Article about the new Atari Asteroids Recharged arcade games. Has pictures and video

[PowerDubs]

 

 

https://arcadeheroes.com/2024/03/18/ataris-asteroids-recharged-is-coming-to-amusement-expo-2024/

[Jimmy Wicker]

Hi Atari Fans!

We'd love your help on how we can improve Asteroids Recharged so that it works in an arcade cabinet.  Please list your ideas here.

We have an alpha that we're demoing at the Las Vegas Amusement Expo show this week.  We made these changes so far:

 

1.  The thrust feels more like the original

2.  The powerups don't automatically move towards you--requiring you to make an interesting game choice as to whether or not you move from the safety of the center or go out and get it where it spawned (the location where you shot the flying saucer that was carrying it.)

3.  The multiplayer has individual scores to foster competition rather than a pooled score.  

4.  We'd added a 3rd player version as well.

5.  We've removed the "grid" that interferes with the star field for best LBE esthetics.

6.  We've designed the control panel so it is just like the original asteroids with 5 buttons to control the ship.  

7.  We changed the way you fire so it's more like the original, so you can fire up to 4 bullets at a time on the screen at the same time and you have to push the button to fire.  This is an important part of the game mechanic that makes asteroids fun.  It's been restored.

 

What other ideas do you have?  Let's brainstorm here.  Help us make this a successful venture by making the best version of Asteroids Recharged that works for this medium (a physical arcade cabinet.)

 

 

 

Edited March 19 by Jimmy Wicker

[Zoyous]

5 minutes ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

What other ideas do you have?  Let's brainstorm here.  Help us make this a successful venture by making the best version of Asteroids Recharged that works for this medium (a physical arcade cabinet.)

Recess the screen back a little ways into the cabinet so there's some visual depth, and put some decorative asteroid illustration bezel around the glass in front of the screen, reminiscent of the original Asteroids cabinet. Then have some subtle but colorful reactive ambient lighting in the interior cabinet around the screen.

 

Put a massive subwoofer in there so the explosions have some major bass!

[Shaggy the Atarian]

10 minutes ago, Zoyous said:

Recess the screen back a little ways into the cabinet so there's some visual depth, and put some decorative asteroid illustration bezel around the glass in front of the screen, reminiscent of the original Asteroids cabinet. Then have some subtle but colorful reactive ambient lighting in the interior cabinet around the screen.

 

Put a massive subwoofer in there so the explosions have some major bass!

They are headed in that direction with the monitor bezel, from this render (also, I can confirm they have a nice subwoofer inside)

[Giles N]

1 hour ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

7.  We changed the way you fire so it's more like the original, so you can fire up to 4 bullets at a time on the screen at the same time and you have to push the button to fire.  This is an important part of the game mechanic that makes asteroids fun.  It's been restored.

Hello there again,

 

Giles here, - a gamer, collecting retro-games & systems, being pretty much interested in legacy and retro-gaming in general. I’m also interested in stuff like ‘why did that game become historical but the other game over there, pretty much in the same landscape just got mediocre attention: what (precisely) made the difference?’ 

 

For my own part I’m very much a ‘the more firepower you can build up, the better’-guy.

Things like that, however, will of course differ from game to game. If you have so much firepower, and the enemies or obstacles so nerfed, you can just hold a button or two, to win the game, it gets boring. If you hardly can shoot, it gets frustrating.

I hope that there will be quite alot of firepower to build up then, including 4-in-a-line on-screen at the same time of every power-up that can be collected.

If it’s possible (or in there already, me not having seen it), to have some bomb-stuff to nuke-off asteroids and ufo/saucers. Perhaps homing or attaching-to the asteroids.

 

I’m also a fan of games that have (check)points of finality to them, even if the game goes on forever.

Best (…and most epic example …):

Atari’s Star Wars where you blow up a Death Star to complete a round.

So, this leaves me at hoping for some really giant 1/3 screen-sized Asteroid to slowly come in every xx number [a set number] of levels… which needs lots of bullets at the right spots or just overall before its taken apart. This would understandably perhaps demand too much change and testing. But since this is about   brainstorming, I’d want some supermassive Asteroid and/or UFO (size 1/4 - 1/3 the screen) which the player(s) need to take down with either raw firepower, weak spots to hit, or using a special pick-up floating around or being around somewhere in the ‘boss battle’, before the game goes on to next xx-number of levels (loops or re-combines all game factors)

I’d personally also like to see a Black Hole coming in, which you must thrust away from before being pulled-in and crunched.

Just for variation really.

Some Space-Squidoids to live inside certain Asteroids - jumping at players - when the said Asteroid is blown up, could also provide fun variation.

 

As to just how to use the Recharged - I’d say keep a lot of firepower and bullet-rain in there. 

Should also be really rewarding to get hi-scores: extra lives, or if multiplayer, seeing after the game-session who ‘won’ by getting the highscore. 
Perhaps some podium-thing.

 

               W I N N E R 

                     I S 

 

                PLAYER 2:

                  2344588767

 

PLAYER 3:            PLAYER 1:

     34456688           754788599

 

 

 

And an Asteroid-destruction count could also be cool. 
It could be used either to show how many asteroids are left or how many have been destroyed by a player. 
 

Floating spinning Atari-symbol:

Mega smart bomb that has an explosion that lasts for 3 seconds incinerating every enemy object/asteroid/obstacle coming drifting onto the screen in that time space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 19 by Giles N
typo weeding and re-braining

[TampaBay]

2 hours ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

Hi Atari Fans!

We'd love your help on how we can improve Asteroids Recharged so that it works in an arcade cabinet.  Please list your ideas here.

We have an alpha that we're demoing at the Las Vegas Amusement Expo show this week.  We made these changes so far:

 

1.  The thrust feels more like the original

2.  The powerups don't automatically move towards you--requiring you to make an interesting game choice as to whether or not you move from the safety of the center or go out and get it where it spawned (the location where you shot the flying saucer that was carrying it.)

3.  The multiplayer has individual scores to foster competition rather than a pooled score.  

4.  We'd added a 3rd player version as well.

5.  We've removed the "grid" that interferes with the star field for best LBE esthetics.

6.  We've designed the control panel so it is just like the original asteroids with 5 buttons to control the ship.  

7.  We changed the way you fire so it's more like the original, so you can fire up to 4 bullets at a time on the screen at the same time and you have to push the button to fire.  This is an important part of the game mechanic that makes asteroids fun.  It's been restored.

 

What other ideas do you have?  Let's brainstorm here.  Help us make this a successful venture by making the best version of Asteroids Recharged that works for this medium (a physical arcade cabinet.)

 

 

 

 

 

I've been playing Asteroids Recharged for a while today on Nintendo Switch, and a lot of it is great!  It's a ton of fun.  I'm a huge fan of the the classic original, also Asteroids Deluxe, and even the Atari 2600 version.  I play them all very frequently.  I've been having a great time with Recharged today.

 

One issue I have with it, and it's easy to explain in the classic version, but harder in the Recharged version, is the lack of "clearing the board".  I feel like I'm sorely missing the adrenaline rush of getting very close to clearing the board of all asteroids, then the long pause after finally shooting that last asteroid, and then an all-new asteroid field to start the next round.  Even after playing for a while today, I'm not sure I ever saw a clear moment where I finished one board and advanced to the next.  It just felt like new asteroids kept spawning on the current field, even when I only had one or two small ones left, then suddenly there's some new asteroids, and then occassionally the background might change color or decoration, and I'm left thinking "Did I just clear a board?  I can't tell?"

 

I like that there are multiple kinds of UFO's, some that are "friendly" and provide power-ups, while some shoot at you.  But I'm not sure there's an easy way to tell them apart.  I don't always want a new power-up if I'm using one that I like, so I have to stare at the UFO to see if it is shooting at me so I know to shoot back or not, while I determine if its a "friendly" or not.  I wish it was two diffferent objects, so I could say "that's an enemy!  Shoot it!"  vs. "That's a friendly and I don't need a power-up, let it go".

 

Lastly, I can't tell what happens when you lose a life?  Does it always automatically clear the entire board of all asteroids?  It seems like when I lose a life I blow up like a bomb and destory every asteroid in sight.  Is that the intent?

 

In two-player co-op mode, unless I'm mistaken, your two-person team shares the three lives.  I'm not a huge fan of that. If the player you're playing with is new to the game (or a young child that's just playing to have fun) your game is over in two seconds if they quickly lose all the lives for your team.  Each player should have their own lives, and if one player gets out, then that's it for them, but the other player can continue solo with whatever lives they have remaining.

 

Overall, I'm really enjoying it.  I'm glad you already removed the auto-attract of the power-ups.  There are lots of times when I want to keep using the power-up I have, and the auto-attract overrides it, even if I don't want to.  That was a good fix!

Edited March 19 by TampaBay

[Giles N]

3 hours ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

2.  The powerups don't automatically move towards you--requiring you to make an interesting game choice as to whether or not you move from the safety of the center or go out and get it where it spawned (the location where you shot the flying saucer that was carrying it.)

Ok, - so as to what I’ve written above, some that can be summed up in ‘ways to integrate challenges into Arcade mode’.

As you play Arcade, just endless incoming asteroids and saucers, will have ‘breaks’ which give place to challenges, which will run throughout the game.

 

As to bonuses and pick-ups, perhaps instead of just getting one at the expense of the one you have, - if its another weapon - you deploy/discharge into space the one you had as you pick up another, leaving it as something to pick up later or for P2 of P3 to pick up and use.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

28 minutes ago, Giles N said:

Ok, - so as to what I’ve written above, some that can be summed up in ‘ways to integrate challenges into Arcade mode’.

As you play Arcade, just endless incoming asteroids and saucers, will have ‘breaks’ which give place to challenges, which will run throughout the game.

 

As to bonuses and pick-ups, perhaps instead of just getting one at the expense of the one you have, - if its another weapon - you deploy/discharge into space the one you had as you pick up another, leaving it as something to pick up later or for P2 of P3 to pick up and use.

I like the idea of the giant asteroid and/or black hole. There's a few challenges already in recharged where you just have to survive for a certain length of time. From what I understand, they'll integrate challenges into the waves. I'll know for sure when I get a chance to play it tomorrow  

 

One thing to keep in mind though with any suggestions (not saying this about yours, more just in general for anyone reading this thread), is that since this is an arcade game, they have to take into account the desires of operators too. If anyone can play AR for 40 minutes on a single credit, the game won't make money and operators won't buy it. Of course I'm not saying it should be like Raw Thrills games, which have a "time to die" clock on them, but they certainly need to balance things out in a way that makes players and ops happy. That's always a difficult balance to figure out. 

[Giles N]

26 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

If anyone can play AR for 40 minutes on a single credit, the game won't make money and operators won't buy it.

…hence a Black Hole drifting by or a WormHole popping up from a parallel universe to dodge… 

 

Anyway, the game really getting harder should still leave room for expert gamers (who’ve played it to death).

 

But … a game-mechanic then:

 

There is a timer and an asteroid-counter.

 

If you don’t shoot down/blow up/away, enough asteroids within the given time-limit, a almost-screen-sized black hole comes in which you have to endlessly out-thrust (ie impossible in the end), or an time-out onslaught of asteroids are thrown at you.

 

So the player have to actively shoot at asteroids - big and small - to keep the count coming to zero within time. 
 

Perhaps some bonus stage (Galaga-like) - only to boost score, no loss of life - to alleviate stress could be in place. 30-60 seconds aren’t all the world when the next level is just that much worse…

 

Arcade games won’t make money if they feel utterly exhausting or totally overkill for players eithers.

 

And… it then should be slightly easier if you play 2 or 3 on-screen, because that boosts interest in gettong your buddies to play too. 
It becomes social and you get further in the game.

Spoiler

(after round 100, in 3 player mode - one of the ships can land inside a hangar for 5 minutes. Graphically a little major havoc-like character comes out and enters a toilet).

 

Edited March 20 by Giles N

[Lord Mushroom]

11 hours ago, TampaBay said:

In two-player co-op mode, unless I'm mistaken, your two-person team shares the three lives.  I'm not a huge fan of that. If the player you're playing with is new to the game (or a young child that's just playing to have fun) your game is over in two seconds if they quickly lose all the lives for your team.  Each player should have their own lives, and if one player gets out, then that's it for them, but the other player can continue solo with whatever lives they have remaining.

I disagree with that. It is much more social to let players play together for as long as possible. It is not fun for neither the player who dies first and has to watch the other player, nor the remaining player to play alone knowing the other person is getting bored watching.

 

Maybe the game could have a feature to help weak players. For example give them a shield or something to protect them if they lose their first life quickly.

Edited March 20 by Lord Mushroom

[Lord Mushroom]

9 hours ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

If anyone can play AR for 40 minutes on a single credit, the game won't make money and operators won't buy it.

Instead of making all players die quickly, this can be achieved by making players who have played a while, have to pay another credit to continue. This could for example be done by charging another credit when the players have beat a (set of) stage(s) to continue to the next. This should make the game more profitable.

[TampaBay]

1 hour ago, Lord Mushroom said:

I disagree with that. It is much more social to let players play together for as long as possible. It is not fun for neither the player who dies first and has to watch the other player, nor the remaining player to play alone knowing the other person is getting bored watching.

Then they can, and should, do it like the arcade Space Duel game where the players have *options* for gameplay (coincidentally, one of Atari's successors to Asteroids), one of which is where each player has their own lives BUT when the first player loses all their lives, they come back to life in a weakened state and can continue to play the game and keep respawning until the second person loses all their lives.  That's exactly how Space Duel works.  That keeps it competitive, while you both work to clear the board together, but solves the problem of one person standing there watching if they lose all their lives first.

 

The issue with Recharged's current setup is that if a parent wants to play together with a very young child and have the kid feel like they were part of the game, that's not possible, because the game is over within seconds.  I know because I tried it yesterday.  It's impossible to play co-op with someone who is not skilled in the game because your shared lives are gone in an instant.

 

I think it's great that Space Duel provides multiple ways to play:

 

Edited March 20 by TampaBay

[Lord Mushroom]

16 minutes ago, TampaBay said:

Then they can, and should, do it like the arcade Space Duel game where the players have *options* for gameplay (coincidentally, one of Atari's successors to Asteroids), one of which is where each player has their own lives BUT when the first player loses all their lives, they come back to life in a weakened state and can continue to play the game and keep respawning until the second person loses all their lives. 

That is interesting, but it doesn´t solve the problem of weak single player players and multiplayer with only weak players. How about this:

 

1) Players share lives.

2) Players who lose a life quickly start their next life with a shield of some kind. The faster the death, the better the shield.

3) "dead players" in a multiplayer game continue to play as before, but are now invulnerable, until the co-player(s) is/are also dead.

Edited March 20 by Lord Mushroom

[TampaBay]

2 minutes ago, Lord Mushroom said:

That is interesting, but it doesn´t solve the problem of weak single player players and multiplayer with only weak players. How about this:

 

1) Players share lives.

2) Players who lose a life quickly starts their next life with a shield of some kind.

3) "dead players" in a multiplayer game continue to play as before, but are now invulnerable, until the co-player(s) is/are also dead.

 

I like it!  That would work.

 

By the way, I also agree with you that in some cases the first person who loses all their lives may not want to just stand there and watch the other person continue.  I personally don't mind rooting for the other person, but I see your point. 

 

I do like how Space Duel does it.  When you re-spawn aftering losing all your lives, you're a little limited (you can only fire one bullet at a time, for example, vs. the normal 4), but at least you're still in the game.  I think you can even earn back a full strength life if you score enough points with your weakened ship.

[Lord Mushroom]

3 minutes ago, TampaBay said:

I do like how Space Duel does it.  When you re-spawn aftering losing all your lives, you're a little limited (you can only fire one bullet at a time, for example, vs. the normal 4), but at least you're still in the game.  I think you can even earn back a full strength life if you score enough points with your weakened ship.

I can see people finding it unsatisfying to play in such a reduced state, though. Especially kids. People aren´t as tough as they used to be.

[82-T/A]

That game is awesome... is that on the VCS? I have to look, I'll totally buy that.

[+jeremiahjt]

18 hours ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

6.  We've designed the control panel so it is just like the original asteroids with 5 buttons to control the ship.

Thank you for this. This was my number one worry when I first saw the Recharged games were being made into arcade games. Well that, and having a trackball for Missile Command and a spinner for Breakout.

[GraffitiTavern]

On 3/19/2024 at 4:18 PM, Jimmy Wicker said:

Hi Atari Fans!

We'd love your help on how we can improve Asteroids Recharged so that it works in an arcade cabinet.  Please list your ideas here.

We have an alpha that we're demoing at the Las Vegas Amusement Expo show this week. 

Very happy about this announcement! My suggestion is make sure there is a good mode for versus play so barcades can host tournaments and stuff, a more broad suggestion is remember that a lot of people don't think arcades still exist, that is a challenge but also an opportunity to get a lot of free publicity if you can market it right(like give a cabinet to a big streamer or send one to The Game Awards)

 

Thanks for doing this, I was born in '98 so I never thought I'd get the chance to play a new Atari arcade game, so this is exciting for me.

[Jimmy Wicker]

12 hours ago, jeremiahjt said:

Thank you for this. This was my number one worry when I first saw the Recharged games were being made into arcade games. Well that, and having a trackball for Missile Command and a spinner for Breakout.

Of course!  We'll get 3.5" or 4"  trackballs in for Missile command and real spinners for breakout.  We want to make environmental cabinets and cockpits too.  What kind of cabinets would you like to see for Yars Revenge and for Gravitar?  Should we do anything special for black widow?  What if the player felt like they were inside of a cave?  That would be cool.   How about Bezerk?  Our creativity is our only limitation. 

 

We'd like to get the original control marquee panel for missile command that was removed before the game was shipped, for example.   The heart of our Video Arcade System allows us to have all sorts of blinking lights and virtual pinball toys that all fire off in game at different times with different triggers.   

 

We invite you to help us make these games the best that they can be.

 

[Giles N]

On 3/19/2024 at 11:19 PM, TampaBay said:

Even after playing for a while today, I'm not sure I ever saw a clear moment where I finished one board and advanced to the next. 

Yes, - there should be breaks of some sorts. 
Could be counting up score and things shoot down.

Could be bonus stage (think Galaga).

Could be ‘Get Ready for Mission. Objective [insert from recharged].

 

18 hours ago, Lord Mushroom said:

It is much more social to let players play together for as long as possible.

It was often resolved by shared credits. You pay for 20 credits, and its up to each constellation of players (parent + kids or adult buddies being fairly equal in skill) how they distribute ‘press button to continue’.

 

10 minutes ago, GraffitiTavern said:

My suggestion is make sure there is a good mode for versus play so barcades can host tournaments and stuff,

Yeah - the game can be watched on a big screen and people can place money on which player they think’ll make it the longest 😄😂 -  the Arcade-Gambling combo.

[Giles N]

16 minutes ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

How about Bezerk? 

The cabinet is like a futuristic space-station wall, and directly above thr huge screen looms the ‘Face of Otto’ staring down at the players, slightly turning towards the player making the most kills. As time runs out, the plastic ball or screen image, turns red, beginning to blink omniously, then Evil Otto jumps onto the playfield in the game. 
Perhaps unnerving for kids, perhaps a little cool and exciting for teenagers/adults, getting a bit of 2001-space-Odyssey feeling from the cabinet. Must be measured against how distracting it could become. 
I write this out on a semi-humorous note, imaging the unnerved gamers at Challenge/Mission 19 or something, with Evil Otto staring down at them. So take it all as me warming up for more brainstorming. 

 

[Giles N]

1 hour ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

That would be cool.   How about Bezerk? 

Since you removed the semi transparent grid-graphics in Asteroids (very good choice; it felt like ‘what’s-this?-I-get-its-NeoRetro without wierd grid), I think slight aesthetical changes should be done to Berzerk.

 

1. Floor must be much darker. Not black, but much darker, so the walls really feels like eerily lit-up walls in a futuristic setting where light-sources may be of different types than what we’re used to and simultaneously create a stronger throwback to Berzerk original.

I’d suggest dark-metallic grey.

 

2.Let palette on walls and robots change as the game proceeds, with missions/challenges intersped throughout the game.

 

3. As all mission/challenges are done it just cycles - either with infintely recombined mazes ‘Gauntlet-style’ or jump to more difficult.

 

4. Change the robots so they move a tiny bit slower, both towards the player(s) and with equally slower animation, giving them a ‘heavier feel’. Change the wasp-yellow to futuristic yellow or futuristic-whstever in color. They aren’t toys but killing machines.

Increase robot speech volume to much-much higher than it is on the home-version, so their voices really cut through.

As robots are shhot down m, have 10 different visual ways they gets destroyed: falling face-down, being shoot hole through, being blown up with robot parts flying in arches, some burning up in oil-spill, others electrocuting as gun-fire short-circuits they protective armor (think droid death in Star Wars 1-3 and similar movies, you get the idea). Spectacle of visuals and sound and effects are fun in Arcades. ‘Attacking’ the senses in the way that causes adrenaline rush (not head-aches post-gaming) is what made some arcades, like Afterburner and Mercs so much fun.

 

5.Some gamers have complained the gun-aim of the dude the player controls feels a bit off, or semi-sluggish, or imprecise. Perhaps fine-tune the aim with the Arcade-sticks you plan to use.

And as always; the more firepower-to-the players, the more fire, explosions, things getting destroyed, and overall high Rambo factor, the better, in my humble opinion.

 

6.Give the robots some subtle, low-volume, low-freq. clancking as they run - now heavily - towards the player(s). 
 

7. When Evil Otto enters, make the room begin to blink red-alert fashion (like selfdestruct alarms in every sci-fi movie of the kind).

 

8. Have a galactic princess to rescue in the prison-cell section… no wait, that was another … uhm .. genre

😜😅

 

9. If you actually manages to best more than 256 rounds of the game… let the screen begin to buzz… then come back on… with Evil Otto looking at you… and exploding

(this is/would be in my opionion a cool allusion to early arcades like Pac Man, which the creators didn’t believe could be beaten, so they coded it to crash after round 256. 
I believe Tunnel Runner for the Atari 2600 have similar thing to it.

This point really is not-core whatsoever, and would just be fun poke to early arcades.

 

10. Evil Otto is really evil: after you come so or so far into the game, (made it through first round of missions), Evil Otto has grown in size, or begins to glow and give off sparks, jumps more aggressively, does inteliigent out-smarting jumps (jump first just along walls, then suddenly begins to chase one targeted player, ignoring the others (showing evil AI-cunning)

 

11. Evil Otto is really, really evil.

He can at certain levels come to a computer wall, where he stops to give place you’re in a self-destruct instruction. Only way to break it off, is for player to move so close to super-evil Otto he resumes chasing instead of setting off self-destruct.

This should only happen if player(s) have ran back forth between 2 rooms to escape Otto more than 8-10 times. Its timer.

 

Edited March 21 by Giles N

[Shaggy the Atarian]

I'll have more on this soon but best I could throw together after getting to hotel late and tired:

 

 

[ledzep]

On 3/19/2024 at 1:18 PM, Jimmy Wicker said:

Hi Atari Fans!

We'd love your help on how we can improve Asteroids Recharged so that it works in an arcade cabinet.  Please list your ideas here.

We have an alpha that we're demoing at the Las Vegas Amusement Expo show this week.  We made these changes so far:

 

1.  The thrust feels more like the original

2.  The powerups don't automatically move towards you--requiring you to make an interesting game choice as to whether or not you move from the safety of the center or go out and get it where it spawned (the location where you shot the flying saucer that was carrying it.)

3.  The multiplayer has individual scores to foster competition rather than a pooled score.  

4.  We'd added a 3rd player version as well.

5.  We've removed the "grid" that interferes with the star field for best LBE esthetics.

6.  We've designed the control panel so it is just like the original asteroids with 5 buttons to control the ship.  

7.  We changed the way you fire so it's more like the original, so you can fire up to 4 bullets at a time on the screen at the same time and you have to push the button to fire.  This is an important part of the game mechanic that makes asteroids fun.  It's been restored.

 

What other ideas do you have?  Let's brainstorm here.  Help us make this a successful venture by making the best version of Asteroids Recharged that works for this medium (a physical arcade cabinet.)

 

Wow!  I'll tell you what, I can't stand the Recharged home versions of these games so when I saw that first link I was expecting to be disappointed... but the changes you made are spot-on for a conversion to a physical arcade version!  No gamepad/joystick control, thank you so so much, that was half the battle.  I like your listed modifications for the arcade experience version, they are all in line with what made the home versions suck (in terms of not having them).

 

As far as brainstorming ideas, how about an occasional comet zipping through the asteroid field, if it collides with an asteroid it comes apart in a shower of new rocks that could be very hard to avoid (only shows up on higher levels, assuming there are actual levels) since a regular asteroid that is shot normally is turned into just 2 smaller ones.  Sort of like the Zakato mines in Xevious that would fly down and if not shot quickly will shoot out an arc of 5 shots (this is the one with the glowing center, not the all-black early one), the larger one would shoot out in all directions.  So the comet flies in (with a tail), probably hits an asteroid, the asteroid splits into 2 smaller asteroids but the comet blows up into like 5 or so chunks that fly out but don't screen overlap (maybe they fade out like fireworks instead of being more rocks but will still kill you if they contact your ship).

 

Not really a game addition, but I think you would be a hero to arcade cabinet owners if, for Missile Command and/or Lunar Lander, you brought back the Cherry (volcano) fire buttons!  Not only because they have a very unique feel, but if you get them manufactured again that would mean a lot of old Atari games could get replacements.  I think the buttons that don't light up are the ones no one has anymore, but use both versions for the arcade cabinets, please!

[ledzep]

22 hours ago, TampaBay said:

I do like how Space Duel does it.  When you re-spawn aftering losing all your lives, you're a little limited (you can only fire one bullet at a time, for example, vs. the normal 4), but at least you're still in the game.  I think you can even earn back a full strength life if you score enough points with your weakened ship.

 

That is a solid idea.  Another option (or in line with your idea) is to have the occasional power-up that is an extra life.  So if you're limping around firing only one shot, since the idea is co-op, the other player can shoot the saucer and if it's an extra life (or "repair" life) with a special symbol you can try to fly over to it and gain back a life (the player who shot it gets the points if there are any) and now you're back to full-strength but only one ship unless you score over some threshold that gets you another ship.

 

Or if you are fully dead and no longer on the screen then the other player can shoot a saucer that provides a regeneration power-up.  Of course using that power-up negates whatever previous power-up that the player might have been using but it's worth it, right?  Right?!

 

22 hours ago, Lord Mushroom said:

I can see people finding it unsatisfying to play in such a reduced state, though. Especially kids. People aren´t as tough as they used to be.

 

Well, guess what will toughen them up?  Having to a wait a bit to play again.  Try harder, son!