Renowned arcade game company Atari is bringing some prominent games into the blockchain ecosystem, starting with Asteroids. Through the game firm’s Web3 subsidiary, Atari X, the company has developed the classic Asteroids arcade shooter game with a product designer, an on-chain artist, and the on-chain loyalty project Stack. The Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Base will house Atari’s arcade games entering the blockchain.
Initially launched in November 1979, the Asteroids game is themed around outer space. Gamers control a spaceship in an asteroid field periodically traversed by flying saucers. They shoot these flying spacecraft, asteroids, and other obstructive objects to earn points and advance to higher levels in the game. By integrating this game into the Base blockchain, the game’s creators aim to immortalize Asteroids on-chain and attract new audiences.
Players must mint an NFT access pass worth 0.0015 ETH to play Asteroids on-chain. Each digital wallet can mint as many as 1,000 NFT access passes. Still, owning many passes does not affect the player’s in-game scores. Conversely, players with higher scores in the leaderboard are eligible to win weekly prizes.
Among the weekly prizes are the Atari 2600+ retro gaming console, $35 credit for camp merchandise, and recharged game codes for the arcade game on Steam, a video game software. Being part of Base’s ongoing On-chain Summer campaign, the Asteroids game will offer gift cards worth $150, $300, and $1000 to the top three winners.
Through Atari’s arcade.fun website, the game publisher introduces its classic games to the blockchain ecosystem. Aside from Asteroids, Atari will be deploying Breakout, an arcade game involving the destruction of blocks to advance, on the Base chain.
Tyler Drewitz, an Atari X executive, hinted in Base’s Onchain Stories with Base’s founder Jesse Pollak that more games will likely be rolled out in the dedicated website.
“Once you participate, it can evolve and change—the level of prizes, what games come next, [and] who owns the high-score cartridge,” he said.
Notably, Atari’s latest move aligns the project with prominent video game publishers like Square Enix and Ubisoft. Time will tell if this new foray will lead Atari to new frontiers as it blends decades of gaming experience with blockchain technology.
