Asteroids

Asteroids is the game that turned vector graphics into a design language. Atac's Ed Logg and Lyle Rains built a space shooter out of nothing but lines, and the result out-sold Space Invaders in the United States.

You pilot a triangular ship in an empty field, breaking large rocks into medium rocks into small rocks until the screen is clear, while two kinds of UFO - a large one that fires randomly and a small one that does not - arrive to complicate the picture. The engine is defined by three physical rules: the ship does not decelerate, so thrust is a commitment you cannot take back; the screen wraps on all four sides, so leaving one edge means entering the other; and hyperspace teleports you to a random location, which saves you as often as it kills you. The ship has no shields, no upgrades and no levels - the difficulty is purely the rock count and the UFO timing. It became the best-selling arcade game in the United States and spawned a direct sequel, Asteroids Deluxe, a year later.

• ▸Pure vector graphics with no bitmap sprites anywhere
• ▸Momentum-based flight with no natural deceleration
• ▸Screen wrap on all four edges in both directions
• ▸Hyperspace - a random teleport that saves or kills you