Asteroids (1979)

One of the most recurring comments we get from visitors is how amazing Asteroids looks graphically, even to the modern gamer. Mostly this is down to its razor sharp eye-catching vector display. Vector based games were able to show clean, crisp lines and 3D polygons long before this was made possible on a traditional CRT monitor, and for players used to using their imaginations to negate the limitations of early graphics this opened up whole new worlds. Other fine Vector arcade games produced by Atari include Battlezone, Tempest and the holy-grail for the classic arcade collector – ‘Star Wars Trilogy’, but of all the classic arcade games they created in the period before the 1983 crash, it is perhaps Asteroids which endures best.

It’s also one of the most popular games for endurance challenges, as once mastered the player can survive indefinitely and rack up enough lives for regular toilet and food breaks. The current record stands at 41,838,740, which was achieved over 58 hours! The previous record stood for 27 years, so if you want to be the person to beat it you better get training!