Astroblast Hacks

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Name Description
Astroblast (Controlled Chaos Mod) Note that the Controlled Chaos Mod includes eskayelle's Without a Paddle Mod in it already. The purpose of this hack is, with more joystick-centered gameplay, to enhance the experience when using a joystick or d-pad. (Original Astroblast is optimally played when using paddles, so the Controlled Chaos Mod accommodates for that by being friendlier with scoring penalties, and by giving a lot more tastes of the various difficulty levels, that last difficulty extremely hard to attain and keep up with in the original game with just a joystick.)
Astroblast (Rainbow Brite Mod) The purpose of this Astroblast hack is twofold: 1) To remove the ROM’s access to the paddles. Astroblast is the one game designed for the Atari 2600 that permitted both paddle and joystick play, paddle being the better bet for ease of play and higher scores… but not everyone had paddles. And… with some emulators, the default is to read as if paddles are active, making gameplay difficult on a d-pad or analog stick due to the much higher paddle input object velocity. This hack effectively eliminates the paddle read and forces the joystick input object velocity instead. This makes the game more enjoyable on an Atari Flashback, or a PSP, a DS, a modified Arcade 1up with Odroid/Raspberry Pi… 2) With more joystick-centered gameplay, to enhance the experience when using a joystick or d-pad. (Remember… original Astroblast is optimally played when using paddles, so the Rainbow Brite Mod accommodates for that by being friendlier with scoring penalties, and by giving a lot more tastes of the various difficulty levels, that last difficulty extremely hard to attain and keep up with in the original game with just a joystick.) Beware! The difficulty will ramp up for every 200 points you score, until you score a zero or one in your score’s hundreds place; then, it will revert to the original difficulty. You’ll know your level based on the screen’s color change. Light up the background in a Dragon Ball Z-esque fashion! Using Atari’s “Right Difficulty” setting on A, you can play consistently at the highest difficulty setting.
Astroblast (Slow & Steady Mod) This romhack provides the following enhancements to the Astroblast experience: 1) Removes the paddle capability in favor of joysticks (”Without a Paddle” mod). 2) Resets the difficulty levels so they increase at the following scoring achievements: 5,000 points (1,000 in original game); 20,000 points (5,000 in original game); 50,000 points (20,000 in original game); and 99,000 points (50,000 in original game). At 100,000 points, the hardest difficulty level is set and maintained (”Slow & Steady” mod). 3) Reduces the penalty incurred when a base is destroyed (”Sweet Dreams” mod).
Astroblast (Without a Paddle Mod) The purpose of this Astroblast hack is simply to remove the ROM’s access to the paddles. Astroblast is the one game designed for the Atari 2600 that permitted both paddle and joystick play, paddle being the better bet for ease of play and higher scores… but not everyone had paddles. And… with some emulators, the default is to read as if paddles are active, making gameplay difficult on a d-pad or analog stick due to the much higher paddle input object velocity. This hack just eliminates the paddle read and forces the joystick input object velocity instead.

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