space invaders flyer

 

 

In 1977 the videogame market was flooded with clones of the game ‘Pong’. Pong which released in 1972 had been such a huge hit that many other game companies had tried to produce their own version of the game. This led to a glut of pong consoles hitting the market meaning videogame companies had to sell their systems at a loss and consequently go out of business.

 

 

Intersoll Electronics pong clone

 

In 1977 the videogame market had its first crash. Even Atari and Magnavox the two biggest videogame companies at the time suffered heavy losses. Fortunately in 1978 ‘Space Invaders’ was released in the arcade and the game was so successful it managed to rejuvenate the video game industry. In 1977 Tomohiro Nishikado starts to work on ideas for an arcade game that involves a wartime setting. The Taito Corporation who he was working for at the time, isn’t happy with the idea of a realistic violent game. Thus Nishikado changes the setting to space, and he took inspiration from the 1976 arcade game ‘breakout’.  In breakout players had to destroy all the rows of bricks on the screen by ricocheting a ball against the walls using a paddle. To do this the player could move horizontally across the bottom of the screen.

 

Nishikado had an idea, he had the setting and he set forth not only on designing what would become ‘Space Invaders’ he also developed the microcomputer that would be used by the game itself. He also did all the art and sound work himself. When space invaders released in Japanese arcades in 1978 it was not an instant success. But after a slow few months it starts to catch on. Over time the game would become so successful in Japan that it caused a national coin shortage of the one hundred yen piece. The number of space invaders cabinets produced in Japan at this time isn’t clear because the game had so much demand that many counterfeit versions of the arcade cabinet where developed.

 

Space Invaders finally hit the shores of North America in October of 1978. Over there it became an instant hit. The arcade game itself was monochrome meaning it only had black and white colors. Strips of orange and green cellophane where overlaid onto the screen, therefore creating the illusion that the game itself was in color. The aim of the game was simple, you had to stop an incoming wave of aliens with your canon whilst avoiding being shot. The enemy waves would never end but you could get extra points by shooting down a flying saucer that would appear at the top of the screen once every 25 seconds. Since it was impossible to beat the game, players would compete to see who could get the highest score.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

space invaders  gameplay screenshot

 

Space invaders had helped to save the arcade but it would help the home console market as well. In 1980 the Atari 2600 was facing stiff competition from the Mattel Intellivision and Magnavox Odyssey 2. So Atari created a cartridge of space invaders for their Atari 2600 console. This game cartridge became so successful due to the frenzy of that surrounded the arcade version that sales of the console quadrupled. People would buy an Atari 2600 just for space invaders. Space invaders helped popularize the high-score in videogames and is considered by many historians to be the first true blockbuster videogame in history.

 

Dodd, R. (2013). ComicConReviews: Video Game History - Space Invaders. [online] Comicconreviews.blogspot.co.uk. Available at: http://comicconreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/space-invaders-flyer-in-1977-videogame.html [Accessed 11 Aug. 2016].