Atari Asteroids

Illustration of a spaceship and asteroids under white text on a blue background

Asteroids is an arcade game that was first released in November 1979 by Atari, Inc. Video game designer Ed Logg created Asteroids at the request of Atari senior executive Lyle Rains, who recalls asking, “Well, why don’t we have a game where you shoot the rocks and blow them up?”. Asteroids was one of the first major successes of the golden age of arcade games, which took place during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. In the game, a player controls a spaceship traveling through an asteroid field – the player must shoot and destroy flying saucers and asteroids, while avoiding various space obstacles.