ASTROSMASH
A demake of Mattel Intellivision's 1981 classic!
Don't be fooled by level 1, this is retro gaming where patience and mastery are the only way to survive to level 6! And if you do, it gets even more manic as your score increases.
Shoot the rocks to score and avoid being hit. Don't let the spinners detonate on the ground, and dispatch the guided missiles and ufos before they hit you. Level up at 1k, 5k, 20k, 50k and 100k.
For the full experience, flip through the original guide for an overview of the enemies you will be facing, point scoring, levels and a few tips:
Astrosmash Game Guide on archive.org
When it was launched, Mattel hosted a shootoff with serious prize money for the early 80's:
Shoot-off Ad
This is my first pico-8 game, and I've tried as best possible to emulate the original experience that I remembered playing (for hours and hours) with my whole family. Comments welcomed.
Post your high scores below!
Really fun. I've never played the original, but this looks very close to videos of it. You could probably make the graphics match almost exactly, but since it's a demake, I guess that's probably not what you're going for. In any case, you've captured the essence of the gameplay almost perfectly, from what I can tell. I really like how the sound effects indicate the enemy type (and speed in the case of the spinners).
My only minor critique is that the light gray background (at 50k?) makes objects difficult to see, particularly the light pink ones. But maybe this is just one of the ways the original made things more difficult? The switch to black at 100k was refreshing.
There were a couple instances where a spinner was far enough off the edge of the screen that it couldn't be shot but still hit the ground. In both cases, it was on the right edge of the screen, which might be relevant. Also, the movement speed of the ship seemed somewhat inconsistent. It felt like the acceleration from moving in one direction remained after changing direction, so that moving back and forth quickly eventually caused the ship to move much faster than I would expect. Again, I've not played the original, so this might be intentional.
Anyway, nice job! Takes me back to playing similar arcade-style games on the Apple II in the mid-80s.
Thanks binaryeye for the very comprehensive play through! I've adjusted all three findings in an updated cart above.
- yes, Astrosmash was known for it's garish colours, but i've toned that level down to a dark grey, much easier on the eyes, even if not as authentic
- i've tucked in the boundaries, was out by a few pixels - if you can see it, you can shoot it
- good find, wasn't decelerating when button presses overlapped
Outstanding. I did have some experience with this as a child and you did a great job. I love demakes of early games.
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