Atari, the legendary video game creator California, has debuted the OG arcade game ‘Asteroids’ on Base for the Layer-2 blockchain’s Onchain Summer event. Now, enthusiasts of the 1979 title can pilot a spaceship and destroy asteroids while logging their scores on-chain in the process.
To play, gamers need to purchase an access pass for 0.0015 ETH ($4.72 at this time of writing). The pass comes in the form of an NFT, and buyers can purchase as many as 1,000, although the total number won’t affect their on-chain Asteroids score. Fees from the mint passes will be distributed to the developers and artists that made the project possible. Base has made two of the names behind the project available: Muharrem, a product designer, and MX1000, an artist.
Currently, there are two sets of prizes: those for the top three weekly performers and those for the top three performers for the entire tournament. The top weekly performer will receive an Atari 2600+ retro console, the second-best performer a $35 merchandise code, and the third-best a rechargeable Steam code. The prizes for the top-3 tournament finishers will receive gift cards to atari.com: $1,000, $300, and $150 respectively.
Tyler Drewitz, Atari director, told VentureBeat that Atari partnered with Base because Coinbase is focused on onboarding people to the space and “showing people the value.” “They’re…trying to create a product that is quality and…just good. They want people building on-chain, and that’s what we’re endorsing…as well.”
Holders of two previous Atari NFT collections — 50 Years of Atari and Atari Club — will have free access to the game. The tournament will run through August 30th, a day before Onchain Summer ends. The company has teased that it will launch more arcade games on Base in the future, including Breakout.
Atari Has Web3 Roots
While Atari debuting Asteroids on Base is exciting news, perhaps it should come as no surprise — the video game publisher has been active in the blockchain space for years.
Some of its ventures include an Atari token, plans for on-chain video games, and a crypto casino. In 2020, the CEO, Frédéric Chesnais, said that he’s a strong believer in blockchain. Although he would relinquish his role as CEO and step down from the Board in later years, it appears the company’s crypto interest has continued.
Two of the Web3 projects Atari has worked on are the aforementioned NFT collections. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Atari launched the ’50 Years of Atari’ collection with artist Butcher Billy illustrating classic games in a vintage art style. Then, eight months later in May 2023, the company debuted the “Atari Redemption Certificate” (ARC) NFT set, which doubled as a membership pass to the video game publisher’s Web3 community.
Although some video game companies have backed off their Web3 ventures due to backlash from their customers, Atari continues to push forward. And given the splash its Asteroids game has made, it appears to be having some success.
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