Comments on: A Look at Asteroids Clone 'Aerolite'

By: Erik

Erik — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:58:46 +0000

It's too bad that the volume control buttons on the side of the iPhone couldn't be used as controllers for this game. That would be perfect for spinning the ship in either direction!

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:13:14 +0000

@blakespot

Yay for Maelstrom – I downloaded it a while ago.
Now what I would like to see (ported to iphone) is Maniac – anyone remember that Pacman/Hangman cross?

By: AppMinute » A Look at Asteroids Clone ‘Aerolite’

AppMinute » A Look at Asteroids Clone ‘Aerolite’ — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:55:18 +0000

[...] Read more here. [...]

By: Jelkster

Jelkster — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:23:34 +0000

i love this site. i just purchased the game thanks to you guys! keep up the good work.

By: compuguy1088

compuguy1088 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:20:06 +0000

@blakespot: Pretty much in the same part of the woods as you are (closer to Annandale and Burke). No clue when he's doing another open day….

By: blakespot

blakespot — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:54:27 +0000

Yea, Maelstrom was/is great. Download it from the indicated link and give it another whirl!

By: Jonathan Allen

Jonathan Allen — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:48:26 +0000

@blakespot

Malestrom! I couldn't remember the name of it! I should have, I spent hours and hours playing it.

By: SteveJ

SteveJ — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:36:10 +0000

This is a ton better then the awful Dreigit, but I have to say that I find the game pretty frustrating to play. I frequently find that I try to press a virtual button and it doesn't work. I'm not sure if I've simply drifted off of the button or if it just doesn't pick up flat fingered presses well. Probably both. I think the game would be helped by larger buttons as that would be more tolerant. Is anyone else having this problem with the controls?

Also, while in theory the idea of being able to re-arrange the buttons as you please is good, in practice it is incredibly frustrating to do due to the wild inaccuracy of finger on touchscreen. Far more usable and useful would have been a variety of built-in arrangements to choose from. At least their is a reset button, which I ended up using and going back to the original arrangement.

So, overall a bit disappointed, but I do like it enough that I keep hoping I'll get use to the controls and eventually figure how to use them consistently. So far no luck with that.

By: blakespot

blakespot — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:12:08 +0000

Another notable Asteroids clone is Stardust. It debuted on the Amiga in the late 80s / early 90s, moved up to the more graphically impressive AGA-chipset Amigas, and has recently been released on the Xbox Live Arcade. I assembled a photo gallery of shots from all three versions with the intention of doing a Byte Cellar piece on the game, but I've not gotten around to it yet.

Here are the shots, though:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/sets/72157604425936945/

By: blakespot

blakespot — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:23:34 +0000

@compuguy1088: I almost made it once. Had to go out of town at the last minute. :-\ Peter's arcade is about an hour away from me (Alexandria, VA here).

@Jonathan Allen: Arn and I were both fans of Maelstrom, as well. I was playing it on my 16MHz LC II back in '91. Relive the dream:
http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/Maelstrom/binary.html