Play Astro Fighter online

Astro Fighter was the kind of cabinet that sat in the corner of the arcade, a couple machines down from the big-name space shooters, and quietly ate your quarters anyway. Your ship sits at the bottom of the screen, enemy formations swoop down in jerky patterns and one question nags at you the whole time: do I have enough fuel?

At UsuArcade you can pull up a stool in front of its cabinet and play it just like back then, right in your browser with nothing to install.

History

Data East released it in 1979, right in the middle of the space shooter boom that followed Space Invaders. It was one of the company's earliest titles, years before the Japanese studio made its name with late-80s action games.

Its twist on the formula was simple and effective: a fuel gauge that ticks down while you play. Dodging and shooting wasn't enough anymore. You had to hurry.

How to play

Move your ship left and right and fire upward. Each stage throws a different enemy wave at you with its own flight pattern, and once you clear them the mothership shows up and you have to hit its weak spot.

Your fuel drains constantly, and if it runs dry you lose the ship. Wiping out each wave fast is the only way to go deep. Make your shots count, because every miss costs you time.

Fun facts

• It's one of Data East's first games, from the same house that later gave us Bad Dudes and Karnov.
• The fuel mechanic added a ticking clock to a genre that used to reward playing it slow.
• Like most games in 1979, it was one or two players taking turns.

In the arcade

Astro Fighter 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.

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