Asteroids

Asteroids is a video game classic that has been influential to many video games that came after. It is surely one of the top video games of the golden age. Asteroids was released in 1979 and controlled the video game market along with Galaxian. Everywhere a person would go, they would see an Asteroids arcade cabinet. The popularity of the game led to video arcade owners putting larger quarter collection boxes in the cabinets because they would fill up so quickly. The game also receives credit for being the best selling game that Atari ever developed.

The player's ship

The game begins with a triangular spaceship sitting in the middle of the screen. The ship can rotate left and right, can shoot and can thrust forward when needed. To make a ship stop, a player will have to stop thrusting. A player also has the ability to use the hyperspace function. By doing this, a player's ship will disappear and reappear in another place of the screen. This is great to use when a player is in a situation that they cannot get out of. If three asteroids are coming up from all sides at the same time, it would be wise for a player to hyperspace. There is always the danger of a player's ship reappearing in another place on the screen that they don't want to be.

The Asteroids

When a stage begins, there will be large asteroids flying around that a player must shoot. As a player shoots the asteroids, they will break up into smaller asteroids. A player will have to continue to shoot these smaller asteroids and destroy every piece of every asteroid on the screen to proceed in the game to the next level. If an asteroid crashes into the players spaceship, they will lose a man. Asteroids was one of the first games, probably the very first game, to use wrap around screen edges. This means that if a player is thrusting their spaceship forward, and they go to the edge of the screen, the spaceship will reappear on the other side of the screen. This rule applies for all of the asteroids and the flying saucer as well. Bullets that are shot by a player or the flying saucer also use the wrap around screen edges. This means that a player can fire shots that will shoot down asteroids on the other side of the screen. There are three different sizes of asteroids. There are large ones, medium sized ones and small ones. When a player shoots a large asteroid, it will break up into medium sized asteroids. When the medium sized asteroids are shot, they will turn into small asteroids. This can lead to many small asteroids flying around the screen. Once the smaller asteroids are shot, they will be gone. As a player gets to farther levels, the game will get more challenging as more asteroids will appear.

The flying saucer

Players must also watch out for the flying saucer that comes out and flies around periodically. This flying saucer will shot, and if it hits the players spaceship, a man will be lost. There is a regular sized flying saucer, and there is a small one. The regular sized ones move at a regular speed across the screen and do not have a very good aim. This does not mean that they cannot shot a player's ship down. The smaller flying saucers are very fast and have a high and accurate aim, making them more dangerous to a player.

Points

The goal of a player is to accumulate as many points as they can. Points are earned by shooting asteroids and flying saucers. These are the points a player will earn.

Large Asteroid: 20 points
Medium Asteroid: 50 points
Small Asteroid: 100 points
Large Flying Saucer: 200 points
Small Flying Saucer: 1000 points

Asteroid Strategies

Only use hyperspace when absolutely necessary. If you are going to get hit and know that you have no chance of getting out of the situation, by all means use the hyperspace. Of course, there is always a danger when doing this because you never know where you are going to end up on the screen. If there are lots of asteroids on the screen, you may put yourself in a bad situation.

Don't let the heart beating bass thump get you nervous. The music of Asteroids can really get someone going and have them do things that they don't really want to do. As a player progresses to farther levels, the music only gets more intensified.

When a stage is in its early stages and there are asteroids flying around everywhere, a player does not need to worry about flying saucers that much. This is because if the flying saucer crashes into an asteroid, it will be destroyed. This does not mean that a shot from the flying saucer cannot hit you.

My personal experience playing Asteroids

I will be the first one to admit. I really sucked at Asteroids. I spent most of my time watching my older brother play Asteroids, and he was very good. I would do alright at the beginning stages, as I would just sit there in the middle and rotate my ship to shoot the asteroids that were coming near. I do not remember what level I would get to, but I know that it was a point when I would be forced to thrust my spaceship forward. Once this happened, I was usually dead as I would crash into an asteroid. It just seemed so hard for me to control. Could I be better now as a grown adult? Who knows? Maybe I will be better than my five year old self. I will have to give it a shot.

Play Asteroids online right now

I tried a couple games of this online version of Asteroids and got to the fourth level on my first try. When I have more time, I will practice some more and see how far I can really get. It is a cool online version of Asteroids and brings back many memories of this old school classic video game.

Play Asteroids right now!