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: On second thoughts, it might be a good move to have Asteroid (disambiguation) and have Asteroids (with the planetary Asteroid article remaining where it is. Fourohfour 12:42, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Half-baked page move 

message: I think it would be a good idea if someone could expand the information on this function of the game - always remembered even by people who only played it once or twice.
:What do you mean?  Hyperspace does one thing: It moves your ship to a random position on the screen, and it has a chance of blowing you up or putting you inside an asteroid (blowing you up).  There isn't much more to say about it than that. — KieferSkunk (talk) — 06:37, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Hyperspace

message: Does anybody know where there is a definitive list of Arcade game "clones" or basic copies of the game Asteroids with improvements etc? Just arcade versions is all I am looking for, I remember plenty of them, into the mid-90s even and probably later. I remember them, but don't remember any of their names. Nagelfar 21:31, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: A citation is needed? Is this really contested? who would question something like this?  and so, I remove. 64.238.49.65 18:03, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Asteroids arcade clones.... 

message: I seem to recall that the Asteroids arcade machines could only display a certain number of objects on the screen at once (around 40 asteroids or so, I think) and that once you reached this number, strange things started to happen, like being able to destroy a large asteroid with a single bullet.  Unfornately, a quick web search doesn't turn up any sources to back me up.  Does anyone else have any info on this?  RickScott 02:20, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bug: Limited number of objects onscreen at once 

message: Is productized even a word?  I think the article needs cleaning up and rewriting.
Its produced, not productized or whatever.GalacticExplorer 22:21, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: productized

message: I recently condensed the Gameplay section, removed scoring details, and condensed the Lurking strategy description, per WP:CON, Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Article guidelines and Talk:Pac-Man consensus.  However, I didn't remove Lurking entirely because, unlike most game strategies, this one has significant cultural and historical impact in the gaming industry.  This issue was one of the most significant things that changed how programmers designed games, both in terms of considering how to design enemy AI and how to anticipate game limitations.  It definitely deserves a mention in this article, just not a detailed "how-to". — KieferSkunk (talk) — 00:49, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Lurking" strategy should stay in article 

message: Regarding the recent edits by Lonewolf BC, "simple" is a personal opinion and falls under WP:OR, such commentary is not appropriate here.  Sections in parenthesis are also encyclopedic.  Likewise, the game play was way to descriptive by current standards.  I even tried to work with the your edit and gave the benefit of the doubt by keeping your original edit text and rewording some of that to cut down on length.  But even then, the recently  featured article Donkey Kong (video game) simply has this for its game play in the opening paragraph: "..the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging obstacles."  That is the current established precedent for video game entries.  --Marty Goldberg 20:10, 17 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Opening description 

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thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:D3asteroids.jpg

message: Recently, the statement that Asteroids was the first game to feature a high score table was removed, indicating that Star Fire came before it.  I'd like to see some specifics about the release date of Star Fire and how that compares with Asteroids, since Asteroids has long been known as the first game to feature a high score table.  The references in the Star Fire article don't appear to support its claim, at least not concretely. — KieferSkunk (talk) — 19:33, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Kiefer - I wouldn't say that Asteroids is long known as the first.  Some sources have simply (incorrectly) reported as such, along side sources that reported Star Fire as being the first.  The well known video game community resources  KLOV, and MAME's MAWS Database all also state Star Fire as the first.  This reference from the Star Fire page is pretty clear on that as is this interview with the designer also looked to in the article.  Asteroids was released in November of '79, and its rom copyright date also states this.  Star Fire's copyright date is 12/1978 to Exidy (who as the resources talk about was the one who bought the game and released it after shopping it around in '78), with an early '79 release date.  Likewise, the Star Fire Operations Manual that comes with the coin-op is dated April, 1979 and supports this. The author of Star Fire, David Rolfe (also involved with Intellivision development) has a web page that I've just contacted him through as well to try and verify the April '79 date.  --Marty Goldberg 20:31, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay, that sounds convincing enough.  I've heard quite a few people familiar with the industry claim that Asteroids was the first to feature a high score table (not just to allow entering initials for the highest score), so it might be worth mentioning in this article something along the lines of: "Contrary to popular belief, Asteroids was not the first game to feature a high score table – the first to do this was Star Fire, released earlier the same year by Exidy." — KieferSkunk (talk) — 20:51, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds good.  Where would you see adding that in the article without sounding like its trivia? --Marty Goldberg 20:57, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  First to feature a high score table 

message: I remember that there was what appeared to be a fencepost error in one of the asteroid shapes -- one side of the polygon displayed brigher than all the others, presumably because it was traced twice.  If would be cool if we could find a reference for that.  -- RoySmith (talk) 15:31, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fencepost error 

message: I believe the American Museum of the Moving Image has one of these on display.  It works, and you can play the game.  -- RoySmith (talk) 15:33, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  American Museum of the Moving Image 

message: Somebody keeps removing this snippet I've tried to put in. I'd like to know why. It's annoying as hell. --Tablizer (talk) 07:33, 3 August 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Please see your talk page and the edit summary in the edit history.  Your snippet constitutes WP:OR.  You need to add reliable cited material discussing Asteroids "pin-point missles" and why they can "stand out", otherwise its simply personal observation. Same goes for you personal commentary on brightness of the missiles being difficult to match, etc. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 07:36, 3 August 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  Most of the existing information in the article is like that though. Why target *only* this one? Articles about semi-recent technology will tend not to have a lot of published sources.  --Tablizer (talk) 06:35, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Also, this particular piece of information isn't really so much applicable to Asteroids as it is to vector display technology in general.  The snippet is overly detailed, doesn't contribute much to the overall understanding of the game and its impact on the industry, and likely has parts of it that fail WP:N.  I tried to come up with a suggestion on how to tie this more concisely to the game, but I couldn't think of a way to do it without expounding on the technology in a similar way.  Also, Asteroids is definitely not the first device to use a vector screen in this way - oscilloscopes and other vector displays have always been able to do that.  It's just a matter of how the display is programmed, and since that sort of behavior is almost part of the definition of "vector display", it doesn't seem particularly noteworthy to me. — KieferSkunk (talk) — 16:22, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Just to add to Kiefer's explanation, the fact that there is already much material that needs to be referenced is exactly why there is not a need for more unreferenced material whose relationship to the subject matter is that it happens to use a vector display.  And that's completely incorrect, there's plenty of material out there on vector technology and its in no way, shape, or form "semi-recent".   Atari's arcade vector display technology will be 30 years old next year, Cinematronic's is even older, color vector technology is in its late 20's.  Then there's vector computer displays which are well in to their 50's.  There's tons of manuals, documentation, etc. available, and there were plenty of discussions on vector technology in game, engineering, and other periodicals. Vector monitors are not even in production anymore as far as I know, oscilloscopes have moved to LCD displays as well. We appreciate your attempt to contribute here and elsewhere on Wikipedia over the several years you've been here, and hope you continue to do so.  But to save your self from further frustration, I would advise becoming more familiar with Wikipedia's policies on WP:OR as well as WP:VERIFY. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 16:40, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Brightness Technology 

message: should be useful to build out a development section... --MASEM (t) 00:05, 30 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edge's Making of Asteroids 

message: I've dropped in a quick update about John McAllister's new World Record which I watched over the Easter weekend (although I was allowed to sleep occasionally!) I will improve the entry when we have the official ranking from Twin Galaxies.
Msemtd (talk) 11:03, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  John McAllister's new WR 

message: Just throwing this one into the air, but could Beat Hazard be considered to be a clone/follow-up of Asteroids? Stwalkerster [ talk ] 15:31, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Not notable unless there's some press coverage about it being directly inspired by or based on Asteroids.  The fact that it simply looks and/or plays like Asteroids is probably not enough for it to be included as a clone or derivative by itself. — KieferSkunk (talk) — 19:14, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Beat Hazard 

message: Maybe I missed it in the wikipage, but as far as I can tell, NOWHERE is there is a description of the actual arcade game controls.  Does the arcade game use a Joystick for directional input?  Does it us a "spinner" (potentiometer) for directional input?  Does it use a track-ball (inverted mouse) for directional input?  I think this is VERY important for historical/factual reasons.
From what I've read (besides the directional control), there are three buttons: one to SHOOT, one for THRUST, and one for HYPERSPACE... but I am only *guessing* ... can't we do better (be more precise) for such an iconic game??? Hydradix (talk) 06:26, 12 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Control(s) 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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message: In the article it says "After reaching a score of 40,000, only the small saucer appears."
It's possible for the player to reach that score before the saucer spawn timer gets low enough to even be capable of spawning the small saucer. The saucer spawn timer starts out long and gets shorter as the game goes on and will only let small saucers spawn if it gets low enough.
Another issue with that is that the actual score requirement for the small saucer spawning (assuming the spawn timer is low enough) is 30,000, not 40,000.
I'm not really a wiki person though so I'm not sure how to fix the sentence myself without overloading the reader with useless information. --73.180.50.41 (talk) 11:16, 25 March 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Ignore what I said about only small saucers spawning past a certain point regardless of score. Turns out the chance of them spawning over the large ones increases as the game goes on and only reaches about 93.75% before 30,000 points. 73.180.50.41 (talk) 13:56, 10 April 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Slightly incorrect statement 

message: I've been away from this article for a number of years, and noticed that all mentions of the "lurking" exploit - something that is very notable, well-covered and was at the time well-cited - have disappeared completely.  Can anyone explain why it was removed?
The programming oversight in Asteroids that led to the "lurking" exploit was that the saucers could only aim at the player's ship on screen, but could not aim off-screen or take advantage of the fact that objects "wrap" to the opposite edge of the screen.  Players figured out that they could "lurk" at the left and right edges of the screen to avoid being shot by the small saucer (it had a higher chance of missing, and the long travel time meant the player could easily dodge the shot), and thus play for extremely long periods of time shooting just the saucers across the screen boundary.  Similarly, on some revisions of the game, a player could "park" their ship in the P1 score/lives section, which rendered the ship invisible and invulnerable, allowing the player to step away from the machine (e.g. for bathroom breaks).
These exploits directly led to changes in the way Atari and other game makers designed and tested their games, and the software industry as a whole has the "lurking" exploit to thank, in part, for some significant design and testing practices that still exist today.
I'm disappointed to see that this coverage has been lost over time.  It'll be quite the undertaking to bring it back, but make no mistake: That information is and always was notable about this game in particular. — KieferSkunk (talk) — 20:50, 5 December 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah, I see what happened: It got merged into the "Reception" section.  This is not a good location for that, for the same reason that the "split-screen" (kill screen) on Pac-Man shouldn't be in its respective Reception section.  It used to be either in Development or in its own section. — KieferSkunk (talk) — 20:57, 5 December 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Where did the "lurking" exploit go? 

message: Someone is claiming an "actual record" of 84 million was made in 1982 with no citations, assuming it's not true considering the abbreviations and grammar used. Might be worth looking into? TheRealHFC (talk) 06:44, 6 December 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Citation needed on world record section 

message: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelstrom_(1992_video_game)
shouldn't this be in there somewhere? or do we not include home computer clones?
duncanrmi (talk) 08:23, 9 July 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  & then later, along came...