Used to play this in primary school. First time I’ve ever seen it mentioned anywhere outside of that time and place. 😄
What is it?
Don’t know its correct name, but we called it Paper Asteroids or Pen Wars? 🤷♂️
It works by placing a ballpoint pen (eg. a Bic) vertically on the paper held up by a fingertip, then moving your finger back and away from the direction you’re aiming until the pen tip slides/rolls itself and the pen drops onto the paper. You draw a small ‘x’ where there resulting line ends.
Your opponent then does the same thing. And you repeat from your previous ‘x’. You’ll each end up with a series of —×—× over the page.
I seem to recall there being two ways to play:
- Have your line hit the other player’s leading/current ‘x’. I think this is the normal way, but it’s hard.
- Have your line hit any mark the other player has made. Much easier, but doesn’t make much sense.
Either way, it was a fun and cheap way to entertain yourselves during a class break years before everyone had dopamine slabs in their pockets. 😄



