Asteroid Drift: the arcade classic, rebuilt

Drift through a field of rocks with nothing but thrust and four shots in the air. Break the big ones, watch the pieces, and blink out of a corner you should not be in. You always come back somewhere clear, the field closes in if you hide, and nothing leaves your device.

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Play Asteroid Drift

Insert no coin

Ready when you are

Arrows or WASD to turn and thrust, Space to fire, Shift to blink. P pauses.

←→ turn · ↑ thrust · Space fire · Shift blink · P pause · a gamepad works too

What's out there

Every rock breaks into two smaller ones, and the smallest are worth the most because they are the hardest to hit. Clearing the field takes seven hits for every big rock that started it.

Boulder20 pointsSlow and wide. Breaks into two shards — think about where they will go before you shoot.
Shard50 pointsFaster, and it breaks again. Two of these cross where one boulder used to be.
Chip100 pointsQuick and small. The last ones on the field are what the wave really costs you.
The drone200 pointsCrosses the field now and then and shoots at you — but it winds up first, so the shot can be read and dodged.

What's better than the arcade

You come back somewhere clearThe arcade dropped you back in the middle whatever was passing through it. This one waits for a gap and puts you in it.
Blink, not hyperspaceHyperspace was a coin flip that could land you inside a rock. Blink always finds the emptiest corner — the cost is the wait before you can use it again.
Momentum you can seeA faint line shows which way you are really moving, which is not always where you are pointing. That was the hardest thing to read on a cabinet.
Hiding doesn't workSit out a wave and the rocks come looking for you, so the last chip ends the wave instead of stalling it.
A shot you can readThe drone winds up before it fires and aims where you are, not where you will be. No unavoidable sniping.
Plays on a phoneTurn and thrust under your thumbs, fire and blink under the other. Keyboards and gamepads work too.

Your best games

Kept in this browser only. There is no leaderboard and nothing is sent anywhere.

How scoring works

A boulder is 20 points, a shard 50 and a chip 100 — the smaller the target, the more it pays. The drone is 200. You get another ship every 10,000 points, and the wave number goes up every time you clear the field.

Getting better at it

Thrust in taps rather than holding it down: speed is easy to gain and slow to lose. Shoot a boulder from the side, not head on, so the two shards pass either side of you. Keep one shot in reserve — with four in the air you cannot answer a chip that appears in front of you. And save the blink for a corner you are already losing, not for a rock you could turn away from.

Common questions

Is this the Atari game?

No. Asteroid Drift is an original game in the rock-field style that arcades made famous: its own physics, drone, blink, waves and sounds, written for this site. It is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the owners of any arcade game or trademark.

Why does my ship keep drifting?

Because there is nothing to push against. Thrust adds to the speed you already have, so pointing the other way and thrusting is how you slow down. There is a little drag here — less than the arcade had none, more than a car — so a long drift does eventually settle.

Is anything I do sent anywhere?

No. The game runs in your browser. Your best scores, your chosen mode and whether sound is on are kept in this browser's storage and nowhere else.

Why did it pause?

It pauses whenever the tab is hidden, because a game that keeps running while you read a message is a game you lose. Press Play, Space or P to carry on.

It's too hard or too easy

Try another mode. Relaxed gives five ships, six shots in the air, slower rocks and no drone until wave three. Frantic speeds the rocks up and sends the drone from the first wave. Scores are kept separately for each.