The first Space Invaders arcade machine was first released to the Japanese public in 1978, no one was suspecting this would herald a new age of gaming, consequently affirming the foundations of a mainstream medium which we all love today (besides which you wouldn’t be reading this right now 🙂 You will be delighted to hear you too can play variants of your favourite titles on any of the retro arcade machines below which would befit any games room (prices include free delivery).
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Space Invaders was developed by Tomohiro Nishikado who was born in March 1944 in Osaka, Japan and consequently graduated from Tokyo Denki University in 1968 with a degree in engineering.
Prior to developing Space Invaders, he previously produced 10 games. However he’s also credited for a few later games which are firm favourites. Such as Chase HQ II (Special Criminal Investigation), Darius II and Darius Twin.
He eventually left Taito in 1996 to start his own company but has since returned to Taito in an advisory capacity
Originally the aliens were going to be planes- but they were hard to animate with the limited hardware. Then human soldiers, however it wasn’t deemed proper the player shoots soldiers, finally aliens marched forth in their place with the player taking the guise of a laser cannon.
Meanwhile Star Wars was in full flow along with other films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Trek The Original Motion Picture, one might as well jump on the bandwagon. Games at the time prior to Space Invaders generally consisted of various iterations of Pong so this was a much needed breath of fresh air. Although Mr Nishikado states: “I wasn’t influenced by any social phenomenon or issues, my aim was purely to create a game that was interesting and fun to play.”
To say the original space invaders arcade machine was a hit is certainly an understatement. Imagine a single arcade game which was to cause a 100 yen coin shortage due to its popularity. However, despite it’s mega hit status- i’m sorry to say- this is a myth. Without a doubt it’s just not possible to be true. But it only served to make Space Invaders more popular so the urban legend was never debunked by Taito.
Think about it- the arcade owners would take the coins to the bank- simple as that and the coinage would go back into circulation. According to Japanese residents there was no noticeable change during the Space Invaders invasion of ’78.
Click here for the original article- it's a great read:
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Like Sonic The Hedgehog on the Megadrive, Tekken on the Playstation and Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo- for the Atari VCS Space Invaders was that killer app spurring sales to quadruple.
Space Invaders was incidentally also the first ever official licensing for an arcade game on a home console. For the first time ever- an arcade title could be played in the comfort of your own home. Over 2 million units were sold in the first year of release.
Space Invaders was moreover one of the seminal titles which propelled the arcade machine from the bars and arcade venues to the department store and more mainstream locale. With games like Pac-Man soon to follow, this pastime was markedly picked up by a more mature audience. The average person began to take notice, changing the arcade game from beyond a novelty into a serious global industry.
That is to say people actually stood in line for hours to patiently wait to have a game. And people watched other people play, perhaps a precursor to the massive LAN parties and multi million dollar competitions we see today driven by blockbuster titles such as Fortnite and Starcraft.
Even though a Space invaders arcade machine wasn’t the first shooting game with Space War coming out years earlier in 1961- it’s definitely the most cloned with over 100 variants in production.
An owner of one of these machines could pay off the initial cost within a month which made it a no-brainer.
Space Invaders was the first arcade game to employ a high score leaderboard, a staple of any arcade game thereafter.
With a new craze catching teenagers’ pocket money, parents and the public cooked up a storm. The Japanese Parents Teacher Association cited the game as promoting truancy.
On North American shores, a new condition was identified called “Space Invaders Elbow”. Here in Britain- Labour MP George Foulkes deemed Space Invaders “deviant” with addictive properties.
Conservative MP jumped to Space Invaders’ defence saying it was “Innocent and harmless pleasure” as he played it at the time. I guess nothing changes- the same argument rages now, although it’s hard to imagine the few pixels causing such an uproar compared to today’s high fidelity loot box ridden carnage.
The game was also seen by some as an invasion of Japanese culture upon the US audience. With Americans priding themselves on being the best and in conjunction with the automotive market’s sales and production of Japanese cars on Western shores, the Japanese economic growth was threatening.
The VCS release of Space Invaders was to prop up the home console sales until the crash of ’83 thanks to a dearth of bad or uninteresting games and consumers simply lost faith (the final straw being the unplayable and landfilled E.T. The Extra Terrestrial).
This was until the Nintendo Entertainment System came out to bring a new era of blockbuster multi games running home consoles which has perpetuated ever since. This cemented the Japanese as the nation which created the best arcade games which also threatened the American identity.
The aliens are so iconic, they are as well known as the Coca Cola brand and as such are used in mainstream and subversive media alike.
Don’t Be A Space Invader
As used by Highways England to warn drivers to keep back. This works on a lot of levels aside from the obvious text.
Invader
A guerilla artist who creates a Space Invaders alien mosaic in various cities in the world.
MOMA
The Museum Of Modern Art is to include a Space Invaders arcade machine as part of its permanent collection.
Guinness
The Guinness World Of Records entitled the most popular game of all time thanks to its artistic merit and technological advancements.
Heinz Invaders
Heinz released a series of Space Invaders themed foods. We bet they taste out of this world!
There have been over 100 different versions of Space Invaders machines, making it Taito’s most profitable piece of Intellectual Property to date earning the company millions from not only games but also from merchandise. But here’s a look at the lesser known Space Invaders games.
