The original Atari video game company plotted Asteroids' first attack in 1979. Like all the early games, this vector-based version was simple: a ship placed in the center of the screen shot at objects (asteroids) approaching it. Players received points for blasting an object and lost when the ship's position was overrun. You could teleport into hyperspace or get extra points by shooting a flying saucer.
In early versions of the game, players could hide indefinitely. A favorite scoring tactic was to shoot all the asteroids except one and then go after high-scoring flying saucers.
According to the International Arcade Museum, Asteroids' huge popularity forced arcade owners to buy bigger coin boxes.
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Photo by Killer List of Videogames, klov.com
