How to play Astro Grover online
- Enter a number: keyboard keys 0 to 8, or K for the on-screen keypad (pick a key with the arrow keys, press Z). The game was made for the 5200 Kid’s Controller, a big keypad for small hands.
- Move the spotlight in Beam That Number: up and down arrow keys
- Start: Enter
- Pause: P
Gameplay
Despite the space theme, Astro Grover is about numbers, for children of roughly five to eight. Little creatures called Zips appear on screen and you count them. The five mini-games have you type how many Zips you see, move a spotlight to light the number shown on Grover’s ship, add or subtract two groups, count the Zips that stay when some flash away, and pick the total of Zips falling from the sky. Wrong answers are never punished; you simply try again.
About this prototype
According to AtariProtos, Atari finished a line of children’s games for the 5200, Astro Grover among them in August 1983 with the model number CX5233. The company then chose to sell the 5200 as a “Personal Arcade Machine” and dropped the children’s titles, along with the Kid’s Controller they were designed for. CBS Software later published the game for Atari 8-bit and other home computers, so only the 5200 cartridge was lost.
