Asteroids & Deluxe

First off, this achievement is about as hard as they come. This is probably out of reach for 99% of people. For those who are capable it will still take a boatload of skill, practice, and a bit of luck. That being said I will try my best to outline the finer points in going for this beast of an achievement.

As stated you must attain this achievement in asteroids deluxe on normal difficulty. You can play on evolved or classic, but I highly recommend classic. It's alot easier to see what is happening.

You start the game with 3 lives, and you can obtain an extra life for every 10,000 points you score. Additionally, every life provides you with a shield that has limited use. Once you've used up your shield for a life, you don't get any more until you die.

Controls: -Aiming: Press left or right on the d-pad to turn your ship left or right.
-Shooting: Press the A button or the right trigger to fire bullets. You can hold it to autofire, but tapping it fires much faster. You can only have 4 bullets on screen at once.
-Shield: Press the X button to use your shield. It stays on until you let go of X, and will protect you from anything except being crushed between 2 objects.
-Movement: Press the B button to use your thrusters. The longer you hold it, the faster you will go.

Sensitivity: To change your sensitivity, press start to pause the game, go to help and options, then settings. The sensitivity slider is at the bottom. I personally set it at one notch from the max, but I recommend starting with slower sensitivity to get used to it and slowly moving it up as you feel comfortable.

Scoring: -Large asteroid: 20 points.
-Medium asteroid: 50 points.
-Small asteroid: 100 points.
-Big ufo: 200 points.
-Small ufo: 1000 points.
-Hexagon killer satellite: 50 points.
-Diamond killer satellite: 100 points.
-Triangle killer satellite: 200 points.

Large asteroids break into 2 medium asteroids, and medium asteroids break into 2 small asteroids.

Hexagon killer satellites break into 3 diamond killer satellites that follow you, and diamond satellites break into 2 triangle satellites that also follow you.

Shield use: This is a very important aspect of this game. Proper use of shield is vital if you want to get anywhere. The shield will drain any time the X button is held. Therefore you want to conserve it as much as possible and only use it when you are in danger. I believe if you block a bullet with shield it drains a little bit more. If you block an asteroid or killer satellite with your shield it will take about 1/3 of your shield off, and bounce you away, so be mindful of that. If you crash into a ufo with your shield on it will take close to 2/3 of your shield. If you don't have enough shield when you collide with a ufo you will die regardless if you were using it or not.

In classic mode you don't see how much shield you have so you have to judge it as you go. I recommend playing a few rounds in evolved before you get serious because you can see your shield meter there and can learn how it works and how much use you can squeeze out of it.

Now it might get a bit disorganized here because there are alot of miscellaneous points that I would like to cover getting into the strategy.

A big factor in this game is wraparound. You will notice that when asteroids pass through the screen they "wrap around" and come out the opposite sides of the screen. This also applies to all enemies, your ship, and even bullets; yours and the enemies. This can be used to hit asteroids and enemies that are normally far away or out of range, among other things. Be careful though. Enemies can use this as well, and its hard to judge if you are safe or if you should shield.

Ufo and killer satellite spawning: UFO's will always appear from the left or right side of the screen and will spawn either if there are too few asteroids on screen, or if you go too long without shooting anything.
Killer satellites spawn when there are only a few asteroids left on screen. For wave one it's 3 asteroids on screen, wave 2 is 4 asteroids, etc. They will stop spawning when you have too few asteroids left. Waves 1 and 2 they stop spawning with 1 asteroid left. Waves 3 and on they stop spawning with 2 asteroids left.
If a killer satellite is on screen for too long, eventually it will drift off and disappear.
Be careful destroying killer satellites. If you know another one will spawn immediately, don't destroy the last piece unless you are center screen as the new satellite could spawn on you and kill you. They can spawn anywhere on the edges of the screen.

Always make sure you are center screen when you finish a wave or you risk new asteroids spawning on top of you and killing you. A wave doesn't end until everything on screen is destroyed. This means that even if all asteroids are destroyed, the wave will continue if a ufo or killer satellite is still on screen. Once they're gone, the new wave will start.

Bullets have a limited range and will disappear when they have reached that range or hit an enemy. They will, however, shoot further if you are moving forward while shooting. I don't believe they can travel across a full horizontal screen. They can travel across a full vertical screen if you shoot while moving though. This is a key part of my strategy later on.

You must also learn how to effectively use your thrusters to dodge incoming asteroids and killer satellites. This is essential so you don't waste all of your shield in 2 seconds trying to block everything.

Knowing how to deal with asteroids is a must. There is always a chance when you shoot an asteroid, that it will break apart directly towards you. By getting behind asteroids and shooting them from behind rather than while they are careening towards you usually prevents this from happening, but not always. Be aware. Also you must learn to prioritize which are the most important. This means destroying most of the bigger asteroids so that UFO's and killer satellites don't show up as often on later waves, but you should also try to prioritize the fastest moving small asteroids as well, as they are the most dangerous.

Extra ufo and killer satellite info:
Every time a ufo comes on screen, the next one will come out faster. For example: once you destroy the first ufo, the second will come out in about 8-10 seconds. After a few more, they will come out every 6 seconds, and so on. Eventually they will start spawning every 3 seconds or so. This is the max spawn rate for them. Additionally, when you hit about 60,000 points, they get a significant accuracy boost. This makes the UFO's absolutely lethal. Almost every shot is fired directly at you with ridiculous accuracy that will hit you even while accelerating and turning. Effective shielding is essential.
Usually it's best to take out UFO's immediately if possible to cut down on the number of bullets they fire at you and other asteroids/killer satellites, but this isn't always safe or possible depending on what's on screen. Sometimes your best bet is to try to keep your distance to avoid being shot and be ready to shield against any wraparound shots they may fire. You must also be careful around asteroids when they are on screen. On several occasions where I thought I was safe a ufo would shoot an asteroid next to me causing it to break apart towards me, consequently ending my life.

Killer satellites start slow, but increase in speed for every wave that is completed, capping out around wave 8-10 with a max speed about the same as your top speed when you are fully accelerated. This means if you aren't already moving when it starts tracking you, it's already too late. You accelerate too slow to run away in time.

The combination of max spawn/accuracy UFO's and max speed killer satellites is deadly to say the least, and what will destroy 90% of your decent runs.

One more thing to note: you can boost and shield, or boost and shoot at the same time. You cannot shield and shoot at the same time though.

My general strategy:
I basically break it down into 3 sections with different playstyles.

1) 0-40,000 points.
The first section is your best chance to get some easy score and extra lives. You do this by farming killer satellites. Each one is worth a total of 1550 points if you completely destroy it. Basically you want to narrow it down to 3 asteroids so killer satellites will spawn. The size of the asteroid doesn't matter, as long as there are only 3. If you can leave bigger asteroids it's best because if one does get shot, you can narrow it back down to 3 asteroids and continue farming. Now the easiest way to deal with them here is to shoot the hexagon, then turn around and run a bit. This will usually put them in a nice line for you to shoot. If they get too close, run away for a second, then turn again and finish them off. Repeat this until there is only one asteroid left, or until killer satellites stop spawning. Finish the wave and use this same tactic on the next waves. Ideally you want at least 30,000 points before you lose your first life on a real run. I try to have at least 50,000 points before I lose a second life.

2) 40,000-70,000 points.
This section is a bit sketchy and you should adjust or even skip this strategy depending on how crazy things are getting and if you can handle it. If not, go straight to section 3 strategy.
Usually by this point ufo spawn rate is maxed and it will be getting it's additional accuracy boost around here. Killer satellites should still be about mid range speed though.
If you can manage it, it's still possible to farm a few killer satellites here, but don't get too crazy. It's more about survival here. In these waves you want to start taking out the biggest asteroids early on instead of leaving them to farm satellites. Only try to farm when you are down to the last few small asteroids and maybe 1 or 2 medium asteroids. Be aware of the increased satellite speed. You may have to run further away to get a clear safe shot than in section 1. If you want to stop another killer satellite from spawning, you must get it down to 2 or less asteroids before you finish destroying the current satellite.

3) 70,000-250,000+ points.
This section is where we separate the men from the boys. You will need copious amounts of luck and skill for this last huge stretch. It's pretty much all about survival now. UFO's and killer satellites are maxed out, and shit is about to get real.
Essentially you are just trying to get enough points to get an extra life for every life you are about to lose. To do this you pretty much have to survive 2 waves for every life. Easier said than done.
You want to try to manage the asteroids appropriately so that you only have to deal with UFO's during the end of the wave, and preferably only 1 killer satellite. Once the satellite is out you need to get it down to 2 asteroids so another will not spawn, even if you happen to die. Except it's not that easy. Usually it will be shot by a ufo and start tracking you before you get it down to 2 asteroids. If you see it's about to be hit, immediately start using your thrusters going straight up and down and shooting bullets when you can to hit the satellites, and hopefully the last couple asteroids, with wraparound shots. Use the thrusters in bursts or you will start catching up to the satellites and they will turn around instead of just following you. While this is happening, UFO's will be shooting at you as well, so in the middle of firing, you will have to shield, then fire a shot or 2, then shield, then fire, etc. If lady luck is with you, you will miraculously make it through the wave without dying. If not, hopefully you at least got rid of enough asteroids so you won't have to deal with another killer satellite until the next wave. It doesn't really get any harder from here, it's just a matter of performing this repeatedly and not dying too much. If you can pull this off, and keep getting just enough score to replenish the lives you lose, you have just the smallest chance that you might actually make it to 250,000 points.

Unfortunately I don't have too much more advice to give. The rest is mostly practice. If you have any questions just ask and I'll do my best to answer them.

To anyone else who gives this a serious go, I wish you the best of luck. It may very well drive you to the edge of your sanity.

Finally, below is a video of the asteroids deluxe arcade machine world record holder John Mcallister scoring more than the required points. Keep in mind he has probably spent countless hours practicing and he starts with more lives on the arcade machine than we do. It also seems slightly easier in general, but that's not verified.