Ah Galaxian. I first encountered this game back in 1982 in a little take away shop. Originally released in 1979, this game provided the best Left-Right shooter around until Galaga was released a couple of years later. The game play was simple, as were all space shooters of the era, but it was certainly addictive enough to make me late for school a couple of times.
The game consisted of several rows of alien space fighters/space bugs, similar to Space Invaders. However, for players of Space Invaders, Galaxian had a few surprises:
Firstly, the game was IN COLOUR! Space Invaders, like most arcade games of the time, was black and white. If you were lucky, you may have got to play it with glorious stick-on colour strips which gave the illusion of a static colour display. But Galaxian was the real deal.
Secondly, the sombre dup-dup-dup-dup of Invaders was replaced with a screaming dive sound in Galaxian every time an alien... but that reveals the next surprise, namely...
Thirdly, rather than stomp left to right, descend, right to left a la Invaders, the Galaxians ATTACKED, swooping on the player's ship with the intensity, in later levels, of a herd of angry buffalo stampeding through a yard sale. This is where that diving sound came in.
Finally, each alien ship/bug (which were they anyhow?) had its own characteristic method of dive attack. One type would even pause now and then and do an irritating little pirouette as if to say, "Hit me if you can". The "boss" types (four per level) would also attack in formation, offering the player a chance for higher points if they could shoot the boss and its entourage in one dive attack.
The game had one problem. It was so hard that you needed a small pyramid of coins to become good enough to survive more than a round or two of attacks. I guess that wasn't so much of a problem for the owners of the game though. By 1982 newer and flashier games were about and so Galaxian was already on the way out by the time I discovered it and frankly I didn't spend all that much time playing it. With the introduction of hand-held games-in-a-joystick and of course the illustrious VIZZED, I have been able to revisit Galaxian and can now get through the first 5 to 8 levels depending on my level of tiredness and whether my wife interrupts me or not. I'm sure there are better gamers than me out there who could do better though.
Galaxian has earned a place in the list of best classic arcade games due to its innovations, and any dedicated gamer of the time can identify it by cabinet art or sound alone. Its legacy can be seen in games like Galaga, and in fact the "boss" alien from Galaxian even makes a cameo appearance in the latter game as well as in a few others such as Pacman.
The game pushed the space shooter genre forward, offering added excitement, strategy and entertainment over its forerunners, and cemented the basic format of LR shooters for many years to come.
Ah Galaxian. I first encountered this game back in 1982 in a little take away shop. Originally released in 1979, this game provided the best Left-Right shooter around until Galaga was released a couple of years later. The game play was simple, as were all space shooters of the era, but it was certainly addictive enough to make me late for school a couple of times.
The game consisted of several rows of alien space fighters/space bugs, similar to Space Invaders. However, for players of Space Invaders, Galaxian had a few surprises:
Firstly, the game was IN COLOUR! Space Invaders, like most arcade games of the time, was black and white. If you were lucky, you may have got to play it with glorious stick-on colour strips which gave the illusion of a static colour display. But Galaxian was the real deal.
Secondly, the sombre dup-dup-dup-dup of Invaders was replaced with a screaming dive sound in Galaxian every time an alien... but that reveals the next surprise, namely...
Thirdly, rather than stomp left to right, descend, right to left a la Invaders, the Galaxians ATTACKED, swooping on the player's ship with the intensity, in later levels, of a herd of angry buffalo stampeding through a yard sale. This is where that diving sound came in.
Finally, each alien ship/bug (which were they anyhow?) had its own characteristic method of dive attack. One type would even pause now and then and do an irritating little pirouette as if to say, "Hit me if you can". The "boss" types (four per level) would also attack in formation, offering the player a chance for higher points if they could shoot the boss and its entourage in one dive attack.
The game had one problem. It was so hard that you needed a small pyramid of coins to become good enough to survive more than a round or two of attacks. I guess that wasn't so much of a problem for the owners of the game though. By 1982 newer and flashier games were about and so Galaxian was already on the way out by the time I discovered it and frankly I didn't spend all that much time playing it. With the introduction of hand-held games-in-a-joystick and of course the illustrious VIZZED, I have been able to revisit Galaxian and can now get through the first 5 to 8 levels depending on my level of tiredness and whether my wife interrupts me or not. I'm sure there are better gamers than me out there who could do better though.
Galaxian has earned a place in the list of best classic arcade games due to its innovations, and any dedicated gamer of the time can identify it by cabinet art or sound alone. Its legacy can be seen in games like Galaga, and in fact the "boss" alien from Galaxian even makes a cameo appearance in the latter game as well as in a few others such as Pacman.
The game pushed the space shooter genre forward, offering added excitement, strategy and entertainment over its forerunners, and cemented the basic format of LR shooters for many years to come. 
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