Asteroidia

Breaking rocks

Dave Munsie is literally a legend within the Atari ST world. It's as simple as that. This guy released several outstanding games like Berzerk, Frantick, and Kid GP. Hey, a couple of his games were even enhanced for the much-loved Atari STe.

Asteroidia, as you've probably guessed by now, is a Munsie-take on the old Asteroids arcade genre. This means it's hardly going to win an award for originality, but don't be put off because I've a sneaky suspicion this might be worth your time downloading and playing this rock blaster. Well, it's a Munsie game so that's a given, right?

Okay, forget about a static/no-scrolling ST screen and those old vector graphics. Dave is transporting us to a part of space where moving pixels rule thanks to the hardware of the Atari STe. Pixels that are powered by the Blitter chip so scroll along at blistering speeds. Not only that but you can expect DMA audio too. Your monitor won't know what hits it!

To be honest, it's hard to imagine Asteroids looking impressive but, I'll post a screenshot anyhow...

The planet is powered by the Blitter and whizzes by!

Boring old asteroids, right?

As you would expect, the gameplay is predicably asteroids with us controlling a ship to try and chase down those lumps of rocks. It's initially quite hard and surely takes some getting used to because everything moves so fast. Thankfully, the controls are a cinch to master so it won't be long before you realise how fantastic this alternative conversion is.

Visually, this is a nice looker but it's the speed of everything that will impress the most. To see planet Earth swooshing across your monitor certainly makes you realise just how under-utilised the Blitter and Atari STe was by the bulk of the commercial gaming companies. Once again, Mr Munsie puts them to shame. Audio hasn't been forgotten and we get DMA support which plays a short sampled tune. However, it's quite repetitive so I switched to chiptune/sound effects!

Here is the options screen with options to use the Blitter and flip between PAL/NTSC...

Gotta tip my hat to Mr Munsie... Blitter, 50Hz, Atari STe / Falcon support. Incredible!!

The CryptO'pinion?

Sure, this is Asteroids but, the twist is how it performs with impressive Blitted graphics zooming about the screen. It's like watching a demo and it proves how much potential the Atari STe had yet wasn't utilised. The joystick controls are superb so your gameplay is rock-smashingly addictive. This is one of the most entertaining versions of this original.

Blitted graphics or not, this is bucketloads of fun and a superb Asteroids conversion. Highly recommended!!

 Download Asteroidia from AtariMania 
 Hey, can you beat my hi-score below?