Asteroids was built at Atari in 1979 by Ed Logg, who was asked to improve an unfinished game called Cosmos, in which a giant asteroid could not be destroyed. Logg suggested the opposite idea: rocks that break into smaller pieces when shot. The game combined the two-dimensional space combat of Spacewar! with the completion-driven gameplay of Space Invaders. Its graphics were drawn as lines on a vector monitor, which allowed precise aiming, using a MOS 6502 processor and a custom graphics processor. Because the board had no sound chip, the 13 sound effects were built from hand-wired circuitry.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.