Asteroids Cheat Codes & Secrets

Game Select Variations

The Atari 2600 Asteroids cartridge packs a substantial number of game variants accessed by pressing the Game Select switch on the console before hitting Game Reset. Each press cycles to the next variant, displayed as a number in the score area at game start.

Cycle through variants rapidly by pressing Game Select repeatedly before starting. The variant number is not prominently displayed mid-game, so note your selection before pressing Game Reset.

Difficulty Switch Settings

The two difficulty switches on the rear of the console (Left = Player 1, Right = Player 2) meaningfully alter gameplay and function as the closest thing this cartridge has to a difficulty cheat.

Setting both switches to B before starting is the recommended approach for new players and score farming, as UFO fire is the primary source of unexpected deaths at high wave counts.

Extra Ships (Score Thresholds)

Asteroids 2600 awards a bonus ship at regular score intervals. There are no codes to directly grant lives, but understanding the threshold lets you manage risk around key moments.

• Extra ship awarded every 10,000 points
• The ship appears in the reserve display at the top of the screen
• Maximum reserve ships capped at a small pool; earning more beyond the cap does not stack
• Prioritize clearing UFOs over small rocks when approaching a 10,000-point boundary — UFO kills are high-value and relatively safe if you maintain distance

Hyperspace and Shield Mechanics

These are variant-specific features, not hidden codes, but they behave like power-ups and are frequently misunderstood.

Hyperspace (variants 1–16 and 33+):

• Press Joystick DOWN to teleport the ship to a random screen location
• Hyperspace is instantaneous but the landing position is entirely random, including directly on top of an asteroid
• Use only as a last resort — survival rate is roughly 50/50
• Rapid repeated use does not improve odds; each jump is independently random

Shield (variants 17–32):

• Press and hold Joystick DOWN to project a temporary shield around the ship
• The shield absorbs one hit from any asteroid or UFO shot
• Shield has a cooldown after activation; you cannot hold it permanently
• The shield does not protect against hyperspace teleportation (which is disabled in shield variants)

Beneficial Exploits and Techniques

Screen-Wrap Shot Exploit

The playfield wraps on all four edges. Shots fired at the edge wrap to the opposite side. Position your ship near one edge, rotate to face away from a cluster of rocks, and fire — your bullets arc around and strike asteroids from behind. This is especially useful when a large rock cluster is between you and the screen edge.

UFO Engagement Distance

UFO shots are aimed at your ship’s current position when fired. The effective counter is lateral movement immediately after the UFO appears. Stay at maximum screen distance from the UFO (approximately 2/3 of the screen width away) and rotate/thrust constantly. Close-range UFO encounters are significantly more dangerous; fight them from distance whenever possible.

Large Rock Farming (Wave Stalling)

On any wave, leave one small asteroid alive and dodge it indefinitely. UFOs continue to spawn on a timer regardless of asteroid count. This lets you farm UFO kills (worth 200–1,000 points each depending on size) without advancing to a faster wave. The tactic works best on early waves before UFO fire accuracy makes extended survival too costly.

To execute: clear all rocks except one small fragment, then alternate between evading the fragment and engaging UFOs as they appear.

Center-Screen Passive Safety

The ship spawns at screen center, and newly spawned large asteroids originate from the screen edges. Staying near the center provides the maximum reaction time against incoming rocks from any direction. This is less effective in fast-rock variants (33+) where edge-to-center transit time is drastically reduced.

Score Digit Rollover

The score counter rolls over at 99,999 points back to 00,000 without awarding additional ships beyond the cap. High-level players deliberately stall wave progression (using the large rock farming method above) to accumulate score while staying on a manageable wave. Wave count does not cap or wrap — difficulty increases continuously, so farming earlier waves is always preferable to advancing.

Password System

Asteroids (1981, Atari 2600) does not use a password system. The game has no save state or continue mechanic — each session starts fresh. Progress through waves is continuous within a single sitting only.

Easter Eggs and Hidden Content

No confirmed developer Easter eggs have been documented for the Atari 2600 Asteroids cartridge. Unlike Adventure (1980), which contained the first known video game Easter egg, Asteroids does not appear to include any hidden developer signatures or secret screens accessible through any known input sequence. The Atari 2600 library Easter egg phenomenon was just beginning during this period, and not all 1981 titles included them.

If you encounter any screen anomalies, they are most likely graphical artifacts from the 2600’s hardware limitations rather than intentional hidden content.

Two-Player Mode Notes

In two-player alternating variants (games 9–16), each player’s score and reserve ship count are tracked independently. There is no cooperative simultaneous mode on the 2600 version. Players alternate turns; a turn ends when the active player loses their current ship. Each player begins their turn with one ship on the field regardless of the wave the other player left behind — the wave resets to the beginning for the incoming player’s turn. Use this to your advantage: intentionally dying on a difficult wave passes a fresh wave to your opponent rather than an inherited nightmare.