vintage Asteroids - Atari video game die cut promotion 1982 | Happiest Kid Finds

Double-sided video game promotional die-cut mobile. 

A giant spaceship blasts its way through clusters of enormous asteroids.

"Released in November of 1979, Asteroids took its inspiration from the pioneering mainframe computer game Spacewar (1962) and the first arcade video game, Nutting Associates’ Computer Space (1971). In these earlier games players controlled spaceships engaged in missile combat. In Asteroids, players controlled a triangular ship floating in the middle of a moving minefield of space rocks. Using five buttons to rotate left and right, thrust, fire missiles, or “hyperspace” to a random place on the screen, players dodged and blasted the roaming rocks and the occasional enemy flying saucer. Each time a player’s missile hit an asteroid, the boulders broke up like shrapnel into smaller, faster rocks that were even more difficult to destroy. The game’s vector graphic display, which used electronic beams to project vivid glowing lines on the monitor, also made gameplay electrifying by creating the illusion of a darting ship’s vapor trail." - The National Museum of Play

Details

• Artist: Paul Birling
• Publisher: Atari Inc.
• Distributer: Artfaire, Division of Fox Valley Corp.
• Date: 1982
• Dimensions: 12 1/2" × 21 1/2"
• Medium: card stock paper
• Format: Vertical

Condition

Good  — printed on both sides with retail tags attached at the top. Hole punch at the top to allow for hanging. Creases at the angular tips of the die-cut, mostly at the bottom. and left side of the spaceship's wing.