Jim Blimey

Arcade Classic: Asteroids

What is it with the poor Speccy missing out on official versions of arcade games? Asteroids is yet another game that fits this category. Originally released in 1979 by Atari, it was out and about in plenty of time for the arrival of the Spectrum in 1982 - luckily as always the bedroom coder army was around to fill the void, and this time we have a type-in (yes a type-in!) from Ian M. Collier published in Your Computer magazine in 1985.

If you're reading this there's a good chance you know what Asteroids is, but just in case here's a little breakdown. You take control of a little ship and you have to blast your way through an asteroid field making sure you don't get hit by the fast moving asteroids or the odd flying saucer that might come whizzing by. It was a massive hit and is still much loved today.

Now, you're probably thinking, being a type-in it's not going to be very good, well you're wrong! It is actually very nice, the animation is very smooth - except for when you get hit (which happens to me a lot!), that is rather sluggish for some reason. You can redefine the keys, there's a high score table and it even uses a custom font! What more could you ask for? Well ok, there's sound too but its not that good - you might want to wear some form of ear protection!

If you read my Chambers review you'll know that I don't give breakdowns for type-in games, but I will give it an overall score of 8 out of 10 as this is a very nice clone, and for a type-in it is very well done

Download Asteroids from World of Spectrum.