Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Astrocade, IBM PC, ColecoVision, Intellivision, MSX, Famicom, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, handheld, mobile phone
Release
JP: September 15, 1979[2][3]
NA: November 1979[1]
EU: November 1979[4][5]
Genre(s)
Fixed shooter
Mode(s)
1-2 players alternating turns
Galaxian[a] is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, who dive down towards the player in an attempt to hit them.
Designed by company engineer Kazunori Sawano, Galaxian was Namco's answer to Space Invaders, a similar space shooter released the previous year by rival developer Taito. Space Invaders was a sensation in Japan, and Namco wanted a game that could compete against it. Sawano strove to make the game simplistic and easy to understand. He was inspired by the cinematic space combat scenes in Star Wars, with enemies originally being in the shape of the film's TIE Fighters. Galaxian is one of the first video games to feature RGB color graphics and the first ever to use a tile-based hardware system, which was capable of animated multi-color sprites as well as scrolling, though the latter was limited to the starfield background while the game itself remained a fixed shooter.
Galaxian was Namco's first major arcade video game hit. It was the second highest-grossing arcade video game of 1979 and 1980 in Japan and the second highest-grossing of 1980 in the United States, where it became one of the best-selling arcade games of all time with 50,000 arcade units sold by 1982. The game was celebrated for its gameplay and usage of true color graphics. In retrospect, it has gained fame for its historical importance and technological accomplishments. Its success led to several sequels and reimaginings; most notable of these is Galaga, which usurped the original in popularity. Galaxian has also been ported to many home systems and is included in numerous Namco compilations.
^"L.A. Distrib Holds 6th Annual Show" (PDF). Cash Box. 15 December 1979. p. 41.
^Cite error: The named reference Court was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Galaxian. (Registration Number PA0000059977)". United States Copyright Office. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
^Meades, Alan (25 October 2022). "5: Pings, Pongs, and Pioneers". Arcade Britannia: A Social History of the British Amusement Arcade. The MIT Press. pp. 121–144. doi:10.7551/mitpress/12420.003.0009. ISBN 978-0-262-37234-3.
^ ab"Video Game Flyers: Galaxian, Namco (Germany)". The Arcade Flyer Archive. Killer List of Videogames. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
^Szczepaniak, John (11 August 2014). The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers (First ed.). SMG Szczepaniak. p. 201. ISBN 978-0992926007. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
^Kiya, Andrew (17 October 2021). "Former Namco Pixel Artist Hiroshi 'Mr. Dotman' Ono Has Died". Siliconera. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
^"Untold Stories of the Creation of PAC-MAN – Part 1 – Interview with Toru Iwatani, Toshio Kai, Shigeichi Ishimura, Akira Osugi, Tadashi Yamashita, Hiroshi Ono, Yoichi Haraguchi, Akiyoshi Sarukawa, and Katsutoshi Endo". Asobimotto. Bandai Namco Entertainment. 17 June 2021. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
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