STACK #164 June 2018

GAMES

FEATURE

render, and thus used the bug to his advantage). Once the wave of aliens was completely destroyed, the next screen would load. It was the first game to introduce a difficulty curve, popularise the concept of a high score, and the first to feature multiple lives. With coloured cellophane applied to the screens of the cocktail cabinets to cover the monochrome graphics and simulate colour, the game was renamed Space Invaders and released in Japan. Gradually, interest in the game gathered

to port an arcade title to its Atari 2600 home console, sending unit sales through the roof. While Nishikado worked on the follow up, Space Invaders II , new games, inspired by his work, swept the arcades, taking the concept to the next level. Namco dropped the full-colour Galaxian in 1979 and followed up with sequel Galaga two years later. But a new sphere of influence was permeating arcades and enrapturing audiences with the likes of Pac-Man, Centipede , Asteroids and Donkey Kong. Widely credited as the game that laid the pathway to what is now considered the golden age of arcade gaming, Space Invaders would go on to inspire some of the brightest minds in video game development. Wolfenstein 3D and Doom creators John Romero and John Cormack, and the aforementioned Shigeru Miyamoto and Hideo Kojima, have all cited Space Invaders as the reason they got into video game industry. Tomohiro Nishikado was soon remained until leaving to start his own company, Dreams, in 1996. The legacy of Space Invaders and the man who created it continues to this day. promoted to a management position at Taito, where he

going to be called, was completed. Initial response at Taito was mixed: the game, compared to other arcade games, was difficult to play and required a lot of skill – the company think tank believed that players would be deterred as a result. The premise was simple yet revolutionary for the time: a wave of descending aliens that fired back at players. Their speed would increase as numbers were reduced (by fluke, Nishikado noted while building the game that the aliens would move faster with less sprites on the screen to

a gun. With the hype of Star Wars omnipresent, he decided to set the game in space, drawing influence from the 1953 film adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds for his alien design. Nishikado was essentially a one- man-team who was responsible for the design, programming, graphics and sound, only recruiting help with some of the electrical work and the iconic artwork for the cabinet. In well under a year, including the time he took to design and construct the hardware to build the game, Space Monsters , as it was originally

Purpose-built arcades and cafes featuring just Space Invaders were quickly established

pace. Purpose-built arcades and cafes featuring just Space Invaders were quickly established. The game would go on to sell 100,000 units locally in ’78 alone. Soon the game went international and in two years, 500,000 cabinets were sold worldwide. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Sydney alone had over 3,000 Space Invaders machines in September 1980. Inexplicably, Taito forbade Nishikado from revealing his identity, despite gaining plaudits On lunch breaks, the enigmatic developer would visit arcades featuring the game just to watch it being played. By 1981, Space Invaders had netted Taito $US1 billion. In the wake of the game’s phenomenal success came a swathe of imitations. In 1980, Atari secured the first licensed deal from the likes of video game enthusiast Steven Spielberg.

Five facts about Space Invaders

Incredibly, Tomohiro Nishikado can barely clear the first level on the game. Richie Knucklez broke the Space Invaders record in 2011, achieving a high score of 110,510. French artist Invader has spent the last decade putting up tiled depictions of the aliens in Space Invaders all over the world. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, inducted Space Invaders as part of its Architecture and Design department in 2013. You can pick up an original Space Invaders cabinet with a reconditioned circuit board for around $1,000.

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