Ten fun facts about Asteroids

Fact 1
The player controls a spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers.

Fact 2
The object of the game is to shoot and destroy asteroids and saucers while not colliding with either or being hit by the saucers' counter-fire. The game becomes harder as the number of asteroids increases.

Fact 3
Asteroids has been acclaimed by players and video game critics for its vector graphics, controls, and gameplay.

Fact 4
It was one of the most popular and influential games of the golden age of arcade games, selling 70,000 arcade cabinets and being widely imitated. It has since been ported to multiple platforms.

Fact 5
A prototype of Asteroids was well-received by several Atari staff and engineers, who would "wander between labs, passing comment and stopping to play as they went."

Fact 6
It displaced Space Invaders by popularity in the United States and became Atari's best selling arcade game of all time, with over 70,000 units sold.

Fact 7
Atari earned an estimated $150 million in sales from the game, and arcade operators earned further $500 million from coin drops.

Fact 8
Asteroids was so popular that some video arcade operators had to install large boxes to hold the number of coins spent by players.

Fact 9
Asteroids received positive reviews from video game critics.

Fact 10
Asteroids was included on Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1 for the Nintendo DS.

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