This is perhaps, one
of the most interesting of all the Digiplay game titles. The
"astrosmash" instructions come in the usual early Digiplay design,
which was also used when the company went by the name Digimed. It
has an English title, & is printed with Brazilian Portuguese
text. The artwork is much like the Mattel artwork with the exception
of text language. The instructions are also in full
color.
Digiplay Astrosmash
cart
label
Digiplay Astrosmash Instructions
The
cart label for this game looks different than the Mattel version.
The text is still in English, but it is much larger. It has the
Digiplay style blocky type letters. This game was equally
popular in Brazil and the United States.
Digiplay Overlay -(Portuguese text /
paper)
Digiplay Overlay -(Portuguese text / plastic)
I have two different Digiplay overlays
for this game. The first is the rare laminated paper version. It has
a lighter colored top background, which is light blue instead of the
usual navy blue. The main body background is surprisingly darker
than the other version. It has the usual Brazilian Portuguese text.
The second type of overlay is the plastic version. It is
printed on thin plastic, and has a charcoal grey main body
background. It too has the Portuguese text.
*Now for the Cool
part to this game!
It seems that there is a cool
ROM variant for this DIGIPLAY game! When the
Digimed company first produced this game in conjuntion with Mattel,
the game was the same as the U.S. version. I have found this
out by testing those packaged as Digimed. When the Digimed
changed there name to Digiplay, it seemed that a ROM variant was
introduced just for the South American market. The variant is
a "timed play" mode. It resembles a tournament type playing
mode. I have been told that this game ROM is the same as the
one used in the "Astrosmash Shoot-out", or Astrosmash World
Championships. It is unclear how Digiplay was able to obtain
this rare ROM for their games. It could have been an oversight on
Mattel's part.
After passing the Mattel intro, you come to a
screen in which you have to choose a time limit. Your choices
are from 1 to 99. These numbers reflect minutes. Thus,
entering #1 would result in a 60 second game! WOW! Too
Cool! The problem is that a normal game is not possible with
this variant. 99 minutes is the longest you can
play. This variant would be great in Tournament type
playing.
Select your desired time limit! (Notice the
seconds counting down at 12 seconds!)
Instead of displaying a total score, this version
gives you a peak score.
Notice the peak score is 625, while the actual score
is 235!
Check out another Digiplay Intellivision
game? (Go back to Digiplay games
list)
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