Atari's All-Time Most Popular Arcade Games

Asteroids

• To quote the classic video game fan website, The Atari Times, "Few games in history are as recognized as the Atari classic 'Asteroids.' The pounding sound effects, simple graphics, and strangely addictive gameplay has permeated throughout all of American society. One only has to watch TV shows like NBC's 'Freaks and Geeks' or the classic film 'National Lampoon's Vacation' to realize just how entrenched this game has become in our popular culture."

  Released in 1979, "Asteroids" had players operate a spaceship that is stranded in an asteroid field. The asteroids drift randomly around the screen and must be shot by the player. After being struck, the asteroids break into smaller pieces that also must be hit until they are shot into oblivion. After clearing the field, the player ends up in another field of asteroids. To make things more challenging, flying saucers also make appearance and try to shoot down the spaceship. This arcade hit introduced real-world physics into gaming with elements of speed and inertia through the thrust button that sped up the player's spacecraft. New editions of the classic game are available on MIcrosoft Windows and Sony PlayStation.

Centipede

• According to Steven Kent's book "From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond: The Ultimate History of Video Games," Centipede was the first arcade game that attracted a large female audience. At its peak in 1981, a three-day tournament was held in Chicago in which 10,000 of the world's greatest video players were to go head-to-head in a playoff of the game. The tournament turned out to be a flop (only about 200 people came) but the game remained a perennial hit that has been reissued on various platforms for the past thirty years.

  In this game, the player must destroy all of the segments of a centipede as it descends down the screen, winding through a field of mushrooms. The centipede breaks into separate moving pieces as its segments are shot. If the centipede reaches the bottom of the screen, it heads back up to the top. However, after it hits bottom, new segments are created that move within the player zone. At each level of the game, the centipede configuration changes. Round 2 introduces an independent segment of the centipede at the outset. Two independent segments appear at the beginning of Round 3 and so on. The player also can shoot down spiders, fleas and scorpions for bonus points.

Missile Command

• According to the fan website The Atari Library, "Missile Command" was a hit even before the first unit was shipped to the arcade. Workers at the consumer division of Atari spent more time playing the game in the development lab then at their desks. Playing off the public's fears of a cold war nuclear catastrophe, the 1980 game has the player protect six cities from an ever-increasing onslaught of ballistic missiles. Instead of buttons or a joystick, the player controlled his blaster's movements through a trackball that was notorious for pinching fingers.

  The original arcade game came in four versions: full-size upright, small cabinet, cocktail table, and cockpit. As of October 2010, the cockpit version is extremely rare, and fewer than 100 units still exist.