Asteroids, 1979 Atari (20 From The '70s Part 2)
13Smash hit black-and-white vector game by Atari, featuring an impressive sense of dread in outer space with a cool Jaws-ish soundtrack as the titular space rocks close in on your spaceship, as do enemy ships (UFOs and satellites). At your disposal is an all-button control panel: 2 buttons to rotate your ship left and right, a button to fire thrusters to propel your ship forward, a fire button to shoot your rockets in as much as 4 at once, and a "hyperspace" button, which teleports you to a different location on the screen-- this can be good or bad, but may be necessary if in a serious jam. Your arrow-shaped ship appears in dead center each time you begin a game or start another life. Asteroids slowly start to close in, and you must blast them. One shot on a full-sized asteroid breaks it into medium-sized asteroids; shooting a medium-sized asteroid breaks it into small asteroids; and small asteroids are destroyed completely when shot. Note that the smaller the asteroids are, the faster they are-- though some pieces can move faster than other pieces of the same size! The UFOs are big and don't have particularly good accuracy; they're worth 500 points. The satellites, however, are MUCH more accurate and are worth 1,000 points. Experts of this game whittle the asteroid count down to one (preferably slow-moving) little asteroid and hang out at the edge of a screen, shooting the satellites as they arrive. One other thing to note: your shots, AND you ship (as well as the asteroids) move through one edge of the screen to the other, either the left/right edges or the top and bottom. Keep this in mind when trying to take out a UFO/satellite/asteroid from an angle you otherwise wouldn't have been able to shoot it from. Expert gamers may also almost never have to thrust from the center position; but if you do, learn when to use little thrusts (should be your usual tactic) and when to lay on the thrust (when you're in a serious jam). And then, there's the hyperspace: use it only when you KNOW you can't get out of a jam by shooting/careful thrusting. You will reappear in a different place on the screen.. this can be out of danger or right smack dab on an asteroid/enemy ship/enemy bullet. Also, be wary when you return on a next life.. you may be in the direct path of an asteroid, so be ready to react quickly! ASTEROIDS is easily one of Atari's biggest hits in the company's history, and helped in the push to knock pinball games out of the arcades. Pew pew pew pew!
(..by the way, sorry if some of the video seems to skip in places; it was doing that while I was making the video-- sorry!)