ASTEROIDS VIDEO GAME TURNS 20

ASTEROIDS VIDEO GAME TURNS 20

FAIRFIELD, Iowa (Wireless Flash) -- Here's an out-of-this-world anniversary: the video game Asteroids is turning twenty. The space shoot-em-up game was first shipped to video game parlors in November of 1979, and quickly caused a world-wide craze with teens trying to outscore each other. According to Walter Day, the official scorekeeper for Asteroids, the game marked the beginning of the modern video game era because it turned "gaming" into a legitimate competition similar to sports. The game also helped bring about a "revenge of the nerds" movement because it turned geeky game-playing outcasts into super-studs adored by thousands. By the way, the world record for Asteroids is still held by a man named Scott Safran who scored 41,336,440 points in a grueling 60-hour session in November of 1982.