Asteroids (video game)

The objective of Asteroids is to destroy asteroids and saucers. The player controls a triangular ship that can rotate left and right, fire shots straight forward, and thrust forward. Once the ship begins moving in a direction, it will continue in that direction for a time without player intervention unless the player applies thrust in a different direction. The ship eventually loses momentum and comes to a stop when not thrusting. The player can also send the ship into hyperspace, causing it to disappear and reappear in a random location on the screen, at the risk of self-destructing or appearing on top of an asteroid. Each level starts with multiple large asteroids drifting across the screen. Objects wrap around screen edges; an asteroid that drifts off the top edge of the screen reappears at the bottom and continues moving in the same direction. As the player shoots asteroids, they break into smaller asteroids that move faster and are more difficult to hit. Smaller asteroids are also worth more points. Two flying saucers appear periodically on the screen; the "big saucer" shoots randomly and poorly, while the "small saucer" fires frequently at the ship. After reaching a score of 40,000, only the small saucer appears. As the player's score increases, the angle range of the shots from the small saucer diminishes until the saucer fires extremely accurately. Once the screen has been cleared of all asteroids and flying saucers, a new set of large asteroids appears, thus starting the next level. The game gets harder as the number of asteroids increases until after the score reaches a range between 40,000 and 60,000. The player starts with 3–5 lives upon game start and gains an extra life per 10,000 points. Play continues to the last ship lost, which ends the game. The machine "turns over" at 99,990 points, which is the maximum high score that can be achieved. Lurking exploit In the original game design, saucers were supposed to begin shooting as soon as they appeared, but this was changed. Arcade operators began to complain about losing revenue due to this exploit. In response, Atari issued a patched EPROM and, due to the impact of this exploit, Atari (and other companies) changed their development and testing policies to try to prevent future games from having such exploits. ==Development==

Asteroids was conceived by Lyle Rains and programmed by Ed Logg with collaborations from other Atari staff. Logg was impressed with the Atari Video Computer System (later called the Atari 2600), and he joined Atari's coin-op division to work on Dirt Bike, which was never released due to an unsuccessful field test. Paul Mancuso joined the development team as Asteroids technician and engineer Wendi Allen contributed to the hardware. Thus combining the two-dimensional approach of Space War with Space Invaders addictive gameplay of "completion" and "eliminate all threats". and QuadraScan, a high-resolution vector graphics processor developed by Atari and referred to as an "XY display system" and the "Digital Vector Generator (DVG)". The original design concepts for QuadraScan came out of Cyan Engineering, Atari's off-campus research lab in Grass Valley, California, in 1978. Cyan gave it to Wendi Allen, who finished the design and first used it for Lunar Lander. Logg received Allen's modified board with five buttons, 13 sound effects, and additional RAM, and he used it to develop Asteroids. The size of the board was 4 by 4 inches, and it was "linked up" to a monitor. The game does not have a sound chip. Allen created a hardware circuit for 13 sound effects by hand which was wired onto the board. ==Ports==

Asteroids was released for the Atari VCS (later renamed Atari 2600) and Atari 8-bit computers in 1981. Programmers Brad Stewart and Bob Smith were unable to fit the Atari VCS port into a 4 KB cartridge. It became the first game for the console to use bank switching, a technique that increases ROM size from 4 KB to 8 KB. A port for the Atari 5200, identical to the Atari 8-bit version, was in development in 1982, but was not published. An Atari 7800 version was published in 1986 with the official launch of the console, with cooperative play. A Game Boy port developed by The Code Monkeys and published by Accolade, Inc. was released in September 1992. ==Reception==

Asteroids was immediately successful upon release. It displaced Space Invaders by popularity in the United States and became Atari's best-selling arcade game of all time, with over 70,000 units sold. Atari earned an estimated $150 million in sales from the game, and arcade operators earned a further $500 million from coin drops. Asteroids was so popular that some video arcade operators had to install large boxes to hold the number of coins spent by players, Asteroids went on to become the highest-grossing arcade video game of 1980 in the United States, dethroning Space Invaders. It shipped 70,000 arcade units worldwide in 1980, including over 60,000 sold in the United States that year, The game did not perform as well overseas in Europe and Asia. It sold 30,000 arcade units overseas, for a total of 100,000 arcade units sold worldwide. Atari manufactured 76,312 units from its US and Ireland plants, including 21,394 Asteroids Deluxe units. Asteroids received positive reviews from critics, and has been regarded as Logg's magnum opus. Edwards commented that "this home cartridge is a virtual duplicate of the ever-popular Atari arcade game. [...] If blasting asteroids is the thing you want to do then this is the game, but at this price I can't wholeheartedly recommend it". Electronic Fun with Computers & Games magazine gave the Atari VCS version an A rating. William Cassidy, writing for GameSpy's "Classic Gaming", noticed its innovations, including being one of the first video games to track initials and allow players to enter their initials for appearing in the top 10 high scores, and commented that "the vector graphics fit the futuristic outer space theme very well". In 1996, Next Generation listed it as number 39 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", particularly lauding the control dynamics which require "the constant juggling of speed, positioning, and direction". In 1999, Next Generation listed Asteroids as number 29 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that "Asteroids was a classic the day it was released, and it has never lost any of its appeal". Asteroids was ranked fourth on Retro Gamer list of "Top 25 Arcade Games"; the Retro Gamer staff cited its simplicity and the lack of a proper ending as allowances of revisiting the game. In 2012, Asteroids was listed on Time All-Time 100 greatest video games list. Entertainment Weekly named Asteroids one of the top ten games for the Atari 2600 in 2013. It was added to the Museum of Modern Art's collection of video games. In 2021, The Guardian listed Asteroids as the second greatest video game of the 1970s, just below Galaxian (1979). By contrast, in March 1983 the Atari 8-bit port of Asteroids won sixth place in Softline Dog of the Year awards "for badness in computer games", Atari division, based on reader submissions. Usage of the names of Saturday Night Live characters "Mr. Bill" and "Sluggo" to refer to the saucers in an Esquire article about the game led to Logg receiving a cease and desist letter from a lawyer with the "Mr. Bill Trademark". ==Legacy==

Arcade sequels Released in 1981, Asteroids Deluxe was the first sequel to Asteroids. Dave Shepperd edited the code and made enhancements to the game without Logg's involvement. The onscreen objects are tinted blue, and hyperspace is replaced by a shield that depletes when used. The asteroids rotate, and new "killer satellite" enemies break into smaller ships that home in on the player's position. The game is more difficult than the original and enables saucers to shoot across the screen boundary, eliminating the lurking strategy for high scores in the original. Space Duel, released in arcades in 1982, replaces the rocks with colorful geometric shapes and adds cooperative two-player gameplay. 1988's Blasteroids includes power-ups, ship morphing, branching levels, bosses, and the ability to dock ships in multiplayer for added firepower. and included in the 1993 Microsoft Arcade compilation. Activision published an enhanced version of Asteroids for the PlayStation (1998), Nintendo 64 (1999), Microsoft Windows (1998), Game Boy Color (1999), and Classic Mac OS (2000). The Atari Flashback series of dedicated video game consoles have included both the 2600 and the arcade versions of Asteroids. Asteroids Hyper 64 made the ship and asteroids 3D, and added new weapons and a multiplayer mode. It was developed by Syrox Developments and published by Crave Entertainment for the Nintendo 64. A technical demo of Asteroids was developed by iThink for the Atari Jaguar but was never released. Unofficially referred to as Asteroids 2000, it was demonstrated at E-JagFest 2000. An updated version of the game was announced in 2018 for the Intellivision Amico. Different versions of Asteroids were included in several Atari games compilations, such as Atari Anniversary Edition (2001) for the Dreamcast, PlayStation, and Microsoft Windows, Atari Anthology (2003) for both Xbox and PlayStation 2, Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1 (2010) for the Nintendo DS, Atari Collection 1 and 2 (2020) for the Evercade, and Atari 50 (2022) for the Atari VCS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The Xbox Live Arcade port of Asteroids, released in November 2007, has revamped HD graphics along with an added intense "throttle monkey" mode. The arcade and 2600 versions were made available through Microsoft Game Room service in 2010. Glu Mobile released an enhanced mobile phone port. In 2005 Asteroids was released for the Game Boy Advance with Pong and ''Yars' Revenge'' also being included on the same package. A remake, Asteroids: Recharged, was released in December 2021 for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, developed by Adamvision Studios and SneakyBox and published by Atari. In November 2024, Alan-1 Inc. released an official coin-op arcade version of Asteroids Recharged. The game won the first place in Best New Product of the category Games and Devices of the IAAPA 2024 Brass Ring Awards. In December 1981, Byte reviewed eight Asteroids clones for home computers. Three clones for the Apple II were reviewed together in the 1982 Creative Computing Software Buyers Guide: The Asteroid Field, Asteron, and Apple-Oids. In the last of these, the asteroids are in the shape of apples. Two independent clones, Asteroid for the Apple II and Fasteroids for TRS-80, were renamed to Planetoids and sold by Adventure International. Others clones include Acornsoft's Meteors, Moons of Jupiter for the VIC-20, MineStorm for the Vectrex, The Intellivision game Meteor! was cancelled to avoid a lawsuit for being too similar to Asteroids and was reworked as Astrosmash. The game borrows elements from Asteroids and Space Invaders. Proposed film adaptation In July 2009, Universal Pictures offered Roland Emmerich the option to direct the film adaptation of Asteroids, with Matt Lopez writing the script and Lorenzo di Bonaventura producing the film adaptation. Lopez and di Bonaventura were still attached to write and produce the film adaptation, respectively, but Emmerich passed on directing, while Evan Spiliotopoulos and F. Scott Frazier were hired to rewrite the screenplay. In other media The game has made cameo appearances in a number of films and music videos. An Asteroids machine appears in the music video for 38 Special's song Caught Up in You, and one is also briefly seen in the movie ''Pee-Wee's Big Adventure''. ==World records==

On February 6, 1982, Leo Daniels of Carolina Beach, North Carolina, set a world record score of 40,101,910 points. On November 13 of the same year, 15-year-old Scott Safran of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, set a new record at 41,336,440 points. In 1998, to congratulate Safran on his accomplishment, the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard searched for him for four years until 2002, when it was discovered that he had died in an accident in 1989. In a ceremony in Philadelphia on April 27, 2002, Walter Day of Twin Galaxies presented an award to the surviving members of Safran's family, commemorating his achievement. On April 5, 2010, John McAllister broke Safran's record with a high score of 41,838,740 in a 58-hour Internet livestream. ==Notes==