game
icon
title Asterock
set name asterock
manufacturer Sidam
year 1979
genre Shooter (hof)
category Shooter / Field (hof)
driver status good
driver source asteroid.c
snapshots MW: in game | parent / CT: in game | title | parent / Mr. Do: parent / EJ: parent / PS: in game | title | parent
rating

71.8% after 40 votes
 
parent Asteroids (rev 2)
other clones Asteroids (bootleg on Lunar Lander hardware)
Asteroids (rev 1)
Meteor
Meteorites
display
colour emulation good
palette 0
display type vector
orientation horizontal
frequency 60.000000Hz
sound
sound emulation good
channels mono
controls
players 1
nplayers 2P alt
controls other
buttons 5
coin slots 3
hardware
cpu M6502 @ 1.512MHz
audio Discrete
data
version added .076u1
last change(s) .077
roms
name size crc set flags sha1
sidamas.2  1024  cdf720c6  asterock    85fe748096478e28a06bd98ff3aad73ab21b22a4 
sidamas.3  1024  ee58bdf0  asterock    80094cb5dafd327aff6658ede33106f0493a809d 
sidamas.4  1024  8d3e421e  asterock    5f5719ab84d4755e69bef205d313b455bc59c413 
sidamas.5  1024  d2ce7672  asterock    b6012e09b2439a614a55bcf23be0692c42830e21 
sidamas.6  1024  74103c87  asterock    e568b5ac573a6d0474cf672b3c62abfbd3320799 
sidamas.7  1024  75a39768  asterock    bf22998fd692fb01964d8894e421435c55d746a0 
sidamas.0  1024  6bd2053f  asterock    790f2858f44bbb1854e2d9d549e29f4815c4665b 
sidamas.1  1024  231ce201  asterock    710f4c19864d725ba1c9ea447a97e84001a679f7 
034602-01.c8  256  97953db8  asteroid    8cbded64d1dd35b18c4d5cece00f77e7b2cab2ad 
cabinet art
additional information
info 0.26 [Brad Oliver, Al Kossow, Hedley Rainnie, Eric Smith, Allard van der Bas]

NOTE:
  • Once all top ten scores are first recorded, the first game played score that does NOT reach within the 1-10 range will cause the third initial of the 10th place score to be truncated. This bug will repeatedly occur whenever a higher score proceeds to bump down the lower placed scores and eventually the first game played score that does not reach the top ten, will cause the truncation of the third initial of the 10th place score. This is a bug in the game and not the emulation. Tested on a real machine. gregf
WIP:
  • 0.125u4: Discrete sound update [couriersud]: Added NODE_RELATIVE(NODE, offset) macro to discrete.h. Fixed driver to use this macro instead of adding directly to the node. This fixed abnormal discrete sounds.
  • 0.125u1: Fabio Priuli fixed unable to credit up or play the game.
  • 0.123u2: RansAckeR added DIP locations to Asteroids.
  • 0.120u1: Andreas added clone Meteor (Hoei 1980).
  • 0.115u1: Changed region proms to user1.
  • 0.114u4: Aaron Giles fixed Asteroids and Lunar Lander controls to be buttons not joysticks.
  • 0.108u5: Mathis Rosenhauer rewrote the Atari vector generators, using the schematics and actual state machine PROMs. The state machine is now emulated so timing should be much more realistic. Clipping hardware in bzone and others is emulated instead of hardcoded. Improved accuracy of clocks and various other bits of cleanup. Changed M6502 CPU clock speed to 1512000 Hz and added prom ($0 - DVG PROM).
  • 0.102: Hans Andersson and Derrick Renaud updated the discrete thump sound in Asteroids to use component values instead of derived equations.
  • 0.100u4: Kevin Jonas added dipswitches 'Center Mech' and 'Right Mech'.
  • 0.90u3: Derrick Renaud fixed gain in Asteroids etc. broken in 0.90.
  • 0.88u3: Pierpaolo Prazzoli added clone Meteorites (VGG 1979).
  • 0.85: Pierpaolo Prazzoli added conditional dipswitch support to Asterock.
  • 0.76u2: Pierpaolo Prazzoli fixed dipswitches in to clone Asterock: Added 'Records Table' and 'Coin Mode'.
  • 0.76u1: Pierpaolo Prazzoli added clone Asterock (Sidam 1979).
  • 24th October 2003: Pierpaolo Prazzoli added Asterock, an Asteroids clone to the Asteroids driver.
  • 0.68: Frank Palazzolo added new filter implementations to the asteroid/astdeluxe thrust sound. Derrick Renaud cleanup the discrete sound code and setup proper gain ratios and fixed saucer fire sound.
  • 9th March 2003: Derrick Renaud submitted an improvement to Asteroids explosion sounds.
  • 17th February 2003: Craig Aker fixed a problem in handling the LEDs in Asteroids Deluxe.
  • 3rd August 2002: Ken Reneris submitted another small improvement to the Asteroids discrete sound emulation and added phosphorescent persistence emulation to the vector graphics drawing code, possibly improving the look & feel of vector games.
  • 24th July 2002: Ken Reneris and Keith Wilkins both submitted improvements to the discrete sound system in Asteroids.
  • 0.58: Changed palettesize from 33024 to 32768 colors.
  • 18th November 2001: Frank Palazzolo reported some progress with Asteroid sound emulation - only one of the sound effects remains incorrect.
  • 17th January 2001: Bernd Wiebelt fixed a bug causing static in the discrete sound functions.
  • 0.37b11: Keith Wilkins made some support for discrete component sound emulation. Replaced Custom sound with Discrete.
  • 28th November 2000: Keith Wilkins sent in a discrete sound system update, fixing some sounds in Asteroids.
  • 7th November 2000: Keith Wilkins sent in a preliminary version of discrete sound system emulation, not supporting any game yet.
  • 0.37b3: Changed palettesize from 256 to 33024 colors.
  • 0.36RC2: Added clone Asteroids (bootleg on Lunar Lander hardware).
  • 28th February 2000: Juergen Buchmueller significantly improved the Asteroids sound simulation.
  • 0.36RC1: Added Custom sound. Samples are no longer needed in Stratovox, Battle Zone, Red Baron and Asteroids [Juergen Buchmueller].
  • 15th February 2000: Juergen Buchmueller fixed some bugs in the Asteroids sound simulation.
  • 13th February 2000: Juergen Buchmueller added preliminary analog sound simulation to Asteroids.
  • 6th February 2000: Jarek Parchanski added better samples to Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe.
  • 0.33b7: Renamed (asteroid) to (asteroi1) and (asteroi2) to (asteroid). Inspired by Retrocade and Vector Dream, Bernd Wiebelt changed the vector games to use translucent vectors. Color intensities had to be lowered, if it feels to dark for you now, increase the gamma correction value.
  • 0.30: Brad Oliver fixed the hiscore save.
  • 0.29: Andrew Scott fixed some sound problems in Asteroids.
  • 0.27: Added clone Asteroids (alternate version).
  • 0.26: Added Asteroids (Atari 1979). Thanks to the outstanding combined efforts of Brad Oliver, Bernd Wiebelt and Allard van der Bas, MAME entered in vectorial emulation world! All in a time, we have support for Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Black Widow, Battlezone, Gravitar, Lunar Lander, Red Baron, Spaceduel and Tempest. Thanks to Al Kossow, Hedley Rainnie and Eric Smith for the code to their VECSIM emulator which had emulated these games previously on the UNIX and MAC.
LEVELS: 1 (endless)

Other Emulators:
  • AAE
  • HiVE
  • JAE
  • Retrocade
Recommended Games (Asteroids):

Asteroids

Asteroids Deluxe

Astropal

Space Duel

Space Force

Space Fortress

Blasteroids

Space Lords

Romset: 9 kb / 5 files / 7.0 zip
history Asterock (c) 1979 Sidam.


A single player takes control of a ship trapped in the middle of an asteroid field. A number of large, slow-moving asteroids drift randomly around the play area and must be shot by the player. When shot, the asteroids will break into a number of smaller pieces which must also be shot until eventually, all of the asteroids and fragments will be destroyed and the next wave begins.


As well as the ever-present asteroids, alien saucers also make a regular appearance. These move diagonally around the screen firing at the player's ship and must be quickly destroyed.


- TECHNICAL -


Main CPU : M6502 (@ 1.512 Mhz)

Sound Chips : Discrete


Screen orientation : Horizontal

Video resolution : 256 x 231 pixels

Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz

Palette colors : 32768


Players : 2

Control : 8-way joystick

Buttons : 3


- TRIVIA -


This game is an Italian bootleg of "Asteroids".


The official Italian distributor of Atari Arcades, f.lli Bertolino s.r.l., moved a legal attack against Sidam, and won. Many code fragments stored in ROM of Asterock, Missile Storm and other Sidam clones was identical to those contained in Atari originals' memory. Sidam changed the coin accept and sound routines, to get rid of copyrighted Atari POKEY chip. Sidam called this a 'coincidence'; moreover, the Italian legislation did not mention directly the computer programs as copyrighted materials like songs and books. However, the court sentenced about the 'intellectual property' of programs - this was an important sentence in Italian legal history - and Sidam was convicted of copyright violation.


- SCORING -


Large Asteroids : 20 points.

Medium Asteroids : 50 points.

Small Asteroids : 100 points.

Large Saucer : 200 points.

Small Saucer : 1000 points.


- TIPS AND TRICKS -


* When you start the game, your spaceship will be in the middle of the screen. Heading toward your ship will be anywhere from 4 to 6 large asteroids. Your job is to blast those rocks. However, when you blast them, they break up into 2 medium rocks. Blasting a medium rock gives you 2 small rocks. In addition, you have to contend with large and small saucers. On the first few screens, you can sit in the middle and blast rocks to your hearts content. There isn't that much danger since the large saucer doesn't track and only fires random shots. Keep in mind a couple of things when shooting :

1) You can have 4 shots on the screen at any one time. This is useful for when you are blasting rocks at close range. You can pretty much drill them to dust.

2) Your shots 'wrap around' the screen. This means any shot that goes past the edge of the screen will reappear on the opposite side traveling the same direction. The saucers also have 'wrap around' shots.


* After 10,000 points, the small saucer becomes a permanent part of the game. You can no longer sit in one place since the small saucer is able to track your ship and take you out with the first or second shot.


* Use hyperspace only in very desperate situations. Something like having 4 asteroids coming at you at once, and there is nowhere to escape would be a good reason. 8 times out of 10, hyperspace will either put your ship in danger or when you appear somewhere else, your ship will blow up.


* Although there is danger from the rocks and saucers, you can also be a danger to yourself. Use the thrust carefully or you will find yourself careening out of control on the screen. Some players get really good, however, moving around and shooting.


* For those desired high scores, you can use the hunting trick. It goes something like this :

1) After 10,000 points, the small saucers appear. They are worth 1000 points apiece. First, blast every rock until you have only one small rock left.

2) Go sit in the upper left or right corner of the game screen.

3) If the small saucer appears from the side you are on, then you can blast it before it gets off a shot. If it appears on the opposite side, use the shot 'wrap around' to take care of it. Some people have done this for hours on end and racked up scores in the millions. Of course, it takes a long time at 1000 points a pop.

4) Also keep in mind that the small saucer can wrap shots so you may have to move out of danger.


- SOURCES -


Game's rom.

"Atari Inc. & Bertolino v. Sidam Srl: First Italian Decision on Video Games", European Intellectual Property Review , V, 12 (december 1983), pp.347-349.

F.A.Q. by Kevin Butler A.K.A. War Doc



Edit this entry at Arcade-History.com: http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=asterock&page=detail&id=125&o=2
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cheats
cheats
code comments
00000000:006F:00000099:FFFFFFFF  Infinite Credits
20800000:6B55:00000060:FFFFFFFF  Invincibility
20810000:6B7B:00000020:FFFFFFFF  Invincibility (2/3):Part 1 asteroid/saucer collisions, Part 2 saucer Fire
20810000:708C:00000000:FFFFFFFF  Invincibility (3/3):Hyperspace Re-Entry
00000000:02F7:000000FF:FFFFFFFF  No UFOs at all
00000020:02F7:00000001:FFFFFFFF  Lots of UFOs
60000000:0000:00000000:00000000 
00000000:0056:00000005:FFFFFFFF  Infinite Lives PL1
00000000:0057:00000005:FFFFFFFF  Infinite Lives PL2
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