1981
Atari 2600
Thanks to the quirks of the alphabet, I get to begin this exercise with one of the true classics of the field, Asteroids. Asteroids is a timeless game, worthy of inclusion on any Greatest list, as fun to play today as it was 29 years ago.
The arcade original, that is. However, I’m playing the Atari 2600 port.
This is a game I’ve played off and on for my entire life without it ever leaving a strong impression. Usually when I start a game of Asteroids my reaction is, “why am I not playing Space Invaders?” I then swap out my copy of Asteroids and play Space Invaders. But not today. This time I keep playing Asteroids.
If you somehow don’t know, the entire point of Asteroids is to shoot giant space rocks from your space ship without being hit by the rocks as they crumble into smaller rocks. The winning strategy for the Atari version is to never move your space ship from the center of the screen.On my very first play attempt today, I maxed out my extra lives and rolled over my high score. This consumed about 45 minutes of my life. It turns out that this game is as much fun as you’d expect from a simulation of shooting rocks while standing still.
Fortunately, I have options, for the coolest thing about the Atari is that almost ever game for it comes with alternate versions. Asteroids, for example, has 132 seperate variants. That means I can make it harder. Much harder. After some tinkering, I find that variant 6A (Fast Asteroids, Hyperspace, exra life every 20,000 points, flying saucers) makes for a solid game, a rough but passable imitation of the classic original.
