Asteroids is the vector-graphics arcade game Atari released in 1979: a ship at the center of a field of rocks that split into smaller, faster fragments every time you shoot them, with an occasional flying saucer thrown in as extra menace. Its minimalist design and escalating difficulty made it one of the most profitable arcade games in Atari's history, and from there it quickly made the jump to the company's own console, the 2600.
Alongside Space Invaders, it's one of the foundational texts of the space-survival genre: everything that followed — from spaceship shooters to inertia-physics roguelikes — owes something to that simple idea of dodging and shooting in a frictionless void.
If you liked this one
