Asteroids Game

Asteroids (along with the seminal Space Invaders) must be one of the most famous arcade games of all time.

It was released by Atari all the way back in 1979 - and it is time to play it again.

It was (and still is) is one of the most popular and influential games that came out of the golden age of video games.

It was quite something back in 1979 as it used a two dimensional vector display that 'wraps' around the screen display - which was extremely clever, novel, and exciting.

So let's have a look back at one of the most influential and played arcade games ever...

This classic game was a hit in the US and became Atari's best selling game of all time (at that point).

Atari had been in the process of manufacturing another vector style game called Lunar Lander, but demand for Asteroids was so high, that production of Lunar Lander was halted so they could pour more time and effort into this instead.

This arcade game became so popular that amusement arcade operators sometimes had to install larger coin boxes to hold the amount of cash that was being spent by players. Kerching!

The player controlled a triangular space ship that could rotate clockwise, anti-clockwise, and could fire shots forwards from it's 'nose'. The ship could also thrust forwards, coupled with superb inertia acceleration and deceleration.

As the ship moved this inertia momentum slowly decreased, and the ship would eventually come to a standstill again if thrust was not applied. The player could also use 'hyperspace' jumps in an emergency, causing the ship to vanish before reappearing in a random location on the screen (with the risk of self-destructing or appearing on top of an asteroid - it was bum squeakingly nerve-wracking on later levels).

Each level began with a few asteroids drifting and floating in random directions across the screen. All in-game objects wrapped around the screen edges, for example an asteroid that drifts off the top area of the screen would re-appear at the bottom of the screen and continue drifting in the same direction. It was very nicely done.

As the player shot asteroids, they shattered into smaller pieces that usually moved faster and were obviously more difficult to shoot. Smaller asteroids that were destroyed also scored higher points.

Periodically, a UFO would appear on one side of the screen (accompanied by a warning klaxon)and move across to the other side before disappearing. These enemies are of two kinds: Large saucers fired in random directions, while the small saucers were more hostile and actually aimed at the player's ship. Nasty.

The minimalist soundtrack featured a deep-toned electronic pulsing noise, which quickened as the asteroid density was reduced by the player's shooting. This really ramped up the excitement within the game and was a very good touch by the games developers.

Once the screen had been cleared of all asteroids (and flying saucers if any are on screen), a new set of large asteroids appeared, usually denser in number than the last. The game was over when the player had lost all of his or her lives.

Like most games of the era there was never any 'end' to the game - you kept playing until all of your lives were gone.

This game was so popular that it was converted to pretty much every home computer and console imaginable.

Official and un-official versions were created for the Vic 20, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, ZX81, BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC 464, Oric 1 and Oric Atmos. One of the greatest conversions had to be on the Vectrex console which had the hardware to do the original game proper justice.

There were hundreds of ZX Spectrum Games based around asteroids - and one of the better ones was called Deep Space which I remember picking up as a budget release.

The likes of the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and the Amiga CD 32 were treated to more modern versions of Asteroids such as Blasteroids and Super Stardust. Even these were worthy additions to your Amiga Games collection.