Flash Game Creator: Paul Neave, based on the arcade game released by Atari in 1979.

Instructions: Score points by shooting the asteroids and flying saucers before they destroy your ship. Each level starts off with large asteroids drifting in random directions. When hit, the asteroids will break into smaller pieces that move faster and become more difficult to shoot. Clear the screen of asteroids to move on to the next level. Be careful to avoid hitting the asteroids with your spaceship.

Controls: Use the right/left arrow keys to rotate in clockwise/counterclockwise directions. Press the up arrow key to thrust forward. Note that as the ship moves forward, momentum is not conserved and the ship will eventually come to a stop when not thrusting. To shoot, press the space bar. At your own risk, press the shift key for hyperspace, which causes the ship to disappear and reappear at a random location on the screen.

Note on the Arcade game: Conceived by Lyle Rains, Asteroids became Atari’s best selling game of all time. This vector game, however, had several bugs largely due to the programmer’s underestimation of the game’s popularity and players’ skills. If a player reached 99,999, the maximum possible score, the counter rolled over back to zero. Also, small saucers were programmed only to shoot directly at the player’s position on the screen, which gave rise to a popular strategy of “lurking” since the player could hide at the opposite end of the screen and fire while remaining protected.

It was announced in July 2009 that Universal Studios had won the rights to turn the game into a film. Matthew Lopez will be writing the script and Lorenzo di Bonaventura will be producing. Strangely enough, this scenario is actually unfolding in reality: the Russian space agency is considering destroying the asteroid Apophis which is headed toward Earth.