Astrocade

We're around the 30 year anniversary of this underrated console so I figured it could use a tribute thread.

For those wondering what this thing is, here's a quick history:

Arcade company Bally (Midway) decided to enter the growing console business and planned to release their system, the Bally Home Library Computer, in 1977. From what I gather, it made it into stores in early 1978 as the Bally Professional Arcade.

Graphically, it was the most advanced console on the market but it was more expensive than the recently released Atari VCS. It also (as far as I can tell) was the first console to have four controller ports, something the Nintendo 64 often gets falsely credited with. The controllers were joystick/paddle combinations.

By the end of the '70s, Bally had already given up on it. It was in third place in the console wars after the VCS and Odyssey2, and would soon be in fourth place with the arrival of the Intellivision. It managed to live on in the early '80s as it was bought up and renamed the Astrovision Astrocade.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/.../Astrocade.jpg

Here are some cool games for it:

Artillery Duel

Before Worms, there were turret battle games like this.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...illeryduel.png

Astro Battle/Space Invaders

Bally had the North American arcade rights to Space Invaders, and they planned on having this as a home version. With Atari's acquisition of the console rights, this version got renamed. Still, it's an excellent port and more advanced than the official Atari one.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...o%20battle.png

For comparison, here's the Atari VCS version -
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...ders%20VCS.gif

Blast Droids

Screenshots probably don't look like much but it's a quality Asteroids-style game.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...lastdroids.png

Cosmic Raiders

Again, not the most original game (it's basically Defender without the rescuing) but it's well made.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...%20raiders.png

Galactic Invasion/Galaxian

Like the Astro Battle/Space Invaders situation, this was originally a port of Galaxian but ended up getting a name change soon after release.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...20invasion.png

Incredible Wizard

A port of the arcade maze/shooter Wizard of Wor. I'm not sure why this was renamed as it's one of Midway's own games and not a rip off but it was the best home version available.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...e%20wizard.png

Muncher

The was originally going to be released as Pac-Man by Astrovision in 1985 but wasn't for legal reasons. Somewhat shady third-party versions were released under various names.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...er/muncher.png

Panzer Attack/Red Baron

Basically, the equivalent of Combat, i.e. tank and plane duels. Unlike Atari's home game, this had four player simultaneous play, making it one of the best party games of the '70s.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...r%20attack.png

Solar Conqueror

This might be my favourite game on the system, another "thrust and dodge" shooter similar to Asteroids but with more variety of objects coming after you. In motion it's quite smooth.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...0conqueror.png

Tornado Baseball/Tennis/Hockey/Handball

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...20baseball.png

Treasure Cove

Grab treasure and bring it back to your ship before your oxygen runs out. This and other Spectre Systems games have been made public domain by the creators.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/hosted/...ure%20cove.gif

So what are your thoughts on this system?

I think it was very impressive technology-wise for its time. It had some high quality games including some of the best home versions of them but lacks the quantity of original concepts of its competitors, at least for the commercial releases. The system had a full lifespan time-wise but the support remained small and the marketing was minimal so it never reached its full potential.

Bally BASIC did allow for users to create their own games for it so there probably were some console firsts in the homebrew scene that I just don't know about. Bally/Midway survived just fine in the arcade and console software fronts, anyway.

It looks very aged but then again these systems have always had a special place in my heart.

I wanted to get one of these when I was collecting classic systems. The graphics look far superior to the VCS.

Yes they do, I wonder what the processor difference between the two is.

Never played it, but the games look great. The game "Artillery Duel," under various names, was available on the PCs. I played it on an Apple back in the 80s and it's a must-play.

Those visuals are leagues above the VCS. Baseball with almost a full team!

I'd like to try out some of these games. Are they emulated?

The Astrocade was also one of the first home consoles with a keyboard. The programming language, Bally Basic, was surprisingly good for the time. The RAM limitation was the major issue, but there are still some interesting text adventures for the system. Check out Castle Bally here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/52...n-castle-bally

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bailey

Yes they do, I wonder what the processor difference between the two is.

I never remember system specs but I was looking at them, anyway -

2600 - 1.19 Mhz, 128 bytes RAM, 4K ROM
Astrocade - 1.789 Mhz, 4K RAM, 8K ROM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melf

I'd like to try out some of these games. Are they emulated?

Yes. I don't know if there's an emulator made solely for it but MESS works.

For anyone interested, my book has descriptions/reviews for every game released for the system, plus a system bio.

Scan it and post it up here.