Analysis of "Asteroids" a game by Atari

Asteroids was an Arcade game designed and published by 'Atari Inc.' in 1979.

Composition

Being created very early in the video game era, Asteroids visuals are quite simple so not much can be said about them. Composed simply of a black screen,  with white lines representing the shapes of the ship and the asteroids that the player is tasked with destroying.  The games focal point is the ship you pilot across the screen, a simple triangle that allows the player to focus on the direction the ship is facing.

Space/Depth

Asteroids uses a simple 'wraparound' screen effect to allow the player infinite moving space whilst maintaining a static screen.

Colour

As mentioned previously Asteroids only makes use of the colours black and white. It would be a few more years before Atari developed a system that allowed coloured lines to be drawn. It seems fairly safe to conclude that there probably isn't a "deeper meaning" to the games palette.

Light

Asteroids has no lighting to speak of, something that is again down to the technology available at the time.

Style

The best that can be said about Asteroids 'style' is that it is very minimal, or you could go as far as saying it's an abstract take on the perils of space travel, I personally can't see us flying through space in big triangles but that's just me.

Influences

Asteroids was released in 1979, a time when cinemas were rife with science fiction epics such as the Star Wars films, leading me to believe that this had a big influence on the games design.

Subject, Theme & Meaning

Asteroids is a game with minimal story so again there isn't much to be said here. As far as characters go it could be said your character is the pilot of the ship you control but of course there is no mention of said person at all in the game. Set in space, asteroids simply seems to depict a ship fighting to survive in the midst of an asteroid field whilst also being attacked by the odd alien spaceship.  I'm of the belief that given how early in the video games era this game was made, there really wasn't much thought for deeper meanings such as symbolism. Again the only issues and controversy that surrounded Asteroids was that it apparently became almost too popular for its own good when several hundred units had to be shipped in 'Lunar Lander' (another Atari game) cases.

Context

Context has a profound effect on the meaning that one can decipher from something, in this case a game. I've mentioned on several occasions that I think the fact that this game was created in 1979 means that the "deeper meaning" that we see in many games these days was not present. The context here is the year in which the game was made, 1979, which as far as I know was very early days for video game development, hence why I take that to mean that there was not much in the way of hidden meaning and deeper meanings. Games are far more complex today than they were 30 years ago.

Personal Response

My main reaction when playing Asteroids is a feeling of nostalgia, even though the game was around long before I started playing video games. In its simplicity it shows us how far video games have come, whilst at the same time proving that these games that some may go as far as calling "primitive", can stand the test of time and still be fun to play. The high score mentality lives on to this day it seems.