Everybody knows, or should know by now, that videogames are a lot older than some people would imagine.

The introduction of the game Space War way back in 1961, considered the birth of video gaming, spawned an industry and the ideals of new media to come to the fore. A lot of publications around this time of year will do their top 10 lists and awards but I thought I would go a little different and introduce to you one game that stood out per year over the last 30 years that define and shape gaming as it is today. In this 30 part feature, we will try and get you to reminisce about what you were playing in your childhood.

Our first part of 30 will feature the year 1979. This is the year after the launch of Space Invaders that was such a massive hit and certainly had me putting my 10p’s into the coin slot, wasting away hours of my life in the local cornershop.

1979 – Asteroids

Asteroids was released in 1979 by legendary developer and publisher Atari Inc.  Initially launched in the U.S. this game became a smash hit and soon propogated Europe and all video game playing nations to become one of Atari’s biggest selling games.

Mounted cabinet and tabletop versions, Asteroids was designed using vector graphics with a two dimensional view that wrapped itself around both screen axis.  The idea was to fly a spaceship around the screen in the middle of an asteroid field shooting them into bits until you cleared the level by having no pieces of asteroid remaining.  The odd flying saucer was also on hand to try and make it a little more difficult but also rewarded you with bonus points for shooting it down.

Such was the popularity of the game that asteroids has come to form the basis of many a spin off and has been ported so many times it is incredible.

If you want to have a little go then you can now go and play the original at Atari’s website

Tell us your memories of playing Asteroids and look out for our 1980 videogame standout tomorrow.