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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.
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