What happens when Houston baseballers are exposed to gamma rays.
Unused Meteor! Mode#
 |
Download Meteor! Restoration Patch File: Astrosmash-INTV-MeteorPatch.zip (220 B) (info) |
Astrosmash was originally intended to be a clone of Atari's Asteroids entitled Meteor!, with a secondary game mode called Avalanche in which a lone fighter on the ground fired at falling meteors and other hazards. Shortly before release, Mattel nixed the Asteroids clone due to legal concerns and the secondary Avalanche mode was renamed Astrosmash, becoming a standalone game. The original menu to choose between Meteor! and Avalanche was skipped over using a single branch instruction and some minor palette edits (the original menu, as seen in the leaked beta build, used a gray background).
The above patch reinstates the original selection menu. To play Avalanche/Astrosmash, press 1 then Enter on the Intellivision keypad. To play Meteor!, press 2 then Enter.
(Source: Blue Sky Rangers, original TCRF research)
Developer Credits#
Hidden near the beginning of the ROM at 0x52 is a credit string:
JOHN PARK SOHL 1981
(Source: Scott Stilphen)
References#
- ELECTRONIC GAMES HOTLINE: Inside Mattel - Electronic Games, Volume 1, Number 1, December 1981↩︎
- Intellivision é mais nova opção entre os videojogos "The Intellivision is the latest videogame choice" - Jornal do Brasil, December 12, 1983↩︎
- Silica Shop ad - Electronics and Computing Monthly, March 1982↩︎