Galaxian (0)

Overview

Galaxian (ギャラクシアン) is an game that was developed by and released in October 1979. It was published by Namco in and imported to by that December. A shooter game in which the player controls a at the bottom of the screen, and shoots enemies descending in various directions, it was designed to compete with 's successful earlier game (which was released in the previous year, and also imported to the US by Midway).

The game was a big hit for Namco upon its release, and has been a focus of competitive gaming ever since.

It was ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, ColecoVision, Bally Astrocade, Nintendo Famicom, and home computers.

It spawned a successful sequel, , in 1981, and the lesser known and in 1984 and 1987 respectively, as well as many later ports and adaptations. Along with its immediate sequel, it was one of the most popular games during the .

Description

Galaxian expanded on the formula pioneered by . As in the earlier game, Galaxian features a horde of attacking aliens that exchanged shots with the player. In contrast to Space Invaders, Galaxianadded an element of drama by having the aliens periodically make -like dives at the player's , the Galaxip. This made it the first game to feature enemies with individual personalities. The game's plot consists of a title screen that displayed the message "WE ARE THE GALAXIANS / MISSION: DESTROY ALIENS".

Galaxian was very successful for Namco and introduced several "firsts". Although not the first color video game, Galaxian took graphics a step further with multi-colored animated sprites and explosions, different colored fonts for the score and high score, the starfield, and graphic icons that show the number of lives left and how many stages the player had completed. It also features a crude theme song and more prominent background music/sound effects. These elements combine to create a look and feel that would set the standard for arcade games in the 1980s such as .

Gameplay

The objective is destroy endless 'waves' of enemies. The enemy ships are arranged in a formation at the top of the screen. At regular intervals enemy ships on the sides of the formation swoop down and shoot at the player. There are 4 different types of enemy ship, each type behaves differently on its attacking run.

The player must destroy all ships in a wave to complete it. With a minor exception that one yellow ship may disappear after a bombing run and will appear as an extra yellow ship in the following wave. The yellow ships attack in a formation with two red ships, the order these three are destroyed determines the points awarded for destroying the yellow. The maximum is 800 points if the two reds are destroyed first. Once a wave has been completed a red flag is added to the bottom of the screen. When 10 flags are accumulated they are replaced by a larger flag.

The player has 3 lives at the beginning of the game. A bonus life is awarded when the player reaches a score of 7000 points. Once all lives have been lost the game ends. The player can only have one shot on screen at one time. This means if the player misses he must wait until the shot leaves the top of the screen to fire again. This makes accuracy very important.

High Score

The current world record score for Galaxian is 1,653,270 points.

Development and Release

The game was developed by in 1979, and released in that year. It was designed to build and improve upon the formula of 's game , which revolutionized the gaming industry upon its release a year earlier. Galaxian incorporated new technology into its dedicated arcade system board, the Namco Galaxian. Unlike Space Invaders, which was black & white and featured enemies that could only move vertically and horizontally as they descended, Galaxian had a color screen and enemies that descended in patterns and came from various directions. The result was more complex and difficult game play.

In 1980, Namco partnered with the company to release the game in . Midway had previously published Space Invaders in the market, but had to seek new foreign partners when Taito decided to market their games themselves.

Reception of Ports

Home Computing Weekly in 1983 gave the version of Galaxian 3/5 stars describing it as a well-written version and praising the graphics as fast although flickery. in 1983 criticized the version of the game for being shipped on cartridge, which raised its cost, and stated that "this game becomes tedious very quickly". in 1995 scored the version of the game a 24 out of 40.

Legacy

Galaxian has spawned several follow-up games. The most popular of these was its immediate successor, , which largely eclipsed its predecessor in popularity, introducing aliens attacking in intricate formations, multiple shots, and bonus stages. A third official sequel, Gaplus, was released in 1984. As with Galaga, this was a fixed shooter, with limited vertical movement. However, by 1984, the novelty of the Space Invaders formula had faded, and it was no longer successful. A fourth sequel, , was released in 1987, and imported to North America by . Namco then released in 1990. A final sequel, Galaga Arrangement, was released as part of the , in 1995.

Ports

The original arcade version of Galaxian has been to many different systems. These include:

• (Galactic Invasion)
• VFD table top
• (bundled with its direct successor, )
• (Europe and Japan only)
• (Japan only)
• (Japan only)

also released stand-alone Mini-Arcade tabeletop versions of Galaxian, which, along with , , and , sold three million units combined. A port for the was planned, but never released.

Moon Alien Part 2

released a modified version of this game for the arcades as Moon Alien Part 2. Besides the graphics, the only main difference between this and Galaxian is the inclusion of an energy meter that drains with every second the player spends clearing a wave. If the player doesn't clear the wave before running out of energy, the ship is destroyed.

Arcade sequels

Main:

• (1981)
• Gaplus (1984)
• (1987)
• Galaga Arrangement (1995) - released as part of

Galaxian was one of the most widely pirated motherboards during the early '80s. Numerous hacks were made of the game and featured slightly redesigned enemy characters and special bonus stages. The scrolling starfield and death explosion were still familiar as those from Galaxian, however. These hacks include: Galaxian Part 4, Galaxian Part X, Galaxian Turbo, and Super Galaxians.

3D sequels

• (1990) - Galaxian³: Project Dragoon (Theatre 6) for six players on two 110-inch RGB projectors - 18-foot-wide (5.5 m) screen
• (1994) - a ROM and laserdisc upgrade for