Play Asteroids online

You could spot an Asteroids cabinet from across the arcade: a black screen, razor-thin white lines and that low thump-thump that sped up as the wave thinned out. You dropped a quarter, spun your tiny ship around and started blasting everything that drifted by.

At UsuArcade you can step right back up to it from your couch. Open the arcade in your browser, walk up to the machine, hit INSERT COIN and try to stay alive. Nothing to install and nothing to pay: every game is free.

History

Atari released Asteroids in 1979, and it became one of the company's biggest arcade hits. That crisp look comes from vector graphics: instead of drawing with pixels, the monitor's beam traced lines directly, which is why the rocks and your ship look so sharp.

It landed right in the middle of the space invaders craze and did something different. Instead of rows of aliens marching down, you got open space and total freedom to fly wherever you wanted. Add a ship that keeps gliding after you thrust, and you had a game that was easy to pick up and brutally hard to master.

How to play

You rotate left and right, thrust forward and fire. Shoot a big asteroid and it breaks into two medium ones, those break into small ones, and the small ones vanish. Clear the screen and a new, bigger wave rolls in.

Watch your momentum: the ship doesn't stop on its own, and anything that flies off one edge of the screen wraps around to the other. Flying saucers show up now and then and shoot back; the small one has much better aim and is worth more points. When you're boxed in, hyperspace zaps you to a random spot, which might be even worse than where you were.

Fun facts

• Vector graphics give the ship and rocks clean, sharp lines with no visible pixels.
• The two-note background beat speeds up as the wave goes on, cranking up the tension.
• Hardcore players used to hunt saucers instead of clearing the wave, just to rack up extra points.

In the arcade

Asteroids was a take-turns game, and that's how it plays on UsuArcade, just online: invite your friend to your cabinet once they're in the lobby and trade turns, each on your own phone or PC. While one plays, the other watches live.

Nothing to install: it runs in your browser, gamepad supported, and every game starts with INSERT COIN, free. Everyone else in the lobby can watch and chat, and scores go up on the arcade's high score board.

FAQ