Asteroids
-
Asteroids
(1982 on
Nascom)
-
Asteroids
(1982 on
ZX81)
-
Asteroids
(1982 on
ZX81)
-
Asteroids
(1983 on
VIC-20)
-
Asteroids
(1998 on
Windows,
PlayStation, 1999 on
Game Boy Color)
Description official descriptions
Play the role of a spaceship pilot trapped in a gigantic asteroid cloud and pulverize incoming asteroids with the ship's photon cannon. When all asteroids are destroyed, the player can then move on to the next round. In addition to the asteroids, the player will also face an Alien Robot Saucer which shoots randomly across the screen.
The player using the controller may rotate the ship (left or right) in any direction or move the ship forward. Shots will be fired according to the ship's direction. The player has three reserved ships available to replace a destroyed spaceship. The spaceship is destroyed if an asteroid collides with the spaceship or is shot by an Alien Robot Saucer. Additionally, the player may opt to use the hyperspace warp to avoid a collision. The warp, however, may also destroy the spaceship in the process.
Asteroids when shot will break up into smaller pieces or be destroyed. There are three types of asteroids: large asteroids, medium asteroids, and small asteroids. Large asteroids and medium asteroids when shot will break up into two smaller sized asteroids. Small asteroids when shot will be destroyed.
Alien Robot Saucers come in two sizes: small and large. Both use photon lasers to shoot and will explode when destroyed. Alien Robot Saucers will not appear at the Novice Level.
Game Difficulty and Variations
There are 4 available difficulty settings: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert.
The game also offers three different game variations:
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Standard Play - For one or two players, taking turns when a player's ship is destroyed.
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Competition Asteroids - Two players appear on the screen at the same time. Friendly fire is in affect, which means shots fired from one player's spaceship will destroy the other player's spaceship. Each player has separate ship reserves.
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Team Asteroids - Two players on the screen at the same time. Friendly fire is disabled, which means shots fired from one player's spaceship will not destroy the other player's spaceship and just pass through. Ship reserves for both players are combined.
Scoring
The score of the Player 1 is viewable on the upper left side of the screen, while Player 2 on the opposite upper right side. A player will be awarded a new reserve ship for every 10,000 points.
- Small saucer - 1,000 points
- Other player's ship - 500 points
- Large saucer - 200 points
- Small asteroid - 100 points
- Medium asteroid - 50 points
- Large asteroid - 20 points
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Credits (Arcade version)
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| Project Engineer |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 75% (based on 24 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 121 ratings with 8 reviews)
So where is Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck at ?
The Good
Pure old school shooting action ! AKA blow stuff up. More specifically asteroids. That's about all there is to it. The controls were well tuned and and easy to figure out. The downgrade to pixel asteroids from vector asteroids was disappointing, but hey ! YOU GET TO BLOW THEM UP ! Who can argue with fun like that ?
The Bad
No gripes whatsoever ! Period !
The Bottom Line
If you'r in the mood to blow stuff up, I can recommend no other game ! After all these years it's ironic that this is still the game we all play to blow stuff up. Go figure.
Atari 2600 · by GAMEBOY COLOR! (1990) · 2007
Great game. One of the only games I have worth playing on the emulators.
The Good
It just keeps going on, and you get another life every 5,000 points you get. Your not stuck in the middle or just on one line, like other games.
The Bad
Hard to beat.
The Bottom Line
Great game. Definitely one to buy if you own and still play your Atari 2600!
Atari 2600 · by Alex K. (3) · 2003
An Authentic Arcade Experience.
The Good
For one of Atari's earliest offerings, this was a surprisingly accurate recreation of the classic arcade title.
This version of Asteroids was different in two significant ways: Its vibrant colors for the asteroids, and its unrelenting Jaws-like "dun dun" music. Oddly enough, when I think of this classic title, the 2600 version usually surpasses the arcade as my first thought that comes to mind.
The game controls well. If you can do it in the arcade, it can be done here.
The Bad
Extra men can be earned every 5,000 points. While this may bother some, the game becomes more of an endurance test than skill in some ways. Can the player reach the next bonus life before the asteroids crush the ship again?
The game also has a tendency to respawn directly in front of an asteroid at times, meaning an instant death. The plus side is that's it's one less asteroid to contend with.
The Bottom Line
As mentioned, this is my default memory of Atari's classic game. As a shooter, it accurately recreates the arcade game's feel, and has become my preferred version over the years.
The game was released when the "Arcade comes home" concept was still an amazing possibility. From Atari's lavishly illustrated covers of the time, to the little black cart that held player cred over your friends and family to get the highest score possible, it was a fun time in the living room, and one of the few cartridges I actually still own.
Does it still hold up today? Microsoft recently released it for their "Game Room" on the Xbox, and the "dun dun" music put me back into an old "competitive mode, determined to crush a whole new generation of gamers. It's still a fun title, and the design, and the funk 1970's-early 1980's style colors really took me back to a different time.
Fun, simple, basic, and addicting. The true hallmark of a classic game.
Atari 2600 · by Guy Chapman (1748) · 2010
Discussion
| Subject | By | Date |
|---|---|---|
| free browser version | Rola (8485) | Jan 26, 2014 |
Trivia
1001 Video Games
The Arcade version of Asteroids appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Atari 7800
Asteroids was one of the "Fabulous Eleven" launch games for the Atari 7800.
Controls
The original Asteroids arcade control scheme (five buttons, no joystick) is identical to the configuration employed in the early PDP-1 Spacewar! implementation.
References
Internally at Atari the two flavours of UFO in Asteroids (slow and fast) were referred to as "Mr. Bill" and "Sluggo", after characters in Saturday Night Live skits. After this was disclosed in an interview, Atari was sent a cease-and-desist letter by NBC's lawyers.
References to the game
Asteroids was popular enough to have a song inspired by it on the full-length Pac-Man Fever album: Hyperspace.
Technology
The original Coin-Op game of Asteroids in the arcade machines contained 4 kilobytes of code and 4 kilobytes of graphic data. Programmers managed to squeeze it in to 1 kilobyte of data for the Atari 2600!
Information also contributed by PCGamer77, Pseudo_Intellectual, Scott Monster and FatherJack.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Servo.
Game Boy added by Patrick Bregger. Windows, Xbox 360 added by Alaka. Atari 8-bit added by ZZip. Antstream added by lights out party. Arcade added by The cranky hermit.
Additional contributors: Guy Chapman, Echidna Boy, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack, firefang9212.
Game added April 12, 2003. Last modified March 31, 2024.