Asteroids

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 concieved 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 new larger coin boxes to hold all the tokens this machine raked in.

One of the innovative features of the game was the ability for players to record their initials with their high scores, an innovation which is standard feature for arcade games to this day.

A game resembling Asteroids was seen in the 1973 science fiction movie Soylent Green.

External Links

• The Killer List of Video Games entry on Asteroids
• Atari Times: All About Asteroids
• Asteroids clone written in Java

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See asteroid for the planet-like space object.