Space Invaders

Another classic arcade game is Space Invaders and it was designed by Tomohiro Nishikado in 1978. It was first manufactured by Taito and licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is ranked as one of the most influential video games of all times. It was one of the first video games to be released. The home version of the Space Invaders was a big success and was designed for the Atari 2600 game system. There were 112 different versions of the game available. It was the first video arcade game licensed for home conversion from one company to another (Taito to Atari was the case for this game). The sales of the Atari 2600 skyrocketed in 1980 during the holiday season because people wanted to play the Space Invaders game. There were many arcade games which featured variations of the Space Invaders theme. Aliens attacking from outer space seemed to be something people enjoyed killing even if it was just a game. Taito produced several sequels to Space Invaders in the following years, for the arcades. There were many space arcade games produced over the years since the first ones were made and there is still a big interest in them. Some of the other space games available are Asteroids, Moon Patrol, Alien Invaders, and more. There has been an interest in aliens since the time the first person reported seeing a flying saucer or UFO and what better way to fight the aliens than on a video game.

Space Invaders involves the player controlling a movable laser cannon which is moved back and forth across the bottom of the screen. The aliens keep coming down from the top of the screen and the player shoots them with the cannon. There is an unlimited amount of ammunition in the cannon but it will only fire one shot at a time so the player has to be fast in order to kill all of the aliens before they reach the bottom of the screen. If an alien reaches the bottom of the screen, the game is over. The aliens also shoot back at the cannon and shoot deadly rays and bombs at the cannon. The cannon has to dodge back and forth to keep the rays and bombs from destroying the cannon. If one hits the cannon, the game ends. As the player destroys a certain amount of aliens, the remainder of aliens move faster. After the player shoots the last alien, another screen of aliens appear and the game continues and they are one row lower than in the previous screen.