Space Invaders[b] is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold in Japan and licensed by the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. Space Invaders was the first fixed shooter and set the template for the shoot 'em up genre. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser to earn as many points as possible.
Designer Nishikado drew inspiration from Breakout (1976), Gun Fight (1975), target shooting games, and science fiction narratives such as The War of the Worlds, Space Battleship Yamato, and Star Wars. To complete the development of the game, he had to design custom hardware and development tools. Upon release, Space Invaders was an immediate commercial success; by 1982, it had grossed $3.8 billion (equivalent to over $13 billion adjusted for inflation as of 2016)19 with a net profit of $450 million (equivalent to $2 billion adjusted for inflation). This made it the best-selling video game and highest-grossing "entertainment product" and the highest-grossing video game. Space Invaders is considered one of the most influential video games of all time. It helped expand the video game industry from a novelty to a global industry and ushered in the golden age of arcade video games. It was the inspiration for numerous video games and game designers and has been ported and re-released in various forms. The 1980 Atari VCS version quadrupled sales of the VCS, thereby becoming the first killer app for video game consoles. More broadly, the pixelated enemy alien has become a pop culture icon, often representing video games as a whole.
Development[edit]
Space Invaders was developed by a Japanese designer, who spent a year designing the game and developing the necessary hardware to produce it.[23] The game's inspiration is reported to have come from varying sources, including an adaptation of the arcade game Space Monsters released in 1972, and a dream about Japanese school children who are waiting for Santa Claus when they are attacked by invading aliens.[20][24] himself has cited Atari's arcade game Breakout (1976) as his original inspiration behind the game's concept, wanting to adopt the same sense of achievement and tension from destroying targets one at a time, combining it with elements of target shooting games.[23][25][26] 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.[27]
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 (either by getting hit or enemies reaching the bottom of the screen) rather than simply a timer running out.[25] 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 the player had left.[26]
Arcade version[edit]
When completed the game, it was initially met with a mixed response from within among amusement arcade owners; his colleagues praised the game, applauding his achievement while queuing up to play the game, whereas his bosses were predicting low sales, due to games often ending quicker than was the norm for timer-based arcade games at the time. A number of amusement arcade owners initially rejected the game, but some parlors and bowling alleys were willing to take a risk on the game, after which the game caught on, with many parlors and alleys clearing space for more Space Invaders cabinets.[52] In the first few months following its release in Japan, Space Invaders became popular and specialty video arcades opened with nothing but Space Invaders cabinets.[23][29]
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