Asteroids

How to play Asteroids

You pilot a triangular spacecraft in an endless asteroid field. Asteroids drift in from the edges at three sizes, and the largest ones break into two medium rocks, which in turn break into two small ones. Destroy all of them to advance to the next, harder wave. A hostile saucer appears periodically and shoots at you. You have three ships, and you gain an extra one every 10,000 points.

Default desktop controls

Left-hand layout

Touch controls

On phones and tablets the game offers two layouts. The virtual joystick puts steering and thrust under your left thumb with fire and a hyperspace button under your right. The arcade buttons layout reproduces the original cabinet with five on-screen buttons for rotate left, rotate right, thrust, fire and hyperspace. Both can be mirrored for left-handed play.

While a panel is open, the game pauses its controls so you can change settings mid-game without losing your ship.

Game options

Settings are opened from the gear icon above the game. Changes made in the panel preview live and are stored when you press Save. Pressing Cancel restores your previous settings. The dedicated T shortcut switches and stores the theme immediately.

• Theme. Choose the classic Original look or the shaded, deep-space Modern presentation with upgraded effects and sound. Press T to switch without opening Options.
• Desktop keys. Switch between the default right-hand arrows, a left-hand WASD layout, or a fully custom layout where you press a key to rebind each action.
• Mobile controls. Choose the virtual joystick or the five-button arcade layout, and set whether your steering hand is left or right.
• Screen scale. Pick how large your ship, the asteroids and the saucer are drawn, and how fast everything moves. Small is tuned toward the original arcade proportions and gives you more space to manoeuvre; Large fills more of a big screen.
• Reset all. Return every setting to its default in one step.

Scoring and extra ships

Because a small saucer is worth five times a large one, chasing it is the fastest route up the high score table — and the quickest way to lose a ship. Extra ships are awarded every 10,000 points, so staying alive steadily usually beats gambling.

Strategy and tips

1. Your ship carries real momentum and there is no friction. Turning does not slow you down, so thrusting is the only way to change your speed.
2. Because there is no brake, the way to slow down is to turn around and thrust against the direction you are already travelling.
3. Keep moving. A stationary ship is far easier to hit, and thrusting unpredictably makes you a much harder target.
4. Aim where the rock will be rather than where it is. At long range you need to lead your shots.
5. Fight from a distance. A large asteroid filling the screen leaves you no time to turn away from it.
6. Clear the big rocks early, while the screen is still empty. Every large rock breaks into smaller, faster fragments.
7. The saucer is worth far more than any asteroid, but it aims accurately. Hit it when it is far away and crossing at a predictable angle.
8. Save hyperspace for a genuine emergency. You reappear at a random position, and occasionally that position is inside a rock.

The history of Asteroids

Asteroids was released by Atari in 1979, designed by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg. It was one of the first games to use Atari's new vector graphics display, an X-Y monitor that drew glowing white lines rather than filled sprites. That hardware is the reason the game still looks the way it does: every asteroid is an irregular wireframe outline that rotates and drifts with genuine inertia.

The cabinet had five buttons and no joystick: rotate left, rotate right, thrust, fire and hyperspace. Because the ship obeys Newtonian physics with no friction, the control scheme is deceptively deep — you cannot simply stop, so every change of direction has to be paid for with thrust.

Asteroids was also one of the earliest arcade games to let players enter their initials on a high score table, a convention that shaped arcade culture for decades. It was the best-selling arcade game of its era and has since spawned countless clones, ports and sequels.

About this remake

This version is an independent tribute built with Phaser and TypeScript, recreating the original's physics, wave structure, saucer behaviour and vector look from scratch. No original Atari code or assets are used, and it is not affiliated with Atari.

Your control preferences, screen scale and high scores are stored in your own browser, so nothing is uploaded unless you submit a score to the online table.

Frequently asked questions