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The classic arcade game makes a return on your ColecoVision! A navigational error has caused your small spaceship to get lost in a dense asteroid belt, far away from your fleet. With your main interplanetary propulsion system out of commission, you have no choice but to use your ship's weapons to blast menacing asteroids into smaller and smaller pieces until the sector is free of dangerous rubble. Maneuver your ship to avoid collisions and use your hyperspace drive to evade hopeless situations. And as if your situation wasn't dire enough, alien saucers appear at random intervals and attack you without warning! The rescue party from your fleet may never find you, but you won't go down without a fight!
PROJECT STATUS (updated October 20th 2009):
PROJECT STORY: Honestly, what classic gamer doesn't love Asteroids, probably one of the most revered arcade games in history? I sure do, and that's why doing a ColecoVision version is among my top priorities. As you can see from the screenshots above, the goal of this project is to reproduce the arcade game as closely as possible, given the graphical limitations of the ColecoVision. In particular, I want to implement a rendering algorithm that would eliminate sprite flicker by displaying the asteroids using tiles instead of sprites. I have already designed this rendering algorithm on paper, but only by actually programming and testing it will I be able to see if it works as intended. I want to program the game in C language, but coding some basic routines in assembly language may be required to optimize the rendering process. Beyond the rendering issues, programming the physics of the player's ship (thrust, inertia, etc.) could also prove to be a challenge. Asteroid trajectories, enemy saucer behaviors and projectile movements should be less of a problem, but sometimes the simplest feature can cause some headaches to even the best programmers. If everything works as expected, I may also add some extra features not found in the original arcade game, like colors, or the energy shield feature available in the Atari 2600 version of Asteroids. If included, the player will be able to enable or disable these extra features via an options screen accessible from the opening title screen. Proving that the ColecoVision can do a relatively accurate and fun version of Asteroids is really my ultimate goal. TEAM PARTICIPANTS:
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