Galaga
| Galaga | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco (Japan); Midway (North America) |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release | September 1981 (Japan); November 1981 (North America) |
| Genre(s) | Fixed shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, alternating two-player |
Galaga is a fixed-shooter arcade game developed by Namco and released in Japan in September 1981. Midway Manufacturing sold it in North America from November of that year. It is the sequel to Namco's Galaxian (1979) and was followed by Gaplus in 1984.[1] The player's ship moves along the bottom of the screen and shoots at insect-like aliens that fly in formation above it. The planned game SARS Invaders by Molecular Reality Corporation lists Galaga first among its inspirations.
Gameplay
Each stage begins with groups of aliens flying onto the screen along curving paths. They settle into a grid, and after a pause single aliens or small groups peel off and dive at the ship, firing as they come. An alien is worth more points when it is shot during a dive than when it sits in the grid. The player starts with a few ships and loses one for each hit.
The larger aliens are called Boss Galagas. A Boss Galaga takes two hits, and it can dive and fire a tractor beam. If the beam catches the player's ship, the ship is pulled up into the formation and held there while the player continues with a spare. If the player shoots the boss that holds the captured ship, the ship is released and joins the player's own. The two then fly together as a "dual fighter" that fires twice as many shots at once and makes a wider target.[1]
Every fourth stage, starting with the third, is a challenging stage in which the aliens fly past in set patterns and do not shoot. The player scores for each one hit. The game has no ending, but stage 255 triggers a kill screen, after which the arcade original resets, locks up or changes its difficulty.
Ports and reception
Namco converted the game for the Famicom in 1985, and Atari released a version for the Atari 7800 in 1986. Many other systems followed. In Japan it ranked sixth among arcade games in 1981 and third in 1982.
Influence on SARS Invaders
In the 2022 memo Early Releases on Maxine's Quest, SARS Invaders (there called SARS Odyssey) is "Inspired by: 2d Galaga, Missile Command, Defender, and Megamania, 3d Star Raiders and Star Wars". Galaga comes first. Its science is virology, and its samples were to be polystyrene beads and lipid particles, with "no real viruses involved in the early phase".[2] No part of Galaga is singled out.[a]
In the founder's words, the game's later name is "a pun on Space Invaders".[3] Among the flat shooters in the memo's list, the others are Missile Command, Defender and Megamania. SARS Invaders had not been released by October 2026.
See also
Notes
- ^ In nanopore work a molecule that enters the pore is said to be captured, and the rate at which that happens is the capture rate. No source links this term to the tractor beam.
References
- ^ a b Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-7615-3643-7.
- ^ "Early Releases on Maxine's Quest". Molecular Reality Corporation. 2022.
- ^ "Company records". Molecular Reality Corporation. October 2026.