There aren’t too many conversations about retro games that can survive without at least mentioning Asteroids. Released originally back in 1979, this Atari classic was designed by Lyle Rains, Dominic Walsh, and Ed Logg. It took considerable inspiration from a predecessor you might’ve heard of: Lunar Lander.
Simply put, the goal of this game was to destroy asteroids and saucers in motion. Each level comes with larger asteroids that break up into smaller, faster moving ones when shot. A large saucer will eventually make its way onto the screen, accompanied by a smaller version that is quicker and harder to shoot down.
Among the more interesting details was the game’s vector screen design, allowing for the map to wrap around the screen. Consequently, saucers or asteroids that disappeared into one edge of the screen reappeared from the opposite end of the screen.
The massive popularity of Asteroids coincided with Atari’s work developing Lunar Lander. In fact, it was so high in demand that copies of Asteroids were routinely shipped in Lunar Lander cabinets. Asteroids is the continuation of an earlier, unfinished project called Cosmos. It was further inspired by Space War!, Space Invaders, and Computer Science.
Selling over 70,000 units, the release of Asteroids overshadowed Space Invaders and became Atari’s all-time best selling arcade game. It was ported to several consoles in the 80s and saw re-releases in the early 90s as well. Most recently, a ROM file of the game’s prototype was released in 2017.
Check out the Retro Gamer post on this classic here:
https://www.retrogamer.net/retro_games80/asteroids/
Gameplay: Players controlled a triangular ship that they could rotate left and right as well as thrust forward. The ship could also be sent into hyperspace, disappearing and then reappearing in a randomly determined point on the screen.
Play: The asteroids and saucers are generally easy to shoot down, but the smallest misstep can mean the end.
