Here is an interesting bit of trivia: Atari's 8-bit home computers and the arcade version of Asteroids all use the same CPU, the MOS 6502. Of course, there is a lot more to building a machine capable of playing video games than just the CPU. After all, arcade Asteroids was designed to use a vector monitor while Atari's home computers are meant to connect to a standard home television. Still, however unfounded the reasoning may be, it seems surprising a computer with the same CPU can't create a more faithful Asteroids. Actually, Atari 8-bit Asteroids is good enough to make its name legitimate, if only barely, and a few extra features, from new defenses to four-player competition, do add a little spice. Still, with the way the asteroids lumber around the screen, and with the way graphics seem slow to update at times, it feels like this version could have been much better.
In 1982, Atari was going to make Asteroids the flagship game for their new game console, the Atari 5200. Since the 5200 shares a lot of hardware design with Atari's 8-bit computers, right down to that MOS 6502 CPU, Atari 5200 Asteroids would have been very similar to 8-bit Asteroids. While Asteroids did appear in some early Atari 5200 catalogs, the game was pulled from release. Those who have played the unreleased prototype believe the Atari 5200's controllers, which did not lend themselves well to a game like Asteroids, likely contributed to Atari's decision.
Interestingly, years later it was proven that the Atari computers' CPU did in fact make the machines capable of playing a better Asteroids. In 2012, Norbert Kehrer wrote The Asteroids Emulator, using the actual arcade code to create a much more faithful Asteroids for the 8-bits. With nearly 30 years difference between Atari's release and Kehrer's, a direct comparison may not be fair, but it does show the underlying system really was capable of more than what Atari offered.
Grades: B- for the Atari 8-bit port, C for the unreleased Atari 5200 port.