Asteroids
- This page is about the computer game. For the planet-like space object, see asteroid.
Asteroids is a popular vector-based video arcade game released in 1979 by Atari. The object of the game is for the player to shoot and destroy asteroids without being hit by the fragments.
The game was conceived by Lyle Rains and programmed by Ed Logg. Asteroids was a hit in the United States and became one of Atari's best selling games of all time. It was so popular that video arcade owners usually had to install larger boxes to hold all the coins this machine raked in.
One feature of the game was the ability for players to record their initials with their high scores, an innovation which is standard in arcade games to this day.
Asteroids was the first of several games to use Atari's "Quadra-Scan" vector-refresh system (although a raster-based full-color version was developed for the Atari 2600 home video game system). Later full-color Quadra-Scan games would include Tempest. The game was in itself based on the black-and-white raster game, Computer Space.
Legacy
The gameplay in Asteroids was imitated by many games that followed. For example, one of the objects of Asteroids Deluxe (1980)
However, the original game was by far the most popular of the series.
The Killer List of Videogames (KLOV) credits this game as one of the "Top 100 Videogames." Readers of the KLOV credit it as the seventh most popular game.
Record breaking gameplay
In March 2004, Portland, Oregon resident Bill Carlton attempted to break the world record for playing an arcade version of Asteroids, playing over 27 hours before his machine malfunctioned, ending his record run. He scored 12.7 million points, putting him in 5th place in the all-time Asteroids rankings. In November 1982 Scott Safran set the still unbroken record of 41 million points.
