Space Invaders
(Looking for Space Invader instead?)
Space Invaders is, of course, a milestone of video game history.
Created in 1978 by Toshihiro Nishikado,
it was a first in several aspects.
It was the first shoot 'em up. Everything that deserves this name, from
Galaxian and
Xevious over
Raiden to
Guwange is indebted
to it, no matter how much they expanded the concept.
It was the first Japanese game that got wide
recognition outside Japan. It was not the first game to be exported.
Taito's Western Gun, for example, was sold in Europe and was licensed to Midway as
Gun Fight.
As such, it introduced two very Japanese concepts into video gaming in
general: characters and combat. The characters, of course, are as yet only
the monsters, it was Pac-Man who first introduced
a recognizable player character. Nevertheless the Space Invader aliens have
become quite as iconic as Pac-Man and Mario.
| Remakes, Clones, and Parodies |
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| ASCII Invaders |
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| Invaders 1978 |
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| Space Invaders |
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| Space Intruders |
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| Space Bastards |
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| MacBlaster 2000 |
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| Invaders95 |
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| Space Invader 1.4 |
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Random Space Invaders Facts
- Toshihiro Nishikado designed and programmed Space Invaders all by himself.
- The popularity of the game caused a shortage of ¥100 coins.
- The 1980 Atari 2600 port was the first port of an arcade game to a
cartridge-based home platform.
- Though some versions of the machine used an overlay of a moon in space,
the battle does not take place in space or even in air. The aliens have landed
and are approaching over the ground.
- There were several versions of the arcade machine, some of them quite colorful,
but the colors are from cellophane strips. They were Midway's, not Taito's, idea.
Arcade Machines
