Shoot The Rocks

Background[]

Asteroids began as an arcade game where players destroyed asteroids of several varying sizes, most of which would split into smaller asteroids when shot. U. F. O.s would also appear during a wave and fire at the player.

Shoot The Rocks is an Asteroids clone but with several differences. It was developed by Bart Read and was released in 2017.

Gameplay[]

The player shoots large asteroids, each of which breaks into two medium-sized ones, which, in turn, breaks into two small asteroids when shot. Getting hit by an asteroid will cause the player to lose a ship and the game will end when there are no more remaining ships. Thrust can be used to move the player's ship around the screen, along with three special defensive functions being available: flip, which causes the player's ship to instantly turn around 180 degrees in the opposite direction; shields, which makes the ship invincible, causing asteroids or a flying saucer to be destroyed when they come into contact with the player’s ship (although leaving it on for too long will destroy the player’s ship), and hyperspace, which places the player's ship at a random, different location on the screen. The player will also earn an extra ship with every 10,000 points.

Flying saucers also appear during a round, shooting at the player, although they are worth more, points-wise, than asteroids.

Regular/classic versions[]

On the default version, after several levels, asteroids other than the default blue take more than one hit to be broken up. The gameplay curve is faster, with the asteroids moving faster early on in the game, along with smaller flying saucers also appearing earlier, as the smaller saucer is more dangerous and precise with shooting at the player’s ship than the larger saucer.

With the classic version, it has a lower difficulty level and the player can only fire four shots at a time (see below section).

Differences from original[]

It is stated onscreen what wave the player is on and how many ships are left, which was never on the original. The game is also for one player only, rather than two players alternating turns maximum. The player’s ship also has machine gun-like fire, rather than being limited to four shots at a time on the original game (except for the classic version). There is also some color with the asteroids (blue, then green and yellow in the later levels on the default game), rather than being in black and white. The flying saucers have a whimsical look with emitting exhaust while moving, along with traveling faster as well and being proportionally larger when compared with the ones on the original arcade version. The player’s ship looks different, will not be occasionally destroyed upon re-entry when using hyperspace and there are background graphics such as stars. The original Asteroids also did not have music, other than the in-game "pulse" that quickens with the fewer asteroids that remain throughout a level. Players can also enter their full name, rather than three initials on the high score table.

Extras[]

The game can be played in a window or full screen. The music and/or sounds can be turned off, plus there is a high score save.

Controls, PC[]

Turn ship–left/right arrow keys/mouse
Use thrust–N, up arrow key or right mouse button
Fire–spacebar or M key
Pause game–P key
Activate flip–F or V key
Shields–S or C key
Hyerspace–H or B key

(tablet/mobile device)[]

Turn ship–tilt device
Thrust–touch left side of device
Fire–touch right side of device
Flip–move device in opposite direction the ship is facing
Shields–touch top center of device
Hyperspace–touch bottom center of device

Trivia[]

The original Asteroids had the hyperspace function. The other special functions of flip and shields (along with hyperspace) are included in the Atari 2600 version of the game, but with only one of those functions available at a time depending on the game variation. With Shoot The Rocks, all functions are available during a game.