Blasteroids

The Player controls a spaceship viewed from "above" in a 2D representation of space, by rotating the ship, and using thrust to give the ship momentum. To slow down or completely stop moving, the player has to rotate the ship to face the direction it came from, and generate the right amount of thrust to nullify its momentum. The ship has a limited amount of fuel to generate thrust with. This fuel comes in the form of "Energy" that is also used for the ship's Shields which protect it against collisions and enemy fire.

Released: 1987
Platforms: Amiga Amstrad CPC Arcade Atari ST Atari ST/STE Commodore 64 Commodore C64/128/MAX MS-DOS MSX ZX Spectrum
Genres: Action Arcade Shoot 'em up Shooter
Developers: Atari Games
Publishers: Image Works
Series: Asteroids
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Action Science fiction
Country: United States

About

Blasteroids is a 1988 multidirectional shooter video game developed and published by Atari Games for arcades. It is the third main entry in the Asteroids series, following 1981's Asteroids Deluxe. Unlike the previous games, Blasteroids uses raster graphics instead of vector graphics, and has power-ups and a boss.

Home computer versions were released by Image Works for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, MS-DOS, and ZX Spectrum. An emulated version of Blasteroids is an unlockable mini-game in Lego Dimensions.

Keywords

shoot 'em up
asteroids

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The gameplay is basically the same as the original. The player controls a spaceship viewed from "above" in a 2D representation of space, by rotating the ship, and using thrust to give the ship momentum. To slow down or completely stop moving, the player has to rotate the ship to face the direction it came from, and generate the right amount of thrust to nullify its momentum. The ship has a limited amount of fuel to generate thrust with.

This fuel comes in the form of "Energy" that is also used for the ship's Shields which protect it against collisions and enemy fire. Once all Energy is gone, the player's ship is destroyed. The ship can shoot to destroy asteroids and enemy ships. The ship can also be transformed at will into 3 different versions: the Speeder with greatest speed, the Fighter with the most firepower, and the Warrior with extra armor.

Reception

In 1989, Computer and Video Games magazine gave Blasteroids the "C+VG Hit" award.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

Platform	Released	Regions
Arcade	31 December 1988	North America
Amiga	1 December 1989	North America · Europe 31 December 1989
MSX	31 December 1989	Europe
Amstrad CPC	31 December 1989	Europe
Atari ST/STE	31 December 1989	Europe
Commodore C64/128/MAX	31 December 1989	Europe
MS-DOS	31 December 1989	Europe
ZX Spectrum	31 December 1989	Europe