Space Invaders

Space Invaders was an arcade video game designed and programmed by Toshihiro Nishikado and manufactured by Taito. Released in 1978, it ranks as one of the most influential video games ever created. Though simplistic by today's standards, it (along with other contemporary games such as Pac-Man) is one of the forerunners of modern video gaming.

Description

The game itself was an adaptation of the popular shooting gallery games that were a mainstay of carnivals. In this electronic version of the game, the player controlled the motions of a movable "laser cannon" that moved back and forth across the bottom of the video screen. Rows and rows of video "aliens" marched back and forth across the screen, slowly advancing down from the top to the bottom of the screen. If any of the aliens successfully landed on the bottom of the screen, the game would end. The player's laser cannon had an unlimited supply of ammunition to shoot at the aliens and destroy them before they hit the bottom of the screen. Meanwhile, the aliens would shoot back at the player, raining a hail of deadly "rays" and "bombs" that the player would have to dodge lest his cannon be destroyed. The player's cannon could be destroyed three times (the player had three "lives"), and the game would end after the player's last life was lost. Occasionally a "bonus" spaceship would fly across the top of the screen which the player could shoot for extra points.

Video games had existed prior to Space Invaders, and the game Pong by Atari was already a few years old when this game was released. But Space Invaders captured the attention and imagination of the public in a manner paralleled by few games before or since. Its science fiction based action and futuristic setting appealed to a country in the midst of Star Wars mania. The game's design included a touch of horror, as it gave players the illusion that they were in a desperate battle to save the world from alien invaders... a battle that they would eventually lose, as endless waves of electronic aliens would sweep down until they were overwhelmed. The simple background soundtrack to the game, which gave the impression of a beating heart, increased the tension and kept players coming back for more.

Implementation

One key feature of Space Invaders was the fact that as more and more of the aliens were shot, the remaining aliens would move faster and faster. The change in speed was minor at the beginning of a wave, but dramatic near the end. After a wave was completely eliminated, the next wave would begin (slightly lower on the screen) with the original, slow, speed. This was not due to any fancy programming in the original version of the game. It was due instead to the fact that the processor ¹ was able to update the screen more frequently as the number of aliens decreased. More frequent screen updates meant the aliens (and soundtrack) moved faster.

The actual output of the game was displayed mirror-image on a black and white monitor which sat recessed in the game's cabinet. The image was projected (automatically) to a plastic panel which the player saw. Behind the reflective panel was a lunar landscape which gave the game an impressive background setting. Since the actual video game console itself had a monochrome video image, Taito added color by coating the reflective screen with colored bands.

Legacy

The enormous blockbuster success of Space Invaders made the entertainment industry sit up and take notice. Within the first year of its release, the game had generated revenue ranging in the hundreds of millions of dollars—with the majority coming from teenagers and school children, who pumped millions of quarters into the game at a frenzied pace. Video game mania among the youths of America was so pervasive that for a time, some children and teenagers were panhandling and begging strangers for quarters so that they could continue playing the game. This phenomenon led to the first outcries against video games by groups of concerned adults, who felt that the violent content of video games was a corrupting influence on children.

The home version of Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 was a huge success. Not only did it capture the look and feel of the original arcade version, but it also offered 110 different versions of the game! Variations included invisible invaders, invisible missiles and other subtle alterations. It was the first video arcade adaptation for the Atari 2600 system. The console had been released in 1977, but sales of the 2600 skyrocketed during the 1980 holiday shopping season, as millions of families bought the Atari system just so that they could play Space Invaders. This marked the beginning of home video adaptations of popular arcade games (some of which were less than successful).

Space Invaders spawned an enormous number of imitators, as other video game manufacturers sought to cash in on its successful formula. Dozens of similarly-themed video games were released to arcades in a short period of time afterwards, though nearly all of these games were variations of the same theme: attacking aliens from outer space.

The release of Pac-Man in 1980 broke the mold of "alien invader" games, and it opened the way for more creativity and originality in the video gaming industry. But the legacy of Space Invaders lives on, and action-based science fiction games continue to pay homage to the original shoot-em-up video game.

Notes

¹ Intel 8080

External Links

• The Killer List of Video Games' entry on Space Invaders
• A modern DOS clone (in German)
• A nice flash version of Space Invaders