STACK September 2016 Issue 143

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Developer: ATARI
YEAR: 1979
Words: Paul Jones
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70 SEPTEMBER 2016
GAMES
FEATURE
ASTEROIDS
A g ame called Cosmos never
made it out of the prototype lab
at Atari. The objective to the two-
player shooter was to destroy the
other player’s spaceship; stationary
asteroids displayed on the screen
could also be fired at and hit. While
Cosmos was left unwanted, part of
the game’s concept would spark an
idea some two years later.
Atari executive Lyle Rains wanted
to tap into the popularity of the all-
conquering Space Invaders, a game
that was successfully extracting
coins from pockets all over the
world throughout 1978. His Eureka
moment came when he pondered
the possibility of having the prone
asteroids in Cosmos actually move, by
incorporating gameplay design based
on Spacewar! , the legendary video
game created on a PDP-1 computer
in 1962 by Steve Russell at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Rains ran the concept past
programmer Ed Logg, who had a running
prototype in just over two weeks. Logg
used the same hardware designed for
the poorly received coin-op Lunar Lander,
opting to use a high-resolution vector
display to gain greater speed and more
precise gameplay. The game, now known
internally as Asteroids, proved so popular
with Atari employees during development
that Logg had to create a second unit to
satiate the demand.
The premise was simple: players control
a triangular shaped spaceship using two
buttons to rotate either left or right. A third
button was used to introduce thrust and
counteract the zero gravity effect, with
a fourth button used to operate the gun.
Well-aimed shots reduce large asteroids
to medium sized rocks, and these finally
become faster moving and more deadly
smaller sized asteroids.
When all the asteroids are destroyed,
players progress to a new screen with
even more asteroids to contend with.
Periodically, a flying saucer will traverse
the screen firing bullets. A fifth button
activates hyperspace: a potential get out
of jail card that transports the player to a
random part of the screen. However, this
is a double-edged sword: while it can get
a player out of imminent danger, the
random respawn position could be
even more troublesome.
Units began shipping to arcades
towards the end of 1979 and Asteroids
proved an immediate success. Arcade
operators began requesting larger
money deposit boxes because the
regular fitted size were shorting
out from the amount of coins being
fed into the units. In popular areas,
Asteroids owners were making $1,000
a week, enough to pay off a unit in two
weeks.
It didn't take long for players to work
out a pattern in the game, unearthing
a 'cheat' after Asteroids had been
in circulation for just three months.
Savvy gamers had found out how to
‘lurk’ and remain relatively safe by
positioning the spaceship in a specific
part of the screen. Embittered arcade
owners lobbied Atari for a solution and
the company introduced a chip that
could be easily installed, eradicating
the exploitative strategy.
The compulsive Asteroids attracted
players of all ages, drawn to the dynamic
gameplay and distinct booming audio
buried deep within the cabinet. Before
long it had displaced Space Invaders as
the most popular arcade game. A total of
70,000 units were sold in the US with a
further 30,000 shipped globally.
Asteroids was heavily cloned and ported
to a plethora of different systems. It was
one of the first games that allowed players
to enter their initials to accompany a high
score and would go on to influence other
successful arcade titles like Defender.
The title's simplistic design and addictive
gameplay has transcended generations
of gamers. Today, the game is still avidly
sought after by arcade collectors and
can be enjoyed on innumerable desktop
emulators.