New Atari 2600 game Astronomer?

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VideoGameCritic
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New Atari 2600 game Astronomer?

Postby VideoGameCritic » August 25th, 2018, 5:43 pm

Somebody emailed me asking to review this new homebrew, but frankly I don't know what to make of it. Thoughts?

http://pietrow.net/atari/astronomer/

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AtariToday
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Re: New Atari 2600 game Astronomer?

Postby AtariToday » August 28th, 2018, 7:07 pm

I haven't played it but the premise sounds interesting. The description mentions there is a bit of luck involved, and I'm unsure if I should take that as a selling point or not. Got to give the coder credit for a new game idea on a system with some serious limitations however!

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Re: New Atari 2600 game Astronomer?

Postby VideoGameCritic » August 28th, 2018, 10:12 pm

Can anybody figure out how to play this? Don't see any instructions.

lynchie137
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Re: New Atari 2600 game Astronomer?

Postby lynchie137 » August 29th, 2018, 11:54 pm

I just downloaded the ROM for this game., but it's BIN file and I've no idea how to open it. Does anybody know how to open one of these? And if so, could you please tell me how to do so? This game seems very interesting, and I'd like to give it a go. Thanks.

Steve
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Re: New Atari 2600 game Astronomer?

Postby Steve » August 30th, 2018, 12:08 pm

I saw a link for the manual in the link for game posted above http://pietrow.net/files/Astronomer_2600_manual.pdf. Seems pretty straight forward. Press the fire button to aim at stars only, not clouds. Fill up the observation bar.

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Re: New Atari 2600 game Astronomer?

Postby AtariToday » August 30th, 2018, 12:44 pm

Finally played it and I enjoy it! One of those games you can just kinda relax with. I recommend throwing on some music and enjoying the ride. (might I suggest some tunes here? https://youtu.be/wOMwO5T3yT4 )

You can find a download, link to play, and instructions here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/273019-beta-astronomer-a-new-homebrew-for-joystick-and-paddle/?hl=%2Bastronomer#entry4088988

For those less inclined to follow the link here are the highlights:

game is 1 player and works with both the joystick and paddle.
You are an astronomer and you are working at a telescope. You are tasked to observe a certain star for your research project. Point your telescope at the star and observe! But look out for clouds, as they ruin your observations. Other astronomers also want to use the telescope, so make sure to finish your observations before the time runs out. Otherwise you will be banned for wasting time.

Goals:
*Fill the healthbar by pointing the telescope beam at the star and press the fire button to observe. Make sure to finish before the score reaches 0
*Don't observe clouds

Manual:
Flip the left difficulty switch to A for playing with paddles, B for joystick
Flip the right difficulty switch to A for randomized levels. Press select for more randomization. Set it to B to remove all randomness and have a more structured level progression
Flip BW switch to pause
Use reset button to reset
After a game over, your score will be shown on the title screen


To play the downloaded .bin file you'll need an emulator (i highly recommend Stella) to play it. Or go to the following link to play Astronomer in your browser: http://javatari.org/?ROM=http://pietrow.net/games/astronomerV0.75.bin


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