Asteroids (video game)



One of the most popular games of The Golden Age of Video Games. Debuting in 1979, it first appeared in the arcade. But was quickly ported to the Atari 2600, and has made its way onto most platforms since.

You control a Space War-style ship in the middle of an asteroid field. All around you, asteroids are floating around. You get points for shooting them; the smaller the asteroid, the more points you get. But each time you shoot any but the smallest, they split in two, and the trajectory is different for both. Oh, and you have to avoid getting hit by an asteroid. Or shot by an enemy ship that wanders by. In a pinch, you can press the panic button and travel through Hyperspace to a random location... which may not be any better. (In the sequel, Asteroids Deluxe, you get deflector shields instead.)

If you were looking for a page about actual asteroids, see Asteroid Thicket.

Tropes:
 * Asteroids Monster (Trope Namer)
 * Asteroid Thicket
 * Atari 2600
 * Endless Game
 * Every Ten Thousand Points
 * Everything Trying to Kill You
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin
 * Follow the Leader (among others, Meteors, a shameless near-exact copy for the Acorn Archimedes 7000)
 * Also Astrosmash for the Intellivision started out as a clone of Asteroids called Meteor! (and the original version can still be found hidden within the final version of the game).
 * Nintendo Hard
 * Random Teleportation: Used as an emergency escape, sometimes dropping you in front of a path of another asteroid.
 * Shoot'Em Up
 * Songs in the Key of Panic: An early example, the "heartbeat" sound gets faster as each wave goes on.
 * Vector Game
 * Wrap Around: 4-directional.