How to play Asteroids online
- Rotate the ship: left and right arrow keys
- Thrust forward: up arrow key
- Hyperspace, shields or flip (depends on the variation): down arrow key
- Fire: Space bar (press it repeatedly)
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Choose a game variation: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Add UFOs and satellites: F4 toggles the Player 1 difficulty switch (F9 for Player 2)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
Each wave begins with a few large asteroids floating across the screen. Shoot a large one and it breaks into medium pieces; shoot those and they break into small ones. Everything wraps around the edges, so a rock that leaves the top of the screen comes back at the bottom, and so does your ship. Your ship keeps drifting after you thrust, so you have to plan your movements rather than simply point and go. Clear every rock and a new wave starts. You get four ships per game, and the game ends when the last one is destroyed.
| Target | Points |
|---|---|
| Large asteroid | 20 |
| Medium asteroid | 50 |
| Small asteroid | 100 |
| Satellite | 200 |
| UFO | 1,000 |
Variations and switches
The cartridge has 66 variations for one or two players. They change three things: whether the asteroids move slowly or fast, how often you earn a bonus ship (every 5,000, 10,000 or 20,000 points, or never), and which special move you get when you pull the joystick back. Hyperspace makes your ship vanish and reappear somewhere random. Shields surround the ship with a barrier for up to two seconds. Flip turns the ship around instantly. Some games have no special move at all, and there are simplified versions meant for young children.
The difficulty switch in position B gives you asteroids only. In position A, UFOs and satellites join in once you have scored enough points, and they shoot back.
Tips
- Stay near the middle between waves. New rocks enter from the edges, so a ship parked at the side of the screen is in their path.
- Don’t break every big rock at once. Each hit adds more, faster pieces to the screen. Finish off the small fragments before splitting the next large asteroid.
- Use thrust in short bursts. The ship keeps sliding, and a long burn can carry you straight into a rock you did not see coming.
- Pick the flip variations if hyperspace keeps killing you. Hyperspace can drop you on top of an asteroid; flip lets you turn and shoot at something behind you without that risk.
The story behind Asteroids
The arcade original, designed by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg, arrived in November 1979 and became Atari’s best-selling coin-op machine. Bringing it to the 2600 was a squeeze: the game would not fit in the usual 4 KB cartridge, so it became the first game for the console to use bank switching, a trick that let the cartridge hold 8 KB. The home version was released in 1981, also under the Sears label, sold more than three million copies and got positive reviews in magazines of the time.
Similar games to play next
- Gravitar – another Atari space game where your ship drifts and gravity pulls you down
- Omega Race – thrust-and-rotate ship controls inside an arena
- Space War – Atari’s early two-player duel with drifting spaceships
- Thrust – a homebrew where precise use of inertia is everything
- Missile Command – another Atari arcade conversion from the same era