About

Asteroids places you at the helm of a small triangular spacecraft adrift in an asteroid field. The ship has no friction — thrust in any direction and you'll continue drifting in that direction until you counteract it. Your weapons fire straight ahead. The asteroids drift on fixed vectors, splitting into smaller and faster pieces when shot. Clear everything to advance.

The game's defining innovation is its physics. Managing momentum while simultaneously aiming and dodging creates a beautiful challenge that differs entirely from games with direct grid-based movement. Newcomers die quickly; experienced players develop an intuitive feel for the ship's mass.

Asteroids sessions are naturally short. One or two waves provide a complete experience and the physics are satisfying enough to pull you back for another run.

How to Play

• Use left/right arrows to rotate the ship.
• Press up arrow to thrust in the direction you're facing.
• Press spacebar to fire bullets.
• Shoot asteroids — large ones split into medium, then small. Destroy all to advance.
• Avoid contact with asteroids and the occasional UFO.

Tips

• Fire short bursts and rotate — long straight trajectories get you cornered.
• Kill the small fast UFO quickly; it aims at you with increasing accuracy.
• When the field gets crowded, use hyperspace (warp) as a last resort — it's random.

History

Asteroids was designed by Ed Logg and Lyle Ritz at Atari and released in November 1979. It became Atari's best-selling arcade game and one of the highest-grossing arcade titles of all time. The vector graphics display (drawing lines rather than pixels) gave it a distinctive visual style that proved influential. It was so popular that many arcade operators added extra coin slots to hold the overflow of quarters.