Game:

Galaxian Arcade (2002)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 11:26

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1

Note: Mame Cheat is used on this Playthrough. I disabled the Cheat at the end of the Playthrough, so I can play Fair.

Galaxian was produced by Namco in 1979. Galaxian is a legendary single-screen shoot-em-up that took everything that made Taito's ground-breaking "Space Invaders" so good, and improved upon it on every level. Each screen starts with a wave of multi-colored aliens moving left and right at the top of the screen; the aliens quickly break ranks and start dive-bombing the Galaxip (player's ship) - either in single units or in groups of 3 - dropping multiple missiles as they descend. All of the aliens need to be destroyed before the player can progress to the next wave.

Something can also be said for the iconic sounds that came from Galaxian, which players could use to identify the game before they even saw it. Space battles of all kinds played a major role during the golden age of video games. With the introduction of Galaxian, players were transported to the most colorful and challenging space battle yet, giving patterns to the attacking aliens that made for a more dynamic and memorable challenge than Space Invaders.

While it is often cited as "the first video game to be released with 100 percent of its graphics displayed in true R.G.B. color," this is inaccurate. It did have multi-color objects, that combined with animation was significant, but Taito had done this earlier with Super Speed Race - which Midway licensed and launched a month before they produced Galaxian. Home consoles already supported full color graphics prior to Galaxian's release (See the 1978 release of Superman on the Atari 2600 as an example of a multi-color object; Or the 1979 release of Basketball on the Atari 400/800) as did various other arcade games that used full color. These may have not been as detailed as Galaxian but were still important: Gotcha Color by Atari (1973) had an RGB color circuit; There was Wimbeldon by Nutting Associates (1973); Car Polo, Star Fire and Fire One! by Exidy (1977~79; Fire One came out a month before Galaxian did in the States), Sea Wolf II by Midway (1978), and a few others.