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The History of… Asteroids (1979)

Asteroids doesn’t have a plot in the traditional narrative sense, as was common with many early arcade games.

The game places the player in control of a spaceship in an asteroid field, with the primary objective being to destroy asteroids and flying saucers while avoiding collisions with both.

Game: Asteroids
Developer/Publisher: Atari, Inc.
Designer: Lyle Rains, Ed Logg
Programmer: Ed Logg
Platforms: Arcade, various home platforms (Atari 2600, Atari 5200, etc.)
Release date: November 1979
Genre: Multidirectional shooter, fixed shooter
Mode: Single-player, multiplayer (turn-based)
RRP when released: Approximately $1,495 USD (for arcade cabinet)

Gameplay

The gameplay of Asteroids is straightforward yet challenging. Players control a triangular spaceship that can rotate left or right, thrust forward, and fire projectiles to break apart asteroids into smaller pieces before destroying them entirely. The game increases in difficulty as the number of asteroids increases.

Additionally, players must avoid or destroy flying saucers that appear randomly and shoot at the player’s ship. Points are awarded for each asteroid and saucer destroyed, with the game’s pace and difficulty increasing as the player progresses.

Development

Asteroids was developed and published by Atari, Inc. in 1979. It was primarily designed by Lyle Rains and programmed by Ed Logg. The game was notable for its vector graphics, a technology that rendered images using lines rather than the pixelated graphics typical of the time.

This choice gave Asteroids its distinctive clean and minimalistic look. The game was originally developed for arcade machines but was later ported to a variety of home consoles and computers.

Release Details

Asteroids was released in November 1979 and quickly became a commercial success. It was initially released as an arcade game in a large cabinet.

Due to its popularity, it was also made available in a smaller, “cocktail” table version. The game was later ported to various platforms, including the Atari 2600, becoming one of the first major successes for home console gaming.

Reception

Upon release, Asteroids received widespread acclaim for its addictive gameplay, innovative vector graphics, and challenging mechanics. It became one of the most popular and influential video games of the late 1970s and early 1980s, with arcades often lining up multiple units to meet demand.

Reviews

Early reviews praised Asteroids for its simplicity and depth, noting that the game’s straightforward controls and challenging gameplay offered a high degree of replayability. It was recognized as a game that was easy to learn but difficult to master, appealing to a wide range of players.

Asteroids is often cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Its success contributed significantly to the golden age of arcade video games and influenced countless other games in the shooter genre. Its legacy includes inspiring game designers to prioritize gameplay mechanics and replayability. Retrospectively, it is celebrated for its pioneering use of vector graphics and its role in establishing video gaming as a mainstream entertainment medium.

Sequels and Spin-offs

The success of Asteroids led to several sequels and spin-offs, including Asteroids Deluxe (1980), Space Duel (1982), and Blasteroids (1987). These games introduced new features, such as enhanced graphics, multiplayer modes, and different gameplay mechanics, to expand on the original’s formula. Additionally, Asteroids has been re-released and remastered for modern gaming platforms, allowing new generations of gamers to experience this classic title.

Tips for Playing Asteroids

1. Conservative Shooting: Avoid shooting too rapidly. The more asteroids you break apart, the more smaller, faster-moving asteroids you’ll have to dodge. It’s often better to clear what’s directly threatening you before indiscriminately breaking apart more asteroids.
   
2. Use Hyperspace Sparingly: The hyperspace function can save you in a pinch by teleporting you to a random location on the screen, but it comes with a risk of exploding upon re-entry. Use it only as a last resort.
   
3. Stay Central: Positioning your spaceship near the center of the screen gives you more time to react to asteroids approaching from any direction. It also makes it easier to manage the field and avoid being cornered.
   
4. Controlled Movement: Constant movement can make you more likely to crash into asteroids. Move deliberately to avoid incoming asteroids or position yourself for better shots.
   
5. Handle Saucers Early: There are two types of flying saucers – the large, which shoots randomly, and the small, which aims at your location. Try to destroy them quickly, especially the small saucers, to avoid added chaos.
   
6. Lure and Dodge: For the small saucers, a tactic is to move in one direction and then quickly thrust in another to dodge the incoming shot, giving you a clear shot at the saucer.
   
7. Point Farming from Saucers: Skilled players can manipulate the game to keep a single large asteroid on screen and continuously shoot the saucers for points, as saucers appear more frequently when fewer asteroids are present.
   

Strategies and Quirks for Asteroids

For the classic 1979 video game “Asteroids,” the traditional concepts of “cheats” as understood in later video games were largely nonexistent, primarily because it was a coin-operated arcade game designed to challenge players and encourage more coin insertions. However, there were strategies, glitches, and a culture of discovering “features” that could be exploited for better scores or longer playtimes, which might be considered the early equivalents of cheats. As for Easter eggs, these were rare in early video games due to the limited memory and strict programming constraints. Nevertheless, players and enthusiasts have discovered a few notable tricks and quirks over the years:

1. Safe Zone Technique: Players discovered that by not shooting any asteroids at the beginning of a new life (after losing a ship), and instead destroying just enough asteroids to leave one or two large ones floating, they could create a relatively safe zone in the center of the screen. This area allowed them to shoot incoming saucers with minimal risk of collision with asteroids.
   
2. Lives Accumulation Glitch: In some versions of “Asteroids,” it was possible to accumulate lives beyond the displayed limit by hitting the score thresholds for extra lives repeatedly. Due to display limitations, the game might not show all earned lives, but they were still counted internally.
   

Trivia About Asteroids

1. Vector Graphics: “Asteroids” was renowned for its use of vector graphics, which provided a crisp, clean visual experience compared to the raster graphics typical of the era.
   
2. Hardware Ingenuity: The game’s hardware was uniquely designed to handle the vector graphics and the physics of moving objects in space, showcasing Atari’s innovation.
   
3. Record-Breaking Popularity: “Asteroids” was so popular in arcades that some locations had to install larger coin boxes to accommodate the sheer volume of quarters it brought in.
   
4. Programming Challenges: To create the wraparound effect, where objects that go off one edge of the screen reappear on the opposite side, required innovative programming techniques at the time.
   
5. Influence on Culture: The game’s popularity extended beyond arcades, influencing pop culture, appearing in films, music, and even inspiring a genre of “asteroid” and space-themed games and media.
   
6. Competition and High Scores: “Asteroids” was among the first games to inspire competitive play and the pursuit of high scores, leading to early forms of video game tournaments.
   
7. Sounds: The game’s minimalist sound design, including the distinctive sounds of shooting, thrusting, and explosions, became iconic. The sound of the UFOs, in particular, is often cited as one of the most recognizable in gaming.
   
8. No Ending: Like many early arcade games, “Asteroids” has no end. The game continues to get faster and more challenging until the player loses all their lives. The challenge and the pursuit of high scores are the main motivations.

Asteroids is a classic arcade space shooter where players navigate a spaceship through an asteroid field, destroying asteroids and enemy saucers to achieve high scores.

Asteroids is a classic arcade space shooter where players navigate a spaceship through an asteroid field, destroying asteroids and enemy saucers to achieve high scores.