Asteroids Fashion
Posted on July 26, 2010If you’re dressing up for a gala night at the arcade, you’ll need to look sharp; and nothing says sharp shooter like this season’s Asteroids fashion accessories. Unfortunately, “this season” doesn’t update all that often when it comes to quality Asteroids-wear, but here’s a survey of what’s out there.
Vintage Asteroids merchandise seems mainly focussed around the Atari 2600. 1983 was a big year for collectables, maybe as a last-ditch effort at game sales before the North American video game crash.
The first and unquestionably most excellent outfit is the Asteroids Halloween costume.
For more casual occasions, there’s the colored blocks on blue tee-shirt.
And to add a little splash to any outfit, pick a collectable pin.
These might be tricky to track down, but to take a look at these and more Atari items from this era, visit the collection at Atari Mania.
In more recent years, the hour hand for retro pop has reached 1980 (probably past 1987 by this point), and Atari nostalgia rides the wave. Atari logo shirts are common, but what about Asteroids? Two items stand out.
First is Fossil’s collectable Asteroids watch, produced as a limited edition of 5,000 in 2005 (We have #2518). This is a quality watch, with a hefty metal body and black leather strap. It’s big. The background is an animated LCD with little Asteroids and ship. You can’t play, but a button on the side allows you to freeze the animation or let it play. It’s not that visible unless you view it in the right light (it’s not backlit), but that actually makes it look like a punk-class timepiece at first glance, which will receive compliments at work. The Atari insignia etched on top is also fairly subtle. It was $130 new, and can still be found on the occasional watch or auction site. It also takes 3 batteries: one for the time and two for the display. Of all Asteroids items, this one stands in a class of its own.
The second newly-minted Asteroids item is a woven microfiber necktie available at Ties.com. It’s not the cheapest quality tie we’ve seen, but it’s close. It IS Asteroids, though. When it comes down to it, the Space Invaders tie from Beau Ties of Vermont is probably a better pick. It’s not Asteroids, but it’s very nice. Soft. Woven. Deserves a mention.
Sadly, it seems that there’s no women’s Asteroids formalwear. Seems like earrings would be good, or a silver chain necklace made of asteroids-shaped links, or just a simple pendant. Maybe some jewelry designer can get on that. Otherwise, there’s a slew of t-shirts (and mouse pads, etc.), both commercial and homemade from custom-press sites, featuring Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe
Know of any other good finds? Let us know.
Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell Returns
Posted on July 23, 2010Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has just returned to the board of directors for Atari.
It’s been 28 years since Nolan Bushnell founded Atari for just $500. The businessman, who used Pong to first launch the arcade craze in 1972 and later brought gaming into the living room in 1984 with the Atari 2600, is now back with the company.
Bushnell is now on the board of directors for Atari. A lot has changed at the company since he sold it to Hollywood’s Warner Communications for $28 million back in 1976. These days, the French-owned Atari has struggled to re-establish its brand with the type of game experiences that early titles like Asteroids and BattleZoneheld (and still hold) with gamers. Nolan, who’s early Atari days are the subject of a new Paramount Pictures biopic with producer Leonard DiCaprio, believes the timing is right to capitalize on what made Atari successful in its heyday.
Read the full article and interview by John Gaudiosi at Gamepro:
http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/215893/atari-founder-nolan-bushnells-return/
California Extreme 2010 – Ephemeral Classic Arcade
Posted on July 17, 2010This weekend is the 14th annual California Extreme, the classic arcade show that Ryan Davis of Giant Bomb calls “the best arcade I had ever been to, stocked with obvious classics, obscure gems, prototype and bootleg machines, and a bunch of stuff I’d simply never heard of.”
He’s posted a video (below) of a walk-through of this year’s show in Santa Clara. Â He pauses for a quick game of Asteroids Deluxe (cocktail) at 4:15.
Jon Koolpe has his Asteroids machine on display, with an advance version of the Asteroids multikit. Â He says, “Let me say that this kit is beyond cool…you get Asteroids (easy and hard), Asteroids Deluxe (easy and hard), and Lunar Lander. Dipswitch settings are handled by an on screen menu, high scores are saved in Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe, and you even get that extra 6th digit in your score in Asteroids (so you can obtain scores for beyond 99999).”
Also, take a look at Wired Magazine’s “5 Things I Learned at California Extreme” (2009).
=== FOLLOW UP ===
Dan at One Of Swords has a good overview of the event, with lots of photos:
http://oneofswords.com/2010/07/california-extreme-2010-report/
Asteroids wall decals by Blik
Posted on July 14, 2010Removable wall decal design company Blik now features our favorite game. 65-decal set sells for $45.
http://www.whatisblik.com/shop/asteroids
Recon: Barcade (Brooklyn)
Posted on July 08, 2010388 Union Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211 (map)
Phone: 718-302-6464
Website: www.barcadebrooklyn.com
This bar/arcade is a block from the Metropolitan Ave G Train in Williamsburg, with a serious emphasis on both bar and arcade. It’s a large space lined with classic games in excellent condition, plus a healthy selection of craft beers on tap. A Barcade High Scores board hangs above the games, and they host special beer and game events (like Wiimbleton) from time to time. There are tables in the back, and drink-rests between the games. It’s a good atmosphere, although sometimes too crowded to pull a quarter from your pocket.
The Asteroids machine is in great shape with a brilliant display, although the buttons are heavier than average and require strong wrists and fingers. Also, the high score table doesn’t reset when the power’s off, so you’d need to break 469,160 to enter your name.
At the time of writing, John McAllister (ELF) tops the house Asteroids chart with 2,222,240 points, set one month before he broke the 28 year-old world record in April, 2010, with a score of 41,838,740.
Barcade Brooklyn - Asteroids in center.
Asteroids is a Donut
Posted on July 04, 2010Article on everything2 describing the topology of the Asteroids universe as a torus (donut shape).
…So the topological part is this: when you fly up off the top edge of the screen, you magically appear at the same position on the bottom of the screen, and vice-versa. The same is true of the left and right edges. So consider this: from the pilot’s perspective, he or she is flying around in a 2-dimensional universe with no edge, ie: where every spot the ship is in looks locally like two-dimensional Euclidean space. Mathematicians call this sort of thing a manifold, specifically a 2-manifold. I’m going to represent it like this, as it is represented on the game screen:
The edges ‘a’ and ‘b’ are labelled to indicate that the top and bottom are the same location in space (a), as are the left and right (b). In fact (when you think about it) the four corners are actually the same point! If you were to try to connect this up as a real physical surface (this is called anembedding), you could think about it as a sheet of paper where you first glued edge a-top to a-bottom (giving you a rolled-up paper tube), and then bent the resulting tube around gluing b-left to b-right. You would end up with…wait for it…a donut! Or, in topological jargon, a torus. So when you are playing Asteroids, you are actually playing it on a torus, mathematically speaking. (The advantage to this explanation is that in a bar, there’s always a napkin around that you can use to demonstrate. Sometimes there are even videogames.)…
Read the full article here: http://www.everything2.org/node/746760
