Inducted: 2024
In 1978, Taito/Midway’s Space Invaders filled Japanese and North American arcades, knocking Atari off its throne as the king of coin-operated video games. Atari could have capitalized on the Space Invaders craze by producing yet another clone, but when Atari executive Lyle Rains discussed with designer Ed Logg his idea for a new and different space-themed video game, they planted the seeds for one of the most popular video games of all time, Asteroids.
Released in November of 1979, Asteroids took its inspiration from the pioneering mainframe computer game Spacewar (1962) and the first arcade video game, Nutting Associates’ Computer Space (1971). In these earlier games players controlled spaceships engaged in missile combat. In Asteroids, players controlled a triangular ship floating in the middle of a moving minefield of space rocks. Using five buttons to rotate left and right, thrust, fire missiles, or “hyperspace” to a random place on the screen, players dodged and blasted the roaming rocks and the occasional enemy flying saucer. Each time a player’s missile hit an asteroid, the boulders broke up like shrapnel into smaller, faster rocks that were even more difficult to destroy. The game’s vector graphic display, which used electronic beams to project vivid glowing lines on the monitor, also made gameplay electrifying by creating the illusion of a darting ship’s vapor trail.
Asteroids’ unique combination of challenging gameplay; glowing graphics; intensifying, heartbeat-like sound effects; and the drive to add one’s initials to the high score list made the game a massive hit. Atari sold more than 70,000 units of the game, earning the company an estimated $150 million and making it their best-selling arcade game of all time. Soon, Asteroids supplanted Space Invaders at many arcades and street locations while game operators collected an estimated $500 million in quarters.
In an era when ports of popular arcade games helped introduce millions of people to home video games, Asteroids stood out. Atari’s home version of the game sold 3.8 million copies, helping the company sell 30 million home consoles, and making Asteroids the third best-selling (behind Pac-Man and Pitfall!) Atari 2600 game of all time.
Not surprisingly, the hit game spawned several sequels such as Asteroids Deluxe (1980), Space Duel (1982), and Blasteroids (1987), as well as dozens of arcade and home video game clones and variants, including Space Fury (1981), Zektor (1982), Planetoids (ZX Spectrum, 1982), Asteroids in Space (Apple II, 1982), Mine Storm (Vectrex, 1982), and Transplant (Amiga, 1992). In 2021, Atari released Asteroids: Recharged, a reimagined version of the game that allowed players to compete online against players from around the world.
The game also influenced a generation of players and developers, including vector game pioneer Tim Skelly, who later praised Asteroids’ flexible gameplay, explaining “Its strength was that it allowed you to work out your own ways to win the game. Every player was free to break rocks and shoot saucers any way they pleased. It was an inspiration to me and to decades of game designers.” Indeed, one of the first games that future Prince of Persia designer Jordan Mechner programmed was an ill-fated Asteroids clone entitled Asteroid Blaster.
Through endless variants and remakes across dozens of arcade, home, handheld, and mobile platforms, Asteroids’ made a simple, yet challenging game about blasting rocks into one of the most widely played and influential video games of all time.
Did You Know?
Asteroids was one of the first coin-operated video games to allow players to add their three letter initials to a list of high scores.