Asteroids is a space shooter arcade game developed by Atari and released in 1979, later ported to the Apple II. The player pilots a small triangular spacecraft through a field filled with drifting asteroids and periodically appearing flying saucers, with the goal of destroying both. The ship can rotate in either direction, fire straight ahead, and apply forward thrust. Movement follows a momentum-based model — once the vessel is set in motion, it continues along that trajectory until thrust is applied in another direction, gradually coming to rest when engines are idle. As a last resort, players can activate a hyperspace jump, which instantly relocates the ship to a random screen position, carrying the risk of reappearing inside an asteroid or triggering self-destruction. Clearing asteroids by shooting them causes them to break into smaller, faster fragments before they are fully eliminated.
