1982 Asteroids record broken

Posted on April 06, 2010

John McAllister just scored 41,838,740 points, beating Scott Safran’s 1982 high score of 41,336,440.  This had been the longest-standing record in arcade history.

Full Wired article here — http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/04/asteroids-record

Twin Galaxies official scoreboard here — http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=22&pi=2&gi=4017&vi=643

Atari 2600 Asteroids Plot

Posted on February 03, 2009

The following story was taken directly from the Atari 2600 Asteroids manual.

On a quiet serene evening the Cosmic Space Patrol sets out for the usual night cruise through the boulevards of space. This beat was always the same; calm, no action and no excitement. For some reason this night feels different. Shortly before 0200 hours some form of intergalactic material is sighted through the visual particle counter. The material is too large a mass to measure. It’s drifting closer. Lookout, it’s a giant asteroid boulder and it’s headed straight for the Cosmic Spacecraft. The only chance for survival is to dodge the boulder or destroy it. Destroying it doesn’t mean just breaking it up, it means vaporizing it. Small asteroid boulders are equally as fatal as large ones.

The Cosmic Space Patrol is highly trained to handle this situation. Could you do as good a job as the Cosmic Space Patrol? How would you protect yourself if you were caught in a deadly asteroid belt? This is your big chance to fly throughout the dimensions of space and fend against asteroid boulders. The longer you survive, the more space hazards you’ll encounter.

Whew, the boulder just missed colliding with the Cosmic Spacecraft, but suddenly the Cosmic Space Patrol find themselves surrounded by thousands of the deadly asteroids. The Cosmic Space Patrol must act quickly to save their spacecraft and spare their lives. The spacecraft is equipped with photon torpedoes, hyperspace, shields, and flip control.