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Atari 8-Bit and Commodore 64 Review of The Asteroids Emulator

Since the mid 1990s, emulators have been available for home computers and game consoles. These applications allow code written for one platform to run on a completely different platform. Now a PC or a PlayStation can pretend to be an arcade game, or an Atari 2600, or any number of other machines, and can run the very same programs originally created for those machines. Emulators are amazing, and amazingly complex, possible only with the resources afforded by modern computers and game consoles. Or are they?

The Asteroids Emulator, originally written by Norbert Kehrer on an Atari 800XL and later ported to the Commodore 64, is exactly what its name declares: an emulator that enables the code for arcade Asteroids to run on old Atari and Commodore computers. How is this possible on systems too old to run modern emulators? The secret is in the CPU. Asteroids arcade machines use a MOS 6502, one of the most famous and widely used CPUs of the 8-bit era. So popular was the MOS 6502 that it, and CPUs very similar to it, ended up in many different computers and game consoles of the early 1980s. In particular, all Atari 8-bit computers have a MOS 6502, while the Commodore 64 uses a MOS 6510, capable of running MOS 6502 code. Where an arcade Asteroids emulator running on a modern PC has to translate MOS 6502 code into code for whatever CPU is inside the computer, The Asteroids Emulator running on an Atari 8-bit or a Commodore 64 can skip this translation step. This allows The Asteroids Emulator to require a lot less computing power compared to modern emulators.

Of course, what people call "emulators" nowadays are more than just programs that run another CPU's code. Emulators also simulate the audio and video hardware of the machines that contained those other CPUs, thus allowing people to see and hear those games and other programs the way they were meant to be seen and heard. The Asteroids Emulator is no different, designed not only to run the CPU code of arcade Asteroids, but also to recreate the graphics and sound of the original game. While it is not technically possible for an Atari 8-bit or Commodore 64 to represent arcade Asteroids perfectly, The Asteroids Emulator comes darn close, and the results are very impressive. Speed, however, is a problem. Neither the Atari nor the Commodore were designed to offer complete freedom over drawing graphics on screen, a necessary feature to emulate arcade Asteroids properly. The Asteroids Emulator works around this limitation effectively enough, but slow-downs are frequent, especially later in the game when dozens of asteroids can fill the screen. The Commodore 64 version is particularly prone, but both versions will try players' patience, enough that some may see this as a deal-breaker.

The Asteroids Emulator is undeniably a remarkable 8-bit achievement, but the emulated game's wavering speed makes it difficult to recommend to Asteroids enthusiasts. On the other hand, even with its issues, The Asteroids Emulator is a lot more enjoyable than Atari's original Asteroids for the Atari 8-bits, and is the only thing even close to an official Asteroids release for the Commodore 64! That alone merits an A for effort.

Grade for both: A-.