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is a 1978 shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Taito for Arcade video game, arcades. It was released in Japan in April 1978, and released overseas by Midway Manufacturing later that year. ''Space Invaders'' was the first video game with endless gameplay and the first fixed shooter, setting the template for the genre. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser cannon to earn as many points as possible.
Designer Tomohiro Nishikado drew inspiration from video games such as ''Gun Fight'' and ''Breakout (video game), Breakout'', Electro-mechanical game, electro-mechanical target shooting games, and science fiction narratives such as the novel ''The War of the Worlds'', the anime ''Space Battleship Yamato'', and the film ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars''. To complete development, he had to design custom hardware and development tools. Upon release, ''Space Invaders'' was an immediate commercial success; by 1982, it had Gross revenue, grossed ($ billion in -adjusted terms), with a net profit of ($ billion in terms). This made it the best-selling video game and List of highest-grossing arcade games, highest-grossing entertainment product at the time, and the highest-grossing video game of all time.
''Space Invaders'' is considered one of the most influential and List of video games considered the best, greatest video games of all time, having ushered in the golden age of arcade video games. In addition to inspiring several prolific game designers to join the industry, it influenced numerous video games across different genres and has been Porting of video games, ported and re-released in various forms. The 1980 Space Invaders (Atari 2600 video game), Atari 2600 version quadrupled sales of the Atari 2600 console, becoming the first killer app for video game consoles. More broadly, the Pixelation, pixelated enemy alien has become a pop culture icon, often representing video games as a whole.
''Space Invaders'' was developed by Japanese designer Tomohiro Nishikado, who spent a year designing it and developing the necessary Computer hardware, hardware to produce it. The game was a response to Atari, Inc.'s 1976 arcade game ''Breakout (video game), Breakout''. Nishikado wanted to adapt the same sense of achievement and tension from destroying targets one at a time, combining it with elements of target shooting games. The game uses a similar layout to that of ''Breakout'' but with different game mechanics; rather than bounce a ball to attack static objects, players are given the ability to fire projectiles at moving enemies.
Nishikado added several interactive elements that he found lacking in earlier video games, such as the ability for enemies to react to the player's movement and fire back, and a game over triggered by the enemies killing the player character (either by getting shot or enemies reaching the bottom of the screen) rather than simply a timer running out. He replaced the timer, typical of arcade games at the time, with descending aliens who effectively served a similar function, where the closer they came, the less time remained for the player.
Early enemy designs included tanks, combat planes, and battleships. However, Nishikado was not satisfied with the enemy movements; technical limitations made it difficult to animate flying. The designer believed animating human characters would have been easier to program, but he considered shooting them immoral. Nishikado also said that shooting people was frowned upon. After seeing the release of the 1974 anime ''Space Battleship Yamato'' in Japan, and seeing a magazine feature about the 1977 ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars'', he thought of using a space theme. Nishikado drew inspiration for the aliens from a novel by H. G. Wells, ''The War of the Worlds'', and created initial bitmap images after the octopus-like aliens. Other alien designs were modeled after squids and crabs. The game was originally titled ''Space Monsters'' after a popular song in Japan at the time, "Monster", but was changed to ''Space Invaders'' by the designer's superiors.
Nishikado designed his own custom hardware and development tools for ''Space Invaders''. The game uses an Intel 8080 central processing unit (CPU) and displays raster graphics on a CRT monitor using a bitmapped framebuffer. The game outputs monaural sound hosted by a combination of analog circuitry and a Texas Instruments SN76477 sound chip. The adoption of a microprocessor was inspired by the 1975 arcade game ''Gun Fight'', Midway Games, Midway's microprocessor adaptation of Nishikado's earlier discrete logic game ''Western Gun'', after the designer was impressed by the improved graphics and smoother animation of Midway's version.
Despite the specially developed hardware, Nishikado was unable to program the game as he wanted—the Control Program board was not powerful enough to display the graphics in color or move the enemies faster—and considered the development of the hardware the most difficult part of the process. While programming, Nishikado discovered that the processor was able to Rendering (computer graphics), render each frame of the alien's animation graphics faster when there were fewer aliens on the screen. Since the alien's positions updated after each frame, this caused the aliens to move across the screen at an increasing speed as more were destroyed; the accompanying audio sped up as well. Rather than design a compensation for the speed increase, he decided to keep this undocumented feature as a challenging gameplay mechanism.
The cabinet artwork features large humanoid monsters absent from the game, which Nishikado attributed to the artist basing the designs on the original "''Space Monsters''" title rather than referring to the in-game graphics. In the upright cabinets, the graphics are generated on a hidden CRT monitor and reflected toward the player using a semi-transparent mirror, behind which is mounted a plastic cutout of a Natural satellite, moon bolted against a painted starry background. The backdrop is visible through the mirror and thus appears "behind" the graphics. Both Taito's and Midway's first ''Space Invaders'' releases have black-and-white graphics with strips of transparent orange and green cellophane over certain portions of the screen to add color to the image. Later Japanese releases feature a rainbow-colored cellophane overlay, and these were eventually followed by versions with a color monitor and an electronically generated color overlay.
More than a hundred ''Space Invaders'' video game clones were released for various platforms, such as ''Super Invader'' (1979) and ''TI Invaders'' (1981); the latter was the List of best-selling PC games, top-selling game for the TI-99/4A through at least 1982. Prior to its industry dominance, Nintendo's foray into arcade games consisted of clones of existing popular games, including the ''Space Invader'' clone ''Space Fever''. The influx of clones led to the term "Invader game" to identify the generic classification of games. Unofficial copies dominated the video game market in South Korea. The market demand for hardware to create the machines helped spur the early growth of Semiconductor industry in South Korea, Korea's semiconductor industry.
''The Times'', September 20, 2007 1UP ranked it at No. 3 on its list of "The 60 Most Influential Games of All Time", stating that, in contrast to earlier arcade games which "were attempts to Simulation video game, simulate already-existing things," ''Space Invaders'' was "the first video game as a video game, instead of merely a playable electronic representation of something else." ''Guinness World Records'' considered ''Space Invaders'' one of the most successful arcade shooting games by 2008. In describing it as a "seminal arcade classic", IGN listed it as the number eight "classic shoot 'em up". In 2008, ''Guinness World Records'' listed it as the top-rated arcade game in terms of technical, creative, and cultural impact. ''Entertainment Weekly'' named ''Space Invaders'' one of the top ten games for the Atari 2600 home console in 2013. In 2018, it was ranked 87th in Video Game Canon's statistical meta-analysis of 48 "top games" lists published between 1995 and 2017. In 2021, ''The Guardian'' listed it as the third-greatest 1970s in video games, video game of the 1970s, just below ''Galaxian'' and ''Asteroids''. ''Space Invaders'' was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2016.
Taito has released several arcade Video game sequel, sequels. The first was ''Space Invaders Part II'' in 1979; it featured color graphics, an attract mode, new gameplay elements, and added an Cut scene, intermission between gameplay. According to the ''Killer List of Videogames'', this was the first video game to include an intermission.Space Invaders Deluxe
, klov.com. Accessed on line March 28, 2011. The game also allowed the player with the top score to sign their name, which would appear at the top of the screen for as long as the game was powered on. This version was released in the United States as ''Deluxe Space Invaders'' (also known as ''Space Invaders Deluxe''), but it featured a different graphical color scheme and a lunar-city background. Another arcade sequel, ''Space Invaders II'', was released exclusively in the United States. It was in a Cocktail arcade cabinet, cocktail-table format with very fast alien firing and a competitive Two-player game, two-player mode. During the summer of 1985, ''Return of the Invaders'' was released with updated color graphics and more complex movements and attack patterns for the aliens. Subsequent arcade sequels included ''Super Space Invaders '91'', ''Space Invaders DX'', and ''Space Invaders '95, Space Invaders 95''. Each game introduced minor gameplay additions to the original design. Like the original game, several of the arcade sequels have become collector's items, though some are considered rarer. In 2002, Taito released ''Space Raiders (video game), Space Raiders'', a third-person shooter reminiscent of ''Space Invaders''. ''Space Invaders'' and its related games have been included in video game compilations. ''Space Invaders Anniversary'' was released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2 and included nine ''Space Invader'' variants. A similar game for the PlayStation Portable, ''Space Invaders Pocket'', was released in 2005. ''Space Invaders'', ''Space Invaders Part II'' and ''Return of the Invaders'' are included in ''Taito Legends'', a compilation of Taito's classic arcade games released in 2005 on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC. ''Super Space Invaders '91'', ''Space Invaders DX'', and ''Space Invaders 95'' were included in ''Taito Legends 2'', a sequel compilation released in 2006.
The game became the center of an urban legend that its popularity led to a shortage of 100 yen coin, 100-yen coins in Japan. However, reports from those living in Japan at the time indicate "nothing out of the ordinary" around ''Space Invaders'' release. Nishikado had also expressed skepticism. Numismatist Mark Fox noted that arcade operators would have regularly emptied their machines, keeping the currency in circulation. He attributed the myth to lower 100-yen coin productions in 1978 and 1979.
Within a year of its release, the Japanese Parent-Teacher Association, PTA unsuccessfully attempted to ban ''Space Invaders'' for allegedly inspiring truancy. In North America, doctors identified a condition called "''Space Invaders'' elbow" as a complaint, while a physician in ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' named a similar ailment the "''Space Invaders'' Wrist". ''Space Invaders'' was also the first game to attract Video game controversy, political controversy when a 1981 Private Member's Bill known as the "Control of Space Invaders (and other Electronic Games) Bill", drafted by British Labour Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock, George Foulkes, attempted to allow City council, local councils to restrict the game and those like it by licensing for its "Video game addiction, addictive properties" and for causing "deviancy". Conservative Party (UK), Conservative MP Michael Brown (British politician), Michael Brown defended it as "innocent and harmless pleasure", which he himself had enjoyed that day, and criticized the bill as an example of "Socialist beliefs in restriction and control". A motion to bring the bill before Parliament was defeated by 114 votes to 94 votes; the bill itself was never considered by Parliament. Similarly in the United States, in Westchester County, New York, there was a controversial political debate in 1981 over a resolution to place age restrictions on ''Space Invaders'' and other arcade games, following complaints that schoolchildren wasted time and lunch money, and went to school late; the resolution drew national attention.
In 2006, ''Space Invaders'' was one of several video game-related media selected to represent Japan as part of a project compiled by Culture of Japan, Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. That same year, ''Space Invaders'' was included in the London Science Museum (London), Science Museum's Game On exhibition, meant to showcase the various aspects of video game history, Video game development, development, and Video game culture, culture. ''Space Invaders'' is a part of the Barbican Centre's traveling Game On exhibition. At the Belluard Bollwerk International 2006 festival in Fribourg, Switzerland, Guillaume Reymond created a three-minute video recreation of a game of ''Space Invaders'' as part of the "Gameover" project using humans as pixels. The GH ART exhibit at the 2008 Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, included an art game, ''Invaders!'', based on ''Space Invaders''s gameplay. The creator later asked for it to be removed from the exhibit following criticism of elements based on the September 11 attacks in the United States. A bridge in Cáceres, Spain, projected by engineers Pedro Plasencia and Hadrián Arias, features a pavement design based on ''Space Invaders.'' The laser cannon, some shots, and several figures can be seen on the deck. A French street artist, Invader (artist), Invader, made a name for himself by creating Mosaic, mosaic artwork of ''Space Invader'' aliens around the world. Locations include the International Space Station and European Space Agency installations.
Brazilian zoologists, Adriano Kury and Carla Barros, named a new species of arachnid ''Taito spaceinvaders'' in 2014. Inspired the by resemblance of the species' fleck on its dorsal Scute, scutum to a ''Space Invaders'' alien, the zoologists named the arachnid after the game and the genus, ''Taito (genus), Taito'', after the developer.
In 2018, Highways England launched a Political campaign, campaign titled "Don't be a Space Invader, Stay Safe, Stay Back" to raise awareness on the dangers of tailgating. People were also able to order free car bumper stickers to raise awareness of the campaign.
Game manual
for arcade game, stored at the Internet Archive
Game manual
for Atari 2600 game, stored at the Internet Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Space Invaders Space Invaders, 1978 video games Video games about alien invasions Arcade video games Atari 5200 games Atari 8-bit computer games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Cancelled Atari Jaguar games Fixed shooters Game Boy Advance games Game Boy Color games Game Boy games IOS games Midway video games MSX games Multiplayer and single-player video games NEC PC-9801 games NESiCAxLive games Nintendo games Nuon games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation Network games PlayStation Portable games SG-1000 games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Taito arcade games Tiger Electronics handheld games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games Windows games WonderSwan games World Video Game Hall of Fame
Gameplay
''Space Invaders'' is a fixed shooter in which the player moves a laser cannon horizontally across the bottom of the screen and fires at a group of aliens overhead. The aliens begin as five rows of eleven—the amount differs in some versions—that move left and right as a group, advancing on the shooter by shifting downward each time they reach a screen edge. The goal is to eliminate all the aliens by shooting them. Regardless of how many Life (video games), game lives remaining the player has, the Game over, game ends if the invaders reach the bottom of the screen. The aliens attempt to destroy the player's cannon by firing projectiles. The laser cannon is partially protected by stationary defense bunkers that are gradually destroyed from the top by the aliens; the bottom will be destroyed if the player fires when beneath one. As aliens are defeated, their movement, as well as the accompanying music, speeds up. Defeating all the aliens brings another wave which starts lower, a loop that can continue endlessly. A special "mystery ship" will occasionally move across the top of the screen and award bonus points if destroyed.Development
''Space Invaders'' was developed by Japanese designer Tomohiro Nishikado, who spent a year designing it and developing the necessary Computer hardware, hardware to produce it. The game was a response to Atari, Inc.'s 1976 arcade game ''Breakout (video game), Breakout''. Nishikado wanted to adapt the same sense of achievement and tension from destroying targets one at a time, combining it with elements of target shooting games. The game uses a similar layout to that of ''Breakout'' but with different game mechanics; rather than bounce a ball to attack static objects, players are given the ability to fire projectiles at moving enemies.
Nishikado added several interactive elements that he found lacking in earlier video games, such as the ability for enemies to react to the player's movement and fire back, and a game over triggered by the enemies killing the player character (either by getting shot or enemies reaching the bottom of the screen) rather than simply a timer running out. He replaced the timer, typical of arcade games at the time, with descending aliens who effectively served a similar function, where the closer they came, the less time remained for the player.
Early enemy designs included tanks, combat planes, and battleships. However, Nishikado was not satisfied with the enemy movements; technical limitations made it difficult to animate flying. The designer believed animating human characters would have been easier to program, but he considered shooting them immoral. Nishikado also said that shooting people was frowned upon. After seeing the release of the 1974 anime ''Space Battleship Yamato'' in Japan, and seeing a magazine feature about the 1977 ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars'', he thought of using a space theme. Nishikado drew inspiration for the aliens from a novel by H. G. Wells, ''The War of the Worlds'', and created initial bitmap images after the octopus-like aliens. Other alien designs were modeled after squids and crabs. The game was originally titled ''Space Monsters'' after a popular song in Japan at the time, "Monster", but was changed to ''Space Invaders'' by the designer's superiors.
Hardware
Nishikado designed his own custom hardware and development tools for ''Space Invaders''. The game uses an Intel 8080 central processing unit (CPU) and displays raster graphics on a CRT monitor using a bitmapped framebuffer. The game outputs monaural sound hosted by a combination of analog circuitry and a Texas Instruments SN76477 sound chip. The adoption of a microprocessor was inspired by the 1975 arcade game ''Gun Fight'', Midway Games, Midway's microprocessor adaptation of Nishikado's earlier discrete logic game ''Western Gun'', after the designer was impressed by the improved graphics and smoother animation of Midway's version.
Despite the specially developed hardware, Nishikado was unable to program the game as he wanted—the Control Program board was not powerful enough to display the graphics in color or move the enemies faster—and considered the development of the hardware the most difficult part of the process. While programming, Nishikado discovered that the processor was able to Rendering (computer graphics), render each frame of the alien's animation graphics faster when there were fewer aliens on the screen. Since the alien's positions updated after each frame, this caused the aliens to move across the screen at an increasing speed as more were destroyed; the accompanying audio sped up as well. Rather than design a compensation for the speed increase, he decided to keep this undocumented feature as a challenging gameplay mechanism.
The cabinet artwork features large humanoid monsters absent from the game, which Nishikado attributed to the artist basing the designs on the original "''Space Monsters''" title rather than referring to the in-game graphics. In the upright cabinets, the graphics are generated on a hidden CRT monitor and reflected toward the player using a semi-transparent mirror, behind which is mounted a plastic cutout of a Natural satellite, moon bolted against a painted starry background. The backdrop is visible through the mirror and thus appears "behind" the graphics. Both Taito's and Midway's first ''Space Invaders'' releases have black-and-white graphics with strips of transparent orange and green cellophane over certain portions of the screen to add color to the image. Later Japanese releases feature a rainbow-colored cellophane overlay, and these were eventually followed by versions with a color monitor and an electronically generated color overlay.
Release
Taito released ''Space Invaders'' in July 1978. The company released both an Arcade cabinet#Upright cabinets, upright arcade cabinet and a Arcade cabinet#Cocktail cabinets, cocktail-table cabinet; Taito named the cocktail version ''T.T. Space Invaders'' in Japan to indicate it was a "table-top" version. Midway released its upright version a few months later and its cocktail version several months after that. ''Space Invaders'' cabinets have since become collector's items, with the Cocktail arcade cabinet, cocktail and Arcade cabinet#Mini or cabaret cabinets, cabaret versions the rarest. The Space Invaders (Atari 2600 video game), 1980 port to the Atari 2600 was the first official licensing of an arcade game for consoles and became the first killer app for home video game consoles after quadrupling the system's sales. After selling over units in its first year, the ''Space Invaders'' port sold over copies by the end of 1981, becoming the List of best-selling Atari 2600 video games, best-selling Atari 2600 game until the 1982 Pac-Man (Atari 2600 video game), Atari version of ''Pac-Man'' released. By 1983, the Atari 2600 version had sold almost cartridges. Other official Video game conversion, conversions were released for the Atari 8-bit computers and Atari 5200 console, while Taito later released it for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Famicom in 1985 exclusively in Japan. By 1982, versions of ''Space Invaders'' were available for handheld electronic game devices, tabletop dedicated consoles, home computers, watches and pocket calculators.
More than a hundred ''Space Invaders'' video game clones were released for various platforms, such as ''Super Invader'' (1979) and ''TI Invaders'' (1981); the latter was the List of best-selling PC games, top-selling game for the TI-99/4A through at least 1982. Prior to its industry dominance, Nintendo's foray into arcade games consisted of clones of existing popular games, including the ''Space Invader'' clone ''Space Fever''. The influx of clones led to the term "Invader game" to identify the generic classification of games. Unofficial copies dominated the video game market in South Korea. The market demand for hardware to create the machines helped spur the early growth of Semiconductor industry in South Korea, Korea's semiconductor industry.
Reception
''Space Invaders'' initially received mixed responses from within Taito and amusement arcade owners. Nishikado's colleagues praised it, applauding his achievement while queuing up to play, whereas his bosses predicted low sales as games often ended more quickly than other timer-based arcade games at the time. A number of amusement arcade owners initially rejected it, but some pachinko parlors and bowling alleys adopted it; it quickly caught on, with many parlors and alleys clearing space for more ''Space Invaders'' cabinets. In the first few months following its release in Japan, ''Space Invaders'' became popular to the point that specialty video arcades, referred to as "''Space Invaders'' Parlours" and "''Space Invaders'' Houses", opened with nothing but ''Space Invaders'' cabinets. A year after its release, ''Space Invaders'' had become the arcade game industry's all-time best-seller. By the end of 1978, Taito had installed over 100,000 machines and grossed ( adjusted for inflation) in Japan alone. By June 1979, Taito had manufactured about 200,000–300,000 ''Space Invaders'' machines in Japan, with each unit earning an average of or in 100 yen coins per day. However, this was not enough to meet the high demand, leading to Taito increasing production to 25,000–30,000 units per month and raising projections to 400,000 manufactured in Japan by the end of 1979. In order to cope with the demand, Taito licensed the overseas rights to Midway for distribution outside of Japan. By the end of 1979, an estimated 750,000 ''Space Invaders'' machines were installed worldwide, including 400,000 in Japan, 85,000 in the United Kingdom, and 60,000 within a year in the United States ''Space Invaders'' popularity propelled it to become the first game that recouped an arcade machine's owner in less than a month, with some places seeing profits within one week; prices ranged from $2,000 to $3,000 per machine. The game eventually sold 72,000 units in the United States by 1982. ''Space Invaders'' had about Active users, daily players in Japan, with daily revenue peaking at or . ''Space Invaders'' machines had grossed more than four billion US quarters ( at the time, or adjusted for inflation) by 1979. It remained the top arcade game for three years through 1980. In 1981, several years after its release, it still had weekly earnings of in the United States, second only to ''Pac-Man''. By 1982, it had crossed $2 billion in quarters (equivalent to $ adjusted for inflation), with a net profit of $450 million (equivalent to $ adjusted for inflation). This made it the best-selling video game and List of highest-grossing arcade games, highest-grossing "entertainment product" of its time, with comparisons made to the then highest-grossing film ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars'', which had grossed $486 million, with a net profit of $175 million. By 1982, it had Gross revenue, grossed , equivalent to over as of 2016. ''Space Invaders'' earned Taito profits of over . The Electronic_Games#Arcade_Awards, Arcade Awards ceremony was created that same year to honor the best video games, with ''Space Invaders'' winning the first Best Coin-Op Electronic Game award. Ports have received mixed reviews; the Atari 2600 version was successful, while the Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom version was poorly received.Retrospective
In 1995, Flux (magazine), ''Flux'' magazine staff ranked ''Space Invaders'' first on their "Top 100 Video Games". In 1996, Next Generation (magazine), ''Next Generation'' magazine put ''Space Invaders'' at number 97 on their list of the "Top 100 Games of All Time", saying that it "provides an elegance and simplicity not found in later games like ''Phoenix (1980 video game), Phoenix'' [1980]." IGN listed it as one of the "Top 10 Most Influential Games" in 2007, citing it as a source of inspiration to video game designers and the impact it had on the Shooter game, shooting genre. ''The Times'' ranked it No. 1 on its list of "The ten most influential video games ever" in 2007.The ten most influential video games ever''The Times'', September 20, 2007 1UP ranked it at No. 3 on its list of "The 60 Most Influential Games of All Time", stating that, in contrast to earlier arcade games which "were attempts to Simulation video game, simulate already-existing things," ''Space Invaders'' was "the first video game as a video game, instead of merely a playable electronic representation of something else." ''Guinness World Records'' considered ''Space Invaders'' one of the most successful arcade shooting games by 2008. In describing it as a "seminal arcade classic", IGN listed it as the number eight "classic shoot 'em up". In 2008, ''Guinness World Records'' listed it as the top-rated arcade game in terms of technical, creative, and cultural impact. ''Entertainment Weekly'' named ''Space Invaders'' one of the top ten games for the Atari 2600 home console in 2013. In 2018, it was ranked 87th in Video Game Canon's statistical meta-analysis of 48 "top games" lists published between 1995 and 2017. In 2021, ''The Guardian'' listed it as the third-greatest 1970s in video games, video game of the 1970s, just below ''Galaxian'' and ''Asteroids''. ''Space Invaders'' was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2016.
Legacy
Remakes and sequels
''Space Invaders'' has been remade on numerous platforms and spawned many sequels. Re-releases include ported and updated versions of the original arcade game. Ported versions generally feature different graphics and additional gameplay options—for example, ''moving'' defense bunkers, zigzag shots, invisible aliens, and two-player cooperative gameplay. Ports on earlier systems like the Atari home consoles featured simplified graphics, while later systems such as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and PlayStation (console), PlayStation featured updated graphics. Later games include several modes of gameplay and integrate new elements into the original design. For example, ''Space Invaders Extreme'', released on the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable, integrated musical elements into the standard gameplay. A 2008 Spin-off game, spin-off for WiiWare, ''Space Invaders Get Even'', allows players to control the aliens instead of the laser cannon in a reversal of roles. In 1980, Bally Manufacturing, Bally released a pinball version. However, few elements from the original game are included, and the aliens instead resemble the xenomorphs from the film ''Alien (film), Alien''; Bally was later sued over the resemblance to the designs by H. R. Giger. It became the third highest-grossing pinball machine of 1980 in the United States. A stand-alone version was released by Super Impulse as part of its ''Tiny Arcade'' series, along with the Bandai Namco Entertainment, Namco games ''Pac-Man'', ''Ms. Pac-Man'', and ''Galaxian''.
Taito has released several arcade Video game sequel, sequels. The first was ''Space Invaders Part II'' in 1979; it featured color graphics, an attract mode, new gameplay elements, and added an Cut scene, intermission between gameplay. According to the ''Killer List of Videogames'', this was the first video game to include an intermission.Space Invaders Deluxe, klov.com. Accessed on line March 28, 2011. The game also allowed the player with the top score to sign their name, which would appear at the top of the screen for as long as the game was powered on. This version was released in the United States as ''Deluxe Space Invaders'' (also known as ''Space Invaders Deluxe''), but it featured a different graphical color scheme and a lunar-city background. Another arcade sequel, ''Space Invaders II'', was released exclusively in the United States. It was in a Cocktail arcade cabinet, cocktail-table format with very fast alien firing and a competitive Two-player game, two-player mode. During the summer of 1985, ''Return of the Invaders'' was released with updated color graphics and more complex movements and attack patterns for the aliens. Subsequent arcade sequels included ''Super Space Invaders '91'', ''Space Invaders DX'', and ''Space Invaders '95, Space Invaders 95''. Each game introduced minor gameplay additions to the original design. Like the original game, several of the arcade sequels have become collector's items, though some are considered rarer. In 2002, Taito released ''Space Raiders (video game), Space Raiders'', a third-person shooter reminiscent of ''Space Invaders''. ''Space Invaders'' and its related games have been included in video game compilations. ''Space Invaders Anniversary'' was released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2 and included nine ''Space Invader'' variants. A similar game for the PlayStation Portable, ''Space Invaders Pocket'', was released in 2005. ''Space Invaders'', ''Space Invaders Part II'' and ''Return of the Invaders'' are included in ''Taito Legends'', a compilation of Taito's classic arcade games released in 2005 on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC. ''Super Space Invaders '91'', ''Space Invaders DX'', and ''Space Invaders 95'' were included in ''Taito Legends 2'', a sequel compilation released in 2006.
Industry impact
As one of the earliest shooting games, ''Space Invaders'' set precedents and helped pave the way for future games and for the shooting genre. ''Space Invaders'' popularized a more interactive style of gameplay, with the enemies responding to the player-controlled cannon's movement, and was the first video game to popularize the concept of achieving a high score, being the first to Saved game, save the player's score. While earlier shooting games allowed the player to shoot at targets, ''Space Invaders'' was the first in which multiple enemies could fire back at the player, * and in contrast to earlier arcade games which often had a timer, ''Space Invaders'' introduced the "concept of going Level (video games), round after round." It was also the first game where players were given multiple Life (video games), lives, had to repel hordes of enemies, could Cover system, take cover from enemy fire, and use Destructible environment, destructible barriers. ''Space Invaders'' helped action games become the dominant Video game genre, genre in arcades and on consoles. ''Space Invaders'' set the template for the shoot 'em up genre. Its worldwide success created a demand for a wide variety of science fiction games, inspiring the development of arcade games, such as Atari, Atari's ''Asteroids (video game), Asteroids'', Williams Electronics' ''Defender (video game), Defender'', and Namco's ''Galaxian'' and ''Galaga'', which were modeled after ''Space Invaders'' gameplay and design. This influence could be said to extend to most shooting games released to the present day, including first-person shooters (FPS) such as ''Wolfenstein'', ''Doom (series), Doom'', ''Halo (series), Halo'' and ''Call of Duty''. ''Space Invaders'' also influenced other genres, including maze games such as Sega/Gremlin Industries, Gremlin's ''Head On (video game), Head On'' (1979) which adopted the concept of "going round after round" instead of a timer. According to Alexander Smith, by "allowing targets to attack the player and eliminating the timer, Nishikado created a new paradigm in video games." Miyamoto said ''Space Invaders'' had revolutionized the video game industry. Eugene Jarvis stated it "laid the groundwork for a whole generation" of video games with the "animated characters, the story, this amazing crescendo of action and climax" and that many games "still rely on the multiple Life (video games), life, progressively difficult Level (video games), level paradigm" of ''Space Invaders''. Music scholar Andrew Schartmann echoed similar comments, writing that the fundamental techniques ''Space Invaders'' introduced shaped the industry and that the game's immense popularity facilitated a widespread adoption of those techniques. Prior to ''Space Invaders'', music typically played during introductions or closings. Its continuously Loop (music), looped music plays during gameplay while the game's interactions generate sound effects, which together Schartmann described as a "rich sonic landscape". He further noted that while the four-note loop seemed "pedestrian", its ability to stir a reaction from players moved video games closer to an art form. Schartmann acknowledged how the title's changing tempo popularized variability in game music; developers later applied the strategy to pitch, rhythm, form, and other parameters to accommodate nonlinear aspect of games. Karen Collins, a professor of interactive media, echoed similar statements, noting that the game's continuous Video game music, background soundtrack was milestone also for Adaptive music, dynamically changing pace during gameplay. ''Next Generation (magazine), Next Generation'' editor Neil West also cited ''Space Invaders'' music as an example of great video game art, commenting on how the simple melody's increasing tempo and synchronization with the enemies' movement chills and excites the player. Tommy Tallarico, a video game composer and sound designer, cited ''Space Invaders'' as an example of how video game music is "not a passive linear medium", stating that the interaction elevates the experience to a higher level for the senses. He echoed West's assessment, commenting that the simple beats increased the player's heart rate—instilling a sense of panic—as the invaders approached the bottom of the screen. In describing the audio's increasing pace, video game journalist and historian Bill Loguidice likened the background music to the Heart sounds, sound of a heartbeat. He noted that the effect carried forward into other games; for example, ''Dungeons of Daggorath'' features a similar Heart sounds, heartbeat sound to indicate Health (gaming), player health. Several Video game developer, game developers have cited ''Space Invaders'' as their introduction to video games. Shigeru Miyamoto—the creator of ''Donkey Kong'', ''Mario (franchise), Mario'', and ''The Legend of Zelda''—commented that before seeing it he was not interested in video games and had never considered pursuing video games as a profession. During his time in Middle school, junior high school, ''Pokémon'' creator Satoshi Tajiri felt inspired to make a ''Space Invaders'' sequel after playing it. While Hideo Kojima, creator of ''Metal Gear'', played ''Pong'' as a child, he cites ''Space Invaders'' as the first game that "pulled him in". When recalling the game's early media coverage, he expressed how impressed he was at the time with the game's existence. Eugene Jarvis began his career at Williams Electronics developing pinball games but decided to pursue arcade games after seeing ''Space Invader'' gameplay, leading him to work on ''Defender'', Williams' first arcade game. He further described the industry scene at the time as an "incredible universe now open to video game designers", citing the hype of ''Space Invaders'' and other popular space games released around 1979. The two creators of ''Doom (franchise), Doom'', John Romero and John Carmack, have also named it as their introduction to video games. Romero commented that he thought games like ''Space Invaders'' and ''Targ (video game), Targ'' were "cool" because they were not limited by physical materials like pinball and electromagnetic games and felt they opened up creative possibilities. Writing for ''The Observer'', Giles Richards attributed the popularity of the game's home console versions to encouraging users to learn programming, many of which later becoming industry leaders. In 1980, Atari sponsored a nation-wide ''Space Invaders'' tournament in the United States with regional qualifiers in Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Fort Worth, Chicago, and New York. The company started the event to help promote its recent port of ''Space Invaders'', which contestants played to earn the highest score. Over 10,000 participants competed in the tournament, which culminated in a championship round between the five regional finalists at Warner Communications Inc.'s headquarters in New York. The winner, Rebecca Heineman, would go on to become a video game developer. ''Electronic Games'' magazine staff noted an increased amount of media coverage around the same time and stated that the event helped establish Video game culture, video gaming as a mainstream hobby. Numerous publications have pointed to the game's success as a catalyst to the video game industry's growth. ''Electronic Games''s editors called ''Space Invaders'' the impetus behind video gaming becoming a rapidly growing hobby in 1981 and "the single most popular coin-operated attraction of all time." Edge (magazine), ''Edge'' staff attributed the shift of games from Bar (establishment), bars and amusement arcades to more mainstream locations, such as restaurants and department stores, to ''Space Invaders''. Video game writer and collector Dave Ellis (game designer), David Ellis echoed similar comments, writing that by the end of the 1970s, arcade games began appearing in hotel lobbies, airports, and convenience stores. Writing for ''IGN'', Levi Buchanan attributed the launch of the "arcade phenomenon" in North America in part to the title. Technology journalist Jason Whittaker credited ''Space Invaders'' with ending the video game crash of 1977 and ushering in the golden age of video arcade games. Staff for ''Game Informer'' magazine considered it, along with ''Pac-Man'', one of the most popular arcade games for tapping into popular culture and generating excitement during the golden age of arcades. Benj Edwards of 1UP.com wrote that ''Space Invaders'' demonstrated video games could compete against the major entertainment media at the time: films, music, and television.In media
Musicians have drawn inspiration for their music from ''Space Invaders''. Soon after the game's arcade release, the J-pop, Japanese synthpop group Yellow Magic Orchestra reproduced ''Space Invaders'' sounds in its 1978 Yellow Magic Orchestra (album), self-titled album and hit single "Computer Game"; the latter sold over 400,000 copies in the United States. The next year, the band Funny Stuff released "Disco Space Invaders" in Japan and songwriters Russell Dunlop and Bruce Brown released "Space Invaders (Player One song), Space Invaders" in Australia as the group Player One. The trend continued in 1980 with two more songs titled "Space Invaders"; one on The Pretenders' Pretenders (album), self-titled album and another by WNCX, WGCL disc jockey Victor Blecman. Decades later, Video Games Live performed audio from ''Space Invaders'' as part of a special Retrogaming, retro "Classic Arcade Medley" in 2007. In honor of the game's 30th anniversary, Taito produced an album titled ''Space Invaders 2008'' that features music inspired by the game. Released by Avex Trax in December 2008, the album includes six songs that were originally in the PlayStation Portable, PSP version of ''Space Invaders Extreme''. Taito produced a ''Space Invaders''-themed animated music video to promote the album. Initially showcased only in its chain of stores (Taito Station) starting in April 2008, the company later released the video on DVD in October 2008. Multiple television series have aired episodes that either reference or parody ''Space Invaders''; for example, ''Danger Mouse (1981 TV series), Danger Mouse'', ''That '70s Show'', ''Scrubs (TV series), Scrubs'', ''Chuck (TV series), Chuck'', ''Robot Chicken'', ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 TV series), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' and ''The Amazing World of Gumball''. Elements are prominently featured in the "Raiders of the Lost Arcade" segment of "Anthology of Interest II", an episode of ''Futurama''. The ''Space Invaders'' aliens also appear in the French online short film ''Pixels (2010 film), Pixels'', which Happy Madison Productions later adapted into a Pixels (2015 film), feature film by the same name in 2015. In 2010, Warner Bros. Pictures approached Taito for the film rights to the video game, with Mark Gordon (producer), Mark Gordon, Jason Blum, and Guymon Casady attached as producers. By the time Warner Bros. acquired the rights in 2014, Akiva Goldsman was slated to produce. In February 2015, Daniel Kunka was set to write the script for the production company, Safehouse Pictures. The project stalled until July 2019, when Warner Bros.'s subsidiary, New Line Cinema, announced that Greg Russo would write the script. Goldsman remained the producer alongside Safehouse Pictures partners Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell. ''Space Invaders'' has been the subject of several books, such as the 1982 ''Invasion of the Space Invaders'' by Martin Amis, the 2006 ''Tomb Raiders and Space Invaders'' by Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska, and 1980 ''Space Invaders'' by Mark Roeder and Julian Wolanski. It has been recreated in other video games. Players have used the gameplay mechanics in the sandbox games ''Minecraft'' and ''Astroneer'' to reproduce ''Space Invaders''. Epic Games included a hidden game in ''Fortnite'' that features gameplay similar to ''Space Invaders''.Cultural impact
The impact of ''Space Invaders'' on the video game industry has been compared to that of The Beatles in the pop music industry. Considered "the first 'Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbuster' video game", ''Space Invaders'' became synonymous with video games worldwide for some time. Many publications and websites use the Pixelation, pixelated alien Video game graphics, graphic as an Mascot, icon for video games in general, including the video game magazine ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'', technology website Ars Technica, and concert event Video Games Live. There has also been ''Space Invaders-''themed merchandising, including necklaces and puzzles.
The game became the center of an urban legend that its popularity led to a shortage of 100 yen coin, 100-yen coins in Japan. However, reports from those living in Japan at the time indicate "nothing out of the ordinary" around ''Space Invaders'' release. Nishikado had also expressed skepticism. Numismatist Mark Fox noted that arcade operators would have regularly emptied their machines, keeping the currency in circulation. He attributed the myth to lower 100-yen coin productions in 1978 and 1979.
Within a year of its release, the Japanese Parent-Teacher Association, PTA unsuccessfully attempted to ban ''Space Invaders'' for allegedly inspiring truancy. In North America, doctors identified a condition called "''Space Invaders'' elbow" as a complaint, while a physician in ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' named a similar ailment the "''Space Invaders'' Wrist". ''Space Invaders'' was also the first game to attract Video game controversy, political controversy when a 1981 Private Member's Bill known as the "Control of Space Invaders (and other Electronic Games) Bill", drafted by British Labour Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock, George Foulkes, attempted to allow City council, local councils to restrict the game and those like it by licensing for its "Video game addiction, addictive properties" and for causing "deviancy". Conservative Party (UK), Conservative MP Michael Brown (British politician), Michael Brown defended it as "innocent and harmless pleasure", which he himself had enjoyed that day, and criticized the bill as an example of "Socialist beliefs in restriction and control". A motion to bring the bill before Parliament was defeated by 114 votes to 94 votes; the bill itself was never considered by Parliament. Similarly in the United States, in Westchester County, New York, there was a controversial political debate in 1981 over a resolution to place age restrictions on ''Space Invaders'' and other arcade games, following complaints that schoolchildren wasted time and lunch money, and went to school late; the resolution drew national attention.
In 2006, ''Space Invaders'' was one of several video game-related media selected to represent Japan as part of a project compiled by Culture of Japan, Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. That same year, ''Space Invaders'' was included in the London Science Museum (London), Science Museum's Game On exhibition, meant to showcase the various aspects of video game history, Video game development, development, and Video game culture, culture. ''Space Invaders'' is a part of the Barbican Centre's traveling Game On exhibition. At the Belluard Bollwerk International 2006 festival in Fribourg, Switzerland, Guillaume Reymond created a three-minute video recreation of a game of ''Space Invaders'' as part of the "Gameover" project using humans as pixels. The GH ART exhibit at the 2008 Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, included an art game, ''Invaders!'', based on ''Space Invaders''s gameplay. The creator later asked for it to be removed from the exhibit following criticism of elements based on the September 11 attacks in the United States. A bridge in Cáceres, Spain, projected by engineers Pedro Plasencia and Hadrián Arias, features a pavement design based on ''Space Invaders.'' The laser cannon, some shots, and several figures can be seen on the deck. A French street artist, Invader (artist), Invader, made a name for himself by creating Mosaic, mosaic artwork of ''Space Invader'' aliens around the world. Locations include the International Space Station and European Space Agency installations.
Brazilian zoologists, Adriano Kury and Carla Barros, named a new species of arachnid ''Taito spaceinvaders'' in 2014. Inspired the by resemblance of the species' fleck on its dorsal Scute, scutum to a ''Space Invaders'' alien, the zoologists named the arachnid after the game and the genus, ''Taito (genus), Taito'', after the developer.
In 2018, Highways England launched a Political campaign, campaign titled "Don't be a Space Invader, Stay Safe, Stay Back" to raise awareness on the dangers of tailgating. People were also able to order free car bumper stickers to raise awareness of the campaign.
Notes
References
Further reading
*External links
* * *Game manual
for arcade game, stored at the Internet Archive
Game manual
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