One of the most iconic video games in history, Space Invaders launched in 1978 and helped put gaming on the cultural map.
Created by Japanese game developer Taito, led by designer Tomohiro Nishikado, it was the first fixed shooter game. That made it enormously influential and spawned 1,000 imitations, which we're ignoring to celebrate this glorious trend setter instead.
Revolutionary Alien Destruction in the Ever-Addictive Space Invaders
Above is the official UK import of the Space Invaders arcade unit from 1978. As you can see, a machine like this is enticing for any nerd—serious sci-fi stuffs, bleeps and bloops, and alien beings.
Space Invaders first launched in Japan back in April 1978. Afters it success, Taito decided to try it out in North America in time for a November 1978 run as an Atari 2600 port.
The arcade units didn't reach western shores until March 1980 (North America). Europe didn't get to try the game out until 1981, which coincided with the release of Nintendo's Donkey Kong (another landmark moment in video game history).
Despite the primitive graphics, the background overlay of some sci-fi artwork makes the whole thing appear more visually appealing. Like you're actually in space battling aliens!
Back in 1978, gamers around the world descended upon arcade emporiums and were faced down by daunting SOBs like this thing right here.
The arcade units were big! Mammoth things with eye-catching artwork all over them to catch the attention of people wandering around looking for something to play.
With its simple yet brilliant title and concept, Space Invaders just stood out.
As the player, you take control of a laser cannon at the bottom of the screen. Rows of alien spaceships descend from the top. You have four destructible barriers protecting you from their laser shots (as the player, you could even fire through these to blast the aliens... brilliant!).
Your goal? Wipe out those invading SOBS! Mwahahaha!
Space Invaders was enormously influential. It inspired the likes of Communist Mutants From Space (1982) amongst myriad others.
After its success in the arcades the game was ported over to the likes of the Atari 2600, MSC, watches, calculators, NES, SG-1000, WonderSwan, and VG Pocket. These days you can play it on your smartphone easily enough.
Space Invader's creator, Tomohiro Nishikado, was inspired by Atari's 1976 arcade hit Breakout. This thing below.
Nishikado spent 12 months designing Space Invaders and ensuring Taito's hardware could run the thing.
It was revolutionary in more ways than one, not least with computer AI that would react to the player's movements. This made the experience more challenging than other games before it.
Plus, a game over screen was only triggered by the aliens obliterating the player. In other arcade games there was a timer, which placed a more restrictive limit on the gameplay, and when it ran out that was it. No matter how well you were doing.
Space Invaders banished such nonsense!
Its iconic music (and sound effects) were also landmark stuff. There's an audiobook buy Andrew Schartmann called Maestro Mario: How Nintendo Transformed Videogame Music into an Art (2013) about this.
In it, he explains the impact of Space Invaders on game music:
"At the deepest of conceptual levels, one would be hard-pressed to find an arcade game as influential to the early history of video game music as Space Invaders. Its role as a harbinger of the fundamental techniques that would come to shape the industry remains more or less unchallenged. And its blockbuster success ensured the adoption of those innovations by the industry at large."
One of its key innovations was to provide continuous music. At the time, that was a novelty as most arcade games just had intro music on the menu screen.
Then there's just the addictive quality of the game. Gamers enjoyed the battle to gain high scores and addictive push to just wipe out all those pesky aliens. It required quick thinking, forward planning, and strategic thought.
Despite that, when Space Invaders launched in 1978 its critical response was actually on the muted side of things.
However, by the end of the year Taito had 100,000 units installed across Japan and was making today's equivalent of $3 billion out of the game. By summer the following year it had produced 300,000 units in Japan alone and each machine was raking in today's equivalent of $185 a day.
Demand was so high Taito handed distribution rights to Midway for the North American and European releases.
Back in Japan, there were reportedly eight million people every day playing Space Invaders. It was a genuine phenomenon, arguably the first of its kind.
For many people, including industry legends such as Shigeru Miyamoto, it was this arcade unit that introduced them to video games.
You simply can't deny the impact this game had on the industry.
Others went and took gaming to even greater heights, but Taito's breakthrough with this title stands as a remarkable legacy. The industry has gone from strength to strength since 1978 and is in its strongest state as of 2023.
Space Invaders blasted away many barriers to help achieve global success.
Space Invaders Part II and a World of Other Sequels
As you might expect, Taito commissioned sequels. The first arrived in 1979 (wasting no time there, eh?) in the form of Space Invaders Part II.
That one even featured short cut scenes to make the game more cinematic. Plus, the graphics were more colourful for the second outing.
Reviews weren't good, though, and many just saw it as a cash grab. There are very few changes over the original game and it was more like an upgrade with marginally improved graphics.
All the same, many sequels have followed. Although none ever replicated the extraordinary success of the first outing. We had the likes of:
- Return of the Invaders (1984)
- Majestic Twelve: The Space Invaders Part IV (1990 and one of four new Space Invaders games that year)
- Space Invaders '95: The Attack of the Lunar Loonies (1995)
- Space Raiders (2002)
- Space Invaders Infinity Gene (2009)
- This one led to a serious lull in activity to the series, broken only by...
- Space Invaders Frenzy (2017)
The most recent title was Space Invaders: World Defense (2023). It's powered along by Google's virtual reality hardware, but was developed by Taito for Android and Apple smartphones.
Basically, it's the original game overlayed on wherever you are in the world. You can stand out in the street to play and it's just as if aliens are, indeed, invading.
The game hasn't met with the best reviews, but full marks to Taito for trying something a bit different with its landmark original.
As for the future... who knows!? We can see this title being adapted into ever-increasingly unusual scenarios, simply as it's such an iconic name in the video game industry.
Even people who've never played the game, and never will, know what this is. A fitting testament to one title and its addictive qualities.
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