Arcade Nostalgia: "Asteroids" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Atari

Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who are also credited with creating the game "Computer Space" in 1971, which was the very first commercially sold coin-operated video game.

When Atari produced "Asteroids" in 1979, it soon surpassed Taito's "Space Invaders" as the most popular space shooter video game in North America.

Taito, Namco and Konami were all Japanese companies, and while the word 'atari' had Japanese origins, the company was American. Atari, Inc. was sold to Warner Communications in 1976. In 1984, Warner sold off the consumer electronics and home computer divisions to a company called Tramiel, and the arcade division to Namco in 1985.

Answer: Vector graphics

According to Wikipedia, developer Lyle Rains originally wanted to use raster graphics for "Asteroids", a system of graphics that uses dot matrix data representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels. Raster graphics are commonly used in such modern image formats as JPEG, GIF, and PNG.

However, Ed Logg argued for vector graphics, primarily because of the higher resolution (1,024 x 760 versus raster's 320 x 240).

Answer: Five buttons (ROTATE LEFT and RIGHT , HYPERSPACE, THRUST, and FIRE)

The panel for "Asteroids" was quite colourful (red, white, blue, and black squares and rectangles) and the 'ONE PLAYER START' and 'TWO PLAYER START' buttons were at the top. Below those, five buttons were arrayed with two on the left together (ROTATE LEFT and ROTATE RIGHT), one in the centre (HYPERSPACE), and two on the right together (THRUST and FIRE).

Answer: Six

The first round gave you four asteroids to begin, and if you managed to clear the screen, your difficulty increased by having two more asteroids added. This pattern continued until there were ten asteroids at the beginning of the level, at which point it remained at ten for all subsequent levels.

Hitting a large asteroid earned you 20 points, a medium asteroid was worth 50 points, and a small asteroid (which then disappeared) earned you 100 points. Thus, every large asteroid was worth 520 (20 + 2x50 + 4x100) points, if you managed to destroy it completely.

Answer: Small

While the smaller flying saucer was more dangerous in terms of firing accuracy, it didn't move any faster than the big saucer. In the first level, the big saucer would appear three times before the small one showed up, after which point either could appear randomly. As the difficulty progressed in the game, the small saucer would appear more often, as well as shoot faster. Eventually, the small saucer was the only one to appear (after reaching 40,000 points).

One strategy for earning points with flying saucers became so prevalent with the game that the players who did it became known as 'Lurkers'. They would shoot all the asteroids until there was only one small asteroid left on the screen, then they would just hang around and wait for flying saucers to appear over and over again, earning big bonus points and prolonging the game. Arcade owners didn't like Lurkers very much, since longer games meant fewer quarters.

Answer: 10,000 points

You would actually earn a new life EVERY 10,000 points, and there was (theoretically) no limit to the number of lives one could win. However, if you managed to amass a store of fifty or more ships, the game would slow down to a crawl. According to designer Ed Logg, after earning 250+ lives, it was possible to lose the game because of a 'watchdog' circuit that rebooted the game if it thought it had been running for too long.

Answer: It applied to all objects

You had to be very careful in your observation of all the different things flying around the screen with the wrap-around display. Everything (including the shots you fired) would carry over to the opposite side of the screen, although your shots did have a limited distance before they disappeared of their own accord.

When the saucers fired, they would always fire towards you in direct line of sight, and not utilize the wrap-around feature, even if that technically put them closer to you.

Answer: False

Apparently the 'space' around your ship in "Asteroids" had some friction, because if you pushed the thrust button, let it go, and didn't push it again, your little ship would eventually drift to a stop.

You could only apply thrust in the direction you were pointing your ship, and any turning had to be done by rotating and reapplying your thrust.

That said, you could also halt (or mostly halt) your thrust by rotating your ship to face the opposite direction of your travel and pushing the thrust button again. Good control of your ship took time to master, and was key to longevity in the game.

Answer: False

Using the HYPERSPACE button was a gamble, because it was entirely random. You could end up safe and sound, or you could land right in the path of an asteroid or flying saucer, or even right on top of one. Sometimes, though, the chance of death was better than the certainty of death.

Answer: An isosceles triangle

Your ship was essentially a small isosceles triangle with two long sides (with narrow angle) and a short side that was curved inward. It was a little reminiscent of the "Star Trek" symbol, actually.

While you held down your THRUST button, a little gout of vector graphic flame would show from the rear of your ship.