Astro Barrier

Astro Barrier
Information
Players	1
Controls	Arrow Keys (move) Spacebar (shoot)
Minigame location	Arcade
Date released	September 21, 2005 (Beta Testing) October 24, 2005 (everyone)

Astro Barrier was a Club Penguin mini-game that is located in the Arcade, next to Thin Ice, and is styled around a classic arcade game. All levels were originally playable by all players. However, on July 26, 2010, non-members were only able to play until level 5.

Gameplay

The game is played on the green screen of the Astro Barrier arcade machine. Only the keyboard is used to play, so the buttons featured on the machine are entirely cosmetic.

The game features a space ship on the bottom of the screen and a series of targets that move back and forth along rails. Each level has its own target layout, and a number of available shots, ranging from 3 to 10. Upon shooting all targets, the player moves to the next level. Consuming all shots without hitting all targets would cost the player a life, and the player would have to restart the level.

When a target is shot, it turns red and stops moving, unless there are multiple targets on the same line in which case, it turns orange and all the targets on the same line stop moving. It will be noted that some targets can only be aimed at through narrow gaps, making hitting them impossible if a target in front of them has been shot beforehand, which requires restarting the level in this case. In addition, the shots do not instantly hit the targets and take a brief moment to travel to hit, thereby requiring careful aiming and timing.

The game ends after successfully completing all 40 levels, or earlier if the player lost all lives.

Targets

There are several types of targets introduced throughout the game, with new ones having new properties and rewarding the player with a different amount of points:

Name	Image	Image when hit	Description	Appears from level
Green circles			The basic targets in the game. Move at a constant speed and, when hit, stop and turn red	1
Small green circles			A small variant of the green targets	3
Green ellipses			A wider variant of the green targets	3
Stunted small green circles			Stunts all targets of its kind when hit	8 of the Expert Levels
Blue circles			Rewards an extra life if hit before other targets	7
Small blue circles			A small variant of the blue targets	22
Blue ellipses			A wider variant of the blue targets	20
Orange switch			Makes all orange barriers in the level disappear when hit	11
Yellow circles			Has to be hit twice. Turns into a regular, green target on the first hit	16
Small yellow circles			A small variant of the yellow targets	17
Yellow ellipses			A wider variant of the yellow targets	19
Expanding green targets			Targets that expand horizontally upon being hit	24
Blaster			An extra cannon that shoots when the player shoots. (Its shots do not affect the number of shots left.) If aimed at the player's ship, can potentially destroy it	31
Score target			Rewards the player with 500 points upon hitting. Only available at the end of the secret levels

Controls

An error.

• Pressing left/right moves the ship in the respective direction.
• Pressing the space bar makes the ship shoot.

Secrets

• It is possible to skip levels right after clicking start. On your keyboard press 1 to go to level 10, 2 to go to level 20, or 3 to go to level 30.
• The secret levels in Astro Barrier are accessible before level 11 starts. Wait 30 seconds when the screen is showing information about the orange switch, and shoot the blue ship that appears. Then after the 10 Secret Levels, you will skip levels 10 to level 16.

A wallpaper where penguins are playing the game.

• The Expert Levels are accessible before level 31. Just like the first secret levels wait 25 seconds and shoot to make the turret shoot the blue ship. Then after the 10 Expert Secret Levels, you can shoot five targets with a number of 500. That means you got 2500 extra points. Then the game is won.
• You can earn more points in addition to your coins by shooting at targets and blasters when they are in the Instruction Pages.
• Before proceeding on to another level, a loading box will appear for about 4 seconds. This box isn't a real loading box. But if you press enter, it will disappear and you will progress to the next level.

Stamps

Easy

Name	Description
Astro5 stamp	Finish 5 levels.
Astro5 Max stamp	Finish 5 levels without missing a shot.

Medium

Name	Description
Astro40 stamp	Finish 1-40 levels.
Ship Blast stamp	Use a Blaster to shoot a ship.
1-up Blast stamp	Use a Blaster to shoot a 1-up.
Astro Secret stamp	Complete all Secret Levels.
Astro10 Max stamp	Complete levels 1-10 without missing a shot.
Astro20 Max stamp	Complete levels 1-20 without missing a shot.

Hard

Name	Description
Astro Expert stamp	Complete the Expert Levels.
Astro30 Max stamp	Complete levels 1-30 without missing a shot.
Astro 1-up stamp	Collect 8 1-ups.

Extreme

Name	Description
Astro Master stamp	Complete 25 levels + Secret and Expert.

Trivia

• It is one of the five original games in Club Penguin.
• During the April Fools' Party 2008, Astro Barrier and Thin Ice were not playable, as they were merged into a game called Thinicetrobarrier.
• The Secret levels are the shape of the numbers. The shape of the level will vary depending on the level you're playing. The only exception is level 10, where the number is 0.
• The ships (both the white one and the blue one) resemble the Snowspeeder from Star Wars.
• This game was designed to be an 8-bit game.
• It is featured on the ASTRO-BARRIER Card-Jitsu card.
• On December 30, 2005, the hidden levels were added to the game.
• It could possibly be based on the real-life games, Galaga or Invaders.
• There is a pin called Astro-Barrier Ship pin, which is based on the spaceship used in this game.
• There was a model of the ship from this game hanging in Gary's Room.
• The ship from this game appeared in the Lace Background.

Gallery

The Astro Blaster

The current start screen

The old start screen (note the different font)

The membership popup

The Astro Barrier ship from Gary's Room

The ASTRO-BARRIER card

The Astro-Barrier Ship pin

The Astro Barrier T-Shirt

Stamp Book photographs

Names in other languages

Language	Name
Portuguese	Patrulha Espacial
French	Astrotorpille
Spanish	Barra espacial
German	Astrowache
Russian	Космо-барьер

See also

• Thinicetrobarrier
• Thin Ice

SWF

• Astro Barrier
• Locale
• Bootstrap
• Membership popup