Aciqra (uh-SEE-kruh) is a free and open source planetarium program built for use in the real world. New to the project or its goals? Please take a look at what Aciqra is about to get a sense of what makes this project is, how it is different and its various releases.Features: 120,000 stars The 88 constellations Sun, moon, planets Comets, asteroids, dwarf planets with built-in editor Nebulae. Download this game from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 10 Team (Surface Hub), HoloLens. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for Asteroids Arcade Classic.
The premise of the 1980s arcade hit Asteroids was fairly simple: take one small spaceship, throw a zillion gigantic asteroids at it, and voila -- instant classic! Now, more than a decade later, Activision has upped the stakes with Asteroids in full 3D, a full-scale makeover of the still-enjoyable original.
You must guide your tiny ship through six unique zones, each with numerous sub-levels, while battling for survival against such dangers as a black hole with a deadly gravitational pull and a hostile sun that shoots red-hot flames in your direction. The enemies are tougher this time around, too. Instead of simple, run-of-the-mill giant rocks, you're up against huge crystals that replicate and increase in number whenever you shoot them; meteors that burst into flame; worm-like monsters straight out of The Empire Strikes Back; and countless others.
Fortunately, your weapons are better this time, too. Select one of three asteroid-clearing ships, then equip it with laser nets, shock waves, gun satellites, Armageddon bombs and many more. Half the fun of the remake is collecting and using these new weapons. The ship controls are similar to those in the original and the classic fire-shield-thrust style of play preserved, which makes it easy to jump right in and start blasting away.
The graphics are an interesting combination of 2D backgrounds and 3D objects, which creates a strange but generally successful gaming atmosphere. The nicely done cut scenes before each new zone contribute to the overall storyline. The story itself, however, leaves something to be desired. It's essentially a vehicle to propel your asteroid ship from one zone to the next, with little effort to make it particularly compelling.
No matter, though. Asteroids isn't about storyline, it's about the fun and addicting action of flying around space and blowing things up. In that regard, the game succeeds nicely. It's basically the original game with better graphics and more weapons. It's not the next generation of gaming by any means, but it is fun to play. And while it may be a little too easy to beat once you've mastered each level, it's certainly an enjoyable diversion for fans of the original.
Activision has really got a lot of guts. It's one thing to re-release gamer's favorite arcade hits for the PC, but to take those game and change them is.. well, dangerous. It's a very sketchy thing indeed to try and manipulate some of the greatest games of all time. Fortunately, Activision is really good at it. With Battlezone, the company gave us a reason for trying to skim across mountainous terrain killing tanks while at the same time bring the venerable classics graphics and gameplay up to date. Now, with their latest release Asteroids, the developers at Activision are trying to do it again with acceptable if not breathtaking results.
Like the game itself, Asteroids storyline is fairly simple. You are a fighter pilot who's responsible for clearing dangerous rubble out of congested space traffic areas so that freighters can get through. Each sector you move through is different and has its own special threats like crystal asteroids that can regenerate and super dense asteroids that cannot be destroyed. To help you achieve your goals, your superiors have agreed to drop in experimental gear from time to time that will upgrade your ship both offensively and defensively. Unfortunately, the sectors you're travelling through are also patrolled by hostile alien ships that will do their best to make your peaceful mission a short one.
Gameplay is equally as simple. Just like the original Asteroids, this new title is a top down shooter with very few controls. In addition to being able to turn left and right, you can thrust (which gives the ship a forward vector in the direction you're currently pointing), hyperspace (a dangerous move that moves you to a random point on the wrap-around screen) and flip (a defensive move that enables you to quick orient your ship in the opposite direction). When you've gotten used to these basic movement commands, you can take on the fire button (which sends a single bullet out ahead of you), the shield key (puts up a protective force field around your ship that will keep you safe from incoming asteroids for a short period of time), and use your secondary weapon button (which will activate whatever power-ups you've collected.
As you start the game, you'll get to choose between three different types of fighter (the box says four, but I guess I never uncovered the mysterious fourth fighter). The first craft, the Dagger, is an all-round solid fighter that boasts fast rotation, powerful thrust, and mid-range shield and firepower. The Rapier is best suited for players that like to move around a lot since it has super-fast thrust and very high rotation ability backed up by only medium firepower and the lowest shielding in the game. Finally there's the Longsword, a ship with mid to low thrust and rotation scores that makes up for its lack of celerity with high firepower and a nearly impenetrable shield. It won't take you long to figure out which ship best suits your play style, and after you've settled in, you're unlikely to ever switch again.
One of the biggest differences between the new Asteroids and the old is the addition of power-ups to the game. There's an awful lot here, which range from somewhat invisible upgrades to your thrust or firepower to active tools like the Plasma Drill (which fires a super powerful bolt from the front of your craft), the Plasma Sword (which fires an even bigger blast from the rear of your ship), and homing missiles that will track down a target and explode on contact. Half the fun of the game is collect these little beauties and figuring out what they're capable of.
Obviously graphics and sound technology have come a long way since the release of the original game, and Activision has done a pretty good job of upgrading the game without affecting its basic play. All of the objects in the game are well detailed and the lighting effects are superb. Sadly though, it doesn't seem like 3D technology was utilized as well as it could have been. After looking at all of the visual effects, I never saw anything that made me want to write home. Still, it's just Asteroids after all, maybe I'm looking for too much here. The sound, on the other hand, was brilliant. The sound effects are booming and loud, but are at their core the same sounds from the arcade original. The blend of old and new is magnificent and more than once Jason and Tal told me to turn the volume down (they also said other things, but I'm not going to print them here).
So that leaves us with multiplayer, in my opinion, the most disappointing aspect of the new game. First off, there's no net, serial cable or modem options at all. If you want to play against a friend, you'll have to sit down at the same computer to do it. Multiplayer doesn't offer any head to head options, it's just basically you and another ship on the screen at the same time trying to get the most points. All in all, it took me about an hour to decide that it was more fun to play this game alone than with a friend. There's just no excuse for that.
In the end, Asteroids is a good update of one of the greatest games ever made. Even so, it's still pretty damn simple. If you're in to straight arcade shooters, you'll probably get a lot of enjoyment out of Asteroids, if however, you're looking for the added depth that Activision gave to Battlezone, you're most likely to come away disappointed.
People who downloaded Asteroids have also downloaded:
Atari: 80 Classic Games in One!, Space Invaders, Atari Anniversary Edition, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Pac Man, Atari Arcade Hits, Defender
Shoot The Rocks is a free online homage to Atari's classic 1979 arcade game, Asteroids. Asteroids is one of the earliest shoot-em-ups, and something of a genre-defining title in space shooters - along with other games of the era, like Space Invaders, obviously.
The aim of the game is to destroy all the asteroids floating (or hurtling) around the screen, whilst dodging the attacks of flying saucers, which you can also destroy for even more points.
Controls
Keyboard controls for desktop and laptop
| Left arrow / Z | - | Rotate ship left/anticlockwise |
| Right arrow / X | - | Rotate ship right/clockwise |
| Up arrow / N | - | Thrust |
| Space / M | - | Fire (hold to shoot continuously) |
| H / B | - | Hyperspace |
| F / V | - | Flip |
| S / C | - | Shield |
| P | - | Pause game |
Tilt and touch controls for mobile and tablet
With mobile and tablet you need to rotate your device into landscape orientation in order to play (i.e., so it's like you're watching a TV show on it).
You TILT your device in order to steer the ship - Shoot The Rocks takes readings from your device's accelerometer in order to figure out where to point the ship.
To thrust and fire you TOUCH your device's screen. Rather than having buttons rendered on the screen you can touch anywhere on the LEFTHAND SIDE of the screen to THRUST, and anywhere on the RIGHTHAND SIDE of the screen to FIRE. You TOUCH the marked areas in the centre of the screen to jump through HYPERSPACE or activate your SHIELD.
Note that there is no explicit flip control on mobile or tablet since you can achieve the same effect simply by tilting your device in the opposite direction.
The following diagram illustrates these controls:
Friends and foes
| PLAYER SHIP | This is your ship. You start with three lives and can earn an extra life every time you score 10,000 points. You can use the keyboard to fly your ship, or tilt and touch controls on mobile or tablet. Have a look in the previous section for a full description of the controls. You also have a hyperspace ability, which will randomly materialise your ship somewhere else on the screen when you use it. In theory it's a good way to get out of trouble fast but, honestly, it's just as likely to get you killed as to save your ass. Your ship comes equipped with a shield, which can protect you from harm for a few seconds. Don't use it too much though, or you'll deplete your energy and destroy your ship. Finally, on desktop or laptop anyway, you have the ability to do a 180. That's right: you can flip your ship round to face the opposite direction with a single keystroke. There's no equivalent on mobile or tablet because with these you can flip your ship round just by tilting your device in the opposite direction so there's no need for it. |
| ASTEROID | These guys are the main enemy in the game. They're passive, and don't shoot back, but they're more than enough to cause plenty of trouble on their own. They come in three sizes: large, medium, and small. They all start off large but, as you shoot them, they split into smaller asteroids, until eventually they're destroyed. When they split the smaller asteroids can shoot off in unpredictable directions so it's best not to get too close when shooting larger asteroids. In both versions of the game the number of asteroids at the start of each level increases gradually as you move to higher levels. They also move faster. After the first couple of levels in the standard game (but not the classic mode), some asteroids will take more than one hit to split or destroy. You'll be able to tell because they'll be a different colour to standard asteroids. When these harder to kill asteroids do split they give birth to smaller asteroids that are also harder to kill, so watch out. The proportion of asteroids requiring multiple hits to kill will increase as the game goes on. |
| LARGE FLYING SAUCER | No asteroids game is complete without the presence of flying saucers. This bad boy flies across the screen and shoots at you. Fortunately, it's fairly slow moving (at least on lower levels) and, being large, is relatively easy to hit. Navigation also isn't their strong point and they'll often collide with asteroids and destroy themselves. When I say it shoots at you, what I really mean is it shoots. If you happen to be in the way of one of those shots, so much the better, but it doesn't really bother with aiming until you've got further into the game. In the modern game variant these will occasionaly drop power-ups when destroyed: the classic/retro game doesn't have power-ups. |
| SMALL FLYING SAUCER | This is the sort of stunted evil twin of the large flying saucer. Like its more girthsome sibling, it flies across the screen and shoots at you, only this one really does shoot at you quite accurately, rather than at random. It also moves a lot faster and is harder to destroy on account of being smaller. Again, these guys aren't the best when it comes to spatial awareness and, like the large flying saucers, will often collide with other objects and destroy themselves. In the modern game variant there is an up side to these little terrors: like their larger brethren they sometimes drop power-ups when destroyed, so keep your eyes peeled and your wits about you. |
| BLACK HOLE | Not something I've seen implemented this way in an asteroids game before, and unapologetically inspired by the star in Spacewar! - arguably the first real video game - these suckers drift across the screen exerting a gravitational pull on every object on the screen. They come in three sizes: small, medium, and large, with the large being the most hazardous. Unlike real black holes they won't destroy your ship, or any other object, directly, but they do suck everything towards them, which makes controlling your ship harder, and increases the chance of you colliding with something that will destroy. The large black hole in particular is to be avoided, since it's strong enough to capture your ship for as long as it's on screen, which makes you a sitting target for all the other debris it sucks in. You do have one advantage against black holes, which is that your ship is fitted with inertial stabilisers, meaning that when it's still, it'll tend to stay still. These do only work so well though, and eventually you'll find yourself sucked towards the black hole if you're too close to it. Other powered craft also have this advantage. Both flying saucers and activated satellites also have inertial stabilisers, although those on the satellites are quite weak so they are more prone to getting sucked into black holes than either your ship or the flying saucers. Black holes only appear in the modern game variant, not the retro/classic game variant. |
| SATELLITE | Satellites drift passively around in space until they are activated. Activation happens either when they are shot, by you or by one of the flying saucers, or when they collide with an object, such as an asteroid, a flying saucer, or even your ship. Once activated they split into three smaller satellites which actively chase your ship, and generally move a bit faster, so you'll want to make sure you keep your distance. The smaller satellites also split when they're shot, this time into two very small and fast moving satellites that can quickly surround and destroy your ship if you don't keep your wits about you. These are very much worth destroying though because, as well as yielding at least 200 points (multiplied by the number of hits it took to destroy them), in the modern game variant they sometimes drop power-ups. |
| POWER-UP | Something else not common in most asteroids games are power-ups, though they have appeared in some, such as Blasteroids. In Shoot The Rocks they are sometimes dropped when you destroy flying saucers or small satellites by shooting them. They are never dropped when asteroids are destroyed, nor are they dropped if flying saucers or satellites are destroyed by collisions with other objects, or if they're shot by other flying saucers. In Shoot The Rocks, power-ups exclusively upgrade your firepower. They will either increase your rate of fire, increase the number of shots you fire at once (multiple shots are fired in a spread pattern), or both. Your normal rate of fire is 720 rounds per minute, but power-ups can take this up to 3600 rounds per minute for short periods of time. In addition they can allow you to fire up to 5 shots simultaneously, which means you'll be putting out 18000 rounds per minute. This is a truly devastating amount of firepower that can put paid to even the most devastating asteroid and alien onslaughts. Worth pointing out that top-end power-ups are uncommon though, so grab what you can, when you can. |
Scoring
Like almost any other asteroids game, scoring in Shoot The Rocks is fairly straightforward. There is one difference that you won't find in most other versions of Asteroids, which is that a multiplier is applied to the score based on how many shots it took to destroy whatever you just killed.
Auto tune au plugin freeeverarts. For example, large asteroids are usually worth 20 points, but if it took 2 shots to destroy the asteroid rather than the usual 1, a multipler of 2 would be applied. This would mean that in this case destroying the large asteroid would net you 40 points.
Asteroids Download Free Downloads
Pretty straightforward, right?
The table below details the base scores for all objects in Shoot The Rocks, which follow the lead of both the original Asteroids, and Asteroids Deluxe. See this video to get a look at the score table on an original Asteroids Deluxe arcade machine.
| LARGE ASTEROID | 20 points |
| MEDIUM ASTEROID | 50 points |
| SMALL ASTEROID | 100 points |
| LARGE FLYING SAUCER | 200 points |
| SMALL FLYING SAUCER | 1000 points |
| LARGE SATELLITE | 50 points |
| MEDIUM SATELLITE | 100 points |
| SMALL SATELLITE | 200 points |
Asteroids Game Free Download
More information
Take a look at our Shoot The Rocks Tips & Tricks page for a few hints on how to play better.
Classic Asteroids Game Free Download
I hope you enjoy this take on Asteroids and do please feel free to get in touch with any feedback.