Space Invaders

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Space Invaders
Space invaders logo.svg
Studio Taito
Publisher Midway Games
Senior Developer Tomohiro Nishikado
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 July 1978
genre Fixed shooter
Game mode Single player
control 2-way joystick ; 1 button
casing Standard, mini and cocktail
Arcade system CPU : Intel 8080 (@ 2 MHz)
Sound CPU: -
Sound chips: SN76477 , samples
monitor Raster resolution 224 × 240 (3: 4 vertical) Color palette: 2 (+ overlay film)
information Known to many as the original shoot 'em up video game
"Galaxian" -Alien, from the street project Space Invaders (Paris)
Space Invaders (right), here with color overlay

Space Invaders is a shoot-'em-up - computer game , designed and programmed by Tomohiro Nishikado and distributed by Taito , which appeared in the 1978th Along with Pac-Man , Space Invaders was one of the games that shaped the early development of video games.

Gameplay

The player controls a cannon that he can move left and right at the bottom of the screen. Each level begins with several rows of regularly arranged aliens who are constantly moving horizontally and gradually downwards and attack the player with projectiles. The player himself has an unlimited supply of ammunition, but can only fire a new bullet when the previous one has disappeared from the screen. If one of the aliens manages to reach the bottom of the screen and land next to the cannon, the player will lose one of their lives.

"Blocks" are available to the player as cover, behind which he can hide until the block is shot by the aliens or by himself. Occasionally a bonus spaceship will appear. If the player hits it, he gets extra points.

history

Video games existed before Space Invaders . In fact, the game existed Pong by Atari for several years, but Space Invaders drew the audience's attention on what it had done no game before - exactly at that time were many people in Star Wars fever and the Spaceship and Aliens theme excited. After its appearance in 1978, Space Invaders became so popular in Japanese gambling halls that after a short time 100 yen coins became scarce across the country.

Space Invaders was one of the first colored arcade games; these were created by overlay foils. In addition, a continuous and adaptive soundtrack was used in this game for the first time: Four constantly repeating bass notes are repeated the faster the further the game progresses or the aliens get closer to the player.

The 1979 version of the game on the Atari 2600 game console, which had been running rather slowly until then , brought about the breakthrough for video games in the home market. Many families bought an Atari video game just to play Space Invaders . The game was accompanied by a single with a pop song of the same name.

Space Invaders was part of the second tier of computer games that the Museum of Modern Art added to its permanent exhibition on June 28, 2013.

Sequel and similar games

After some modifications and clones , the Taito Corporation later released the successor for arcade systems:

Arcade games with the same or similar principle occupied an important position in the game market for several years. B. also the Galaga series from Namco with:

The latest Space Invaders or Galaga clone for arcade systems is currently Space Bomber (1998) by Psikyo .

2003 was Space Invaders' 25th birthday . For this purpose, a special version called Space Invaders Anniversary Edition was launched. The gameplay remained the same, but some extras were added.

In 2005 both the classic Space Invaders and the Space Invaders Anniversary Edition appeared for various mobile phone models.

In 2008 Taito released “Space Invaders Extreme” for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable from Sony on the occasion of the 30th anniversary . The game principle and graphics of the spaceships or aliens were basically retained, but there was also a contemporary soundtrack and psychedelic background animations. In 2009 Taito released versions for iPhone or iPod Touch and for the Xbox 360 ( Xbox Live Arcade ).

implementation

Space Invaders (cocktail table)
Space Invaders at Video Games Live (Toronto)

One of the main elements of Space Invaders is that the aliens move faster with each attacker the player destroys. This ingenious construction of the programmer took advantage of the fact that the processor could move each alien the faster the smaller the total number of attacking aliens became.

The actual image of the original Space Invaders slot machine was black and white and mirrored. It was projected onto a surface behind which there was a painted lunar landscape, which gave the game an impressive background for that time. In addition, the projection surface was provided with colored stripes, which gave the attacking alien spaceships a different color depending on their position on the screen. There are several versions of the game, partly completely black and white, partly with overlay, partly with white opponents or completely colored.

Trivia

  • If you held the reset button on the Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders while starting the game, you could fire two shots instead of just one until they disappeared from the screen. This phenomenon is known in the American-speaking world as "Double fire" and "Double shoot".
  • As with many games that appeared in the early days of the Atari 2600, the Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders is also available in two versions, which only differ in terms of the game module : the original version has a black sticker with all the relevant information are written in purple about the game, while the newer version has an artwork printed on the sticker.

See also

Web links

Commons : Space Invaders  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/topicalbumbackground/2376/angriff_der_aliens.html
  2. ↑ Paul Galloway: Video Games: Seven More Building Blocks in MoMA's Collection ( English ) In: Inside / Out. A MoMA / MoMA PS1 Blog . Museum of Modern Art . June 28, 2013. Retrieved June 29, 2013.
  3. ^ A b Space Invaders: Anniversary (2003). Retrieved March 6, 2020 .
  4. ^ Space Invaders: Extreme - Test, Arcade Action. Retrieved March 6, 2020 .
  5. ↑ http://marketplace.xbox.com/de-DE/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410996/
  6. ↑ Atari 2600 Space Invaders Double Fire Trick. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .