Astrosmash

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Astrosmash is a video game for the Intellivision videogame console written by John Sohl and published by Mattel in 1981. In this simplistic game, the player takes control of a laser cannon that is protecting the earth from falling asteroids and other threats. The game was one of Mattel's biggest Intellivision hits, and sold over 1,000,000 copies. The game was quite popular and in 1982 became the pack-in game title for the Intellivision console.

The game's catalog gives the following description of Astrosmash: "Spin. Blast. And drop into hyperspace to avoid a killer asteroid shower. Power on. Attack computer engaged. Fire a quick burst at the alien antagonists. Got 'em!" [1] A cut-down version of Astrosmash was released for the Atari 2600 videogame console under Mattel's M-Network label as Astroblast.

Astrosmash is like many space-shooter games of its era and involves shooting bombs, meteors, missiles and flying saucers. Astrosmash is somewhat similar to the game Asteroids only your cannon is based on a planet's surface rather than in outer space. The object of the game is straightforward. Objects fall from the sky (at increasingly faster speeds and at more rapid rates) and the player has to shoot them before they hit. It is similar to Space Invaders and in some ways is easier, while in other ways it's more challenging.

[edit] Types of Threats

Note: No matter what the object is, if it strikes the cannon, the player loses a life.

Asteroids: The most numerous object in the game, asteroids come in many different colors and at differing speeds (starting off at slow speeds, then progressively falling faster). They come in two sizes. Shooting a smaller asteroid completely destroys it while shooting a larger asteroid causes it to split into two small ones. If an asteroid hits the ground, the player loses 10 points.

Bombs: A threat that ranges from annoying to critically dangerous, bombs appear as white spinning oblong objects and make a tell-tale whistling noise (similar to real-life bombs being dropped). Like asteroids, they come in two sizes, but are completely destroyed when hit no matter what size they are. They fall at different speeds and, in later stages of the game, can appear more than once on the screen. If a bomb hits the ground, the player is killed.

Homing Missiles: The most dangerous object in the game, homing missiles fly down from the sky and move towards the player. They only come in one size and appear as a light, similar to a falling star. When they appear, they make a beeping noise. Only one can appear on the screen at any given time but they may appear in rapid succession. At high speeds they can destroy a player before he has time to react. They have a tendency to follow the player even if he warps away, sometimes even hovering in a horizontal line over the ground, which makes them impossible to hit (though at other times they will continue falling to the ground). If they hit the ground, the player loses 10 points.

UFO: Appears after the player has accumulated 20,000 points. They float across the screen rapidly firing missiles at the player. A missile hit causes the player to be killed.