How to play Astrowar online
- Move your shuttle: arrow keys (up, down, forward and back, and diagonally)
- Fire the laser: Space bar; keep it held for rapid fire
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
Gameplay
You start with six lives and get another one each time your best score passes a further 2,000 points. Every falling star (the manual also calls them rocks) that slips past you costs points. The big ones split in two when hit, and each fragment is worth twice as much as the original. Spaceships, spinning bombs and monsters are more dangerous: if one gets past you, your shuttle is destroyed.
The game has six levels, shown on screen as 1x to 6x. The level multiplies all points, won or lost, and the background colour tells you which level you are on. At level 1x, the manual lists these values:
| Object | Points at level 1x |
|---|---|
| Big star | 10 |
| Small star | 20 |
| Big spinner | 40 |
| Unknown spaceship | 50 |
| Small spinner | 80 |
| Space monster | 100 |
| Big / small star passes by | −5 / −10 |
| Your shuttle is hit | −100 |
Level 2x starts at 3,000 points, and level 6x is reached at 100,000.
Tips
- Put enemies first. A star that gets past only costs a few points, but a spaceship, bomb or monster that gets past costs a life.
- Finish off split stars. Both fragments are worth double, so a big star you break is worth chasing.
Other names and versions
Like many budget cartridges sold in Europe in 1983, Astrowar was released under several labels, some of them Taiwanese. Dimax and Sinmax sold it as Astrowar, Home Vision sold it as War 2000, and a German cartridge called it Sternkrieg (“star war”). The programmer is not known. The English manual describes it as the home version of a favourite arcade game, but it does not say which one. The NTSC version on this site comes from an unknown publisher.
Similar games to play next
- Astrowar (USA) – the NTSC version of this game
- Space Jockey – an early horizontal shooter, also sold by Goliath under another name
- Asteroids – the classic game of rocks that split when you shoot them
- Defender – a horizontal space shooter based on the Williams arcade game