GALAXIAN GAME PLAY

Galaxian is a space-themed fixed shooter. The player controls a starship called the “Galaxip”, the objective being to clear each round of aliens. The enemies appear in formation towards the top of the screen, with two escort ships, labeled the “Galaxian Flagship” or “Galboss”. Enemies will make a divebomb towards the bottom of the screen while shooting projectiles in an attempt to hit the player. The Galaxip can only fire a single shot at a time, and the player must wait for it to either hit an enemy or the top of the screen before being able to fire another, due to limitations of the hardware.

Flagships will make a divebomb with two red escort ships – shooting all three of these will award the player bonus points, with extra points awarded to the destruction of the flagship. Enemy movement will increase as the game progresses alongside the number of shots that the enemies fire. Rounds are indicated by small flags at the bottom of the screen. The game’s attract mode featured a slim scenario, reading “WE ARE THE GALAXIANS. MISSION: DESTROY ALIENS”.

GALAXIAN Game Release

Galaxian was released by Namco in Japan on September 15, 1979. Following its large success, Namco approached Midway Manufacturing in terms of releasing the game overseas. Midway, who had previously lost their license with Taito due to the success of Space Invaders in the west, was in the midst of trying to find a new partner for releasing games. After Namco showed Midway the game on October 17, 1979, Midway was interested in the game’s unique features and wanted to acquire the rights to the game. They agreed to the deal and Midway introduced the game at a trade exhibit in November 1979, followed by a wide release for North America in early 1980 – this move helped strengthen Midway and challenged Atari’s leadership in the market. To help keep up demand for the game in Japan, Namco licensed the game to other companies for manufacturing cabinets, including Taito and Irem.

Atari, Inc. published ports of Galaxian for its own systems—Atari 8-bit computers,^[14] Atari 2600,^[15] Atari 5200—in 1982–3, three or more years after Galaxian appeared in arcades and a year or more after Galaga. Additional ports were published under the Atarisoft label: Apple II, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, VIC-20, IBM PC, and ZX Spectrum. Ports from other companies were sold for MSX (Europe and Japan only), NEC PC-8801, Famicom (Japan only), and Sharp X1.

A Bally Astrocade version was published as Galaxian, but the name was later changed to Galactic Invasion.

Coleco released a stand-alone Mini-Arcade tabletop version of Galaxian in 1981,^[16] which, along with Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Frogger, sold three million units combined.^[17] Entex released a handheld electronic game called Galaxian 2 in 1981. The game is called Galaxian 2 because it has a two-player mode. It is not a sequel, as there is no Entex Galaxian.

GALAXIAN RECEPTION

Galaxian was a critical and commercial success upon release. In Japan, it was the second highest-earning arcade game of 1979, below Space Invaders. The following year, Galaxian outperformed Pac-Man for a while, before the year ended with Galaxian again being the second highest-earning arcade game of 1980, below Pac-Man.  Galaxian was later the 18th highest-grossing arcade video game of 1981, tied with Defender and Turbo. The game continued to see success in Japan throughout the early 1980s; Game Machine reported that it was still performing well as late as August 1983.

In the United States, Galaxian was also the second highest-grossing arcade game of 1980, below Asteroids, according to Play Meter and Cash Box. Galaxian had sold 40,000 arcade units in the United States by 1981, and 50,000 units in the US as of 1982.

Critics applauded the game’s use of true color graphics and for improving the formula established in Space Invaders. The April 5, 1980 issue of Cashbox noted of the game’s colorful and attractive cabinet design, while the April 26 issue called it an “earthshaking hit”, referring to it as a true followup to Space Invaders. In a 2007 retrospective review, Sir Clive of Eurogamer labeled it a masterpiece, praising its “beautifully drawn” game graphics, intense gameplay, and for being a historically important game for the industry. In 2021, The Guardian listed Galaxian as the greatest video game of the 1970s. In 1996, GamesMaster ranked the arcade version 63 on their “Top 100 Games of All Time.”

Home versions and ports of the game received mixed responses by platforms. Video magazine in 1982 reviewed the Astrocade version of Galaxian (named Galactic Invasion), noting that the graphics were inferior to the coin-op and PC versions, but praising the play-action as “magnificent” compared to other console versions. The Astrocade version was later awarded a Certificate of Merit for “Best Arcade-to-Home Video Game Translation” at the 4th annual Arkie Awards. Home Computing Weekly in 1983 gave the Spectrum version of Galaxian 3/5 stars describing it as a well-written version and praising the graphics as fast although flickery. Softline in 1983 criticized the Atari 8-bit version of the game, stating that “this game becomes tedious very quickly”.

*Some of the content information above was provided by Wikipedia and KLOV (Killer List of Video Games).

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