Space Invaders
Shooter game that conquered the arcade machines market in late 1970s and remained an icon not only for the genre, but video games as a whole.
Space Invaders is a shooter with a very distinctive gameplay - rows of invaders are slowly descending upon the ground and the goal is for the player to shoot them all before they can reach the ground. To make things a bit more complicated the invaders can also shoot back, so the player have few shields that will keep his safe, but those shields can get damaged too and, at the end, will provide no cover any more.
Of course there are additional elements, like mother-ships flying above the invaders, the lines can descend in an increased tempo, etc. But the main gameplay is characteristic enough for Space Invaders to become the icon of early arcade machines. It was brilliant through its simplicity and the random element made it not only more challenging, but also increased the game’s replayability.
Space Invaders is one of the titles that created a new genre (or sub-genre) of games and inspired a lot of other titles, some very close to the original, some just inspired by the original.
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Space Invaders trivia
Accidental feature
The mechanics that increase the speed of the invaders was actually accidental - while the player was shooting down the invaders, the decreasing number of objects to render was causing the CPU to render them slightly faster, but the creators decided to keep this as a feature.
Games like Space Invaders
Stealth
1984
Arcade game - steer your stealth fighter through enemy territory and destroy their dark tower.
Moon Patrol
1982
Japanese arcade game that was later cloned and adapted several times. On the surface of the Moon you patrol in small buggy while bad guys are trying to stop you.
Circus
1977
Advanced chess simulator with a high quality AI opponent. Not really, but it sounds better than the real thing - you bounce a guy to blow up the balloons.
Beach Head
1983
Arcade game set in a reality of World War 2 - take charge in landing on an island and overwhelming the defenders.
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