Proudly Serving All Of North Texas!
Call us!: (940) 231-1211
Scott@HyperspaceArcade.com
Open 6 Days A Week
CLOSED FRIDAYS
 |
Few inventions catch on right away. Most of them spend a few years in existance before they either disappear or something happens to help them catch on. Video games were no different...
While Pong made the games known and later releases such as Sea Wolf and Breakout helped bring in a few gaming fans, the whole video game industry had just not caught on. Nobody really lined up to play coin-op games and home gaming systems were not selling well. Then, in 1978, the invasion began.
Japanese game company Taito, who had previously tasted a little success with licensing Gun Fight to Midway in 1975, had created one of the first video games with a microchip. It was based on space battle, with a base on the bottom of the screen that would attempt to defend the earth from a group of marching aliens. The game, of course, was Space Invaders.
While Pong made the games known and later releases such as Sea Wolf and Breakout helped bring in a few gaming fans, the whole video game industry had just not caught on. Nobody really lined up to play coin-op games and home gaming systems were not selling well. Then, in 1978, the invasion began.
Japanese game company Taito, who had previously tasted a little success with licensing Gun Fight to Midway in 1975, had created one of the first video games with a microchip. It was based on space battle, with a base on the bottom of the screen that would attempt to defend the earth from a group of marching aliens. The game, of course, was Space Invaders.
To say that Space Invaders was a hit in Japan would be like saying that the 2007 New England Patriots scored a couple of points. Space Invaders caused the entire Japanese culture to go mad. Coffee shops threw out all of their tables and replaced them with Space Invaders cocktail table games. Taito had to deliver the games at the dead of night in unmarked trucks to prevent having their shipments hijacked. In fact, the game was so popular, it caused a shortage of the 100-yen coin that was used to operate it. The mints in Japan had to triple production of the coin to compensate for all the coins finding their way into Space Invaders machines. All told, an earth shattering 350,000 Space Invaders games were manufactured for Japan, one machine for every 300 or so citizens!
Months after release, Midway and Taito talked about bringing Space Invaders to the United States. An agreement was reached, and Space Invaders began to hit American arcades in late 1978. Midway looked on and smiled as gamers began to line up to play. Some 70,000 machines were produced for the states, shattering the arcade sales records of the time and remaining an all time best selling machine to this day.
The game not only sparked never before seen interest in arcades, but kicked off the era of home video gaming. In late 1979, Atari acquired exclusive rights to produce Space Invaders for their Atari Video Computer System. The VCS, (later renamed the Atari 2600), had not been selling well for the first two years of it's release. But once it was announced that Space Invaders had become available for the system, sales blew through the roof.
The game was also the first game in which players would hold lengthy discussions of strategy. Perhaps the most important discovery for Invaders players was the discovery of how to nail the maximum points on the flying saucer each time. As most will remember, a saucer would occassionally appear during each wave of the game, and would give the player from 50-300 points when shot. Someone discovered that the score was not determined by random events, but rather by the number of the shot the player had rung off. Expert gamers soon mastered the art of counting shots and nailing 300 point saucers right and left, scoring as high as 100,000 points according to some printed reports from the era (officially recognized world record is 55,160).
Interestingly enough, one of the games most popular features came across by accident. Of course, as more and more invaders were blown away, the remaining ones would speed up. This was not a planned feature, rather, the hardware would budget a certain amount of memory to moving the invaders. As less invaders remained, the memory had more of a budget and the surviving attackers would speed up. It remained in the game.
The titanic success of Space Invaders was followed up on in 1980 with the release of Space Invaders Part II, (also dubbed Deluxe Space Invaders). It rose from the dead again in 1989 with Super Space Invaders, followed by Majestic Twelve in 1991. The stubborn aliens also made a cameo appearance in 1980's GORF. The invaders were the key players in a now classic episode of the Futurama cartoon, and also still have merchandise for sale in many stores today.
While much more entertaining clones such as Galaga appeared the following years, Space Invaders still remains as an all time classic. It was truly the game that helped bring video games into the public eye, and started the momentum toward the early eighties, when video games became an international phenomenon.
Website Content © 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Hyperspace Arcade Entertainment. All game names, graphics, and logos are copyrights of their respective owners.
Months after release, Midway and Taito talked about bringing Space Invaders to the United States. An agreement was reached, and Space Invaders began to hit American arcades in late 1978. Midway looked on and smiled as gamers began to line up to play. Some 70,000 machines were produced for the states, shattering the arcade sales records of the time and remaining an all time best selling machine to this day.
The game not only sparked never before seen interest in arcades, but kicked off the era of home video gaming. In late 1979, Atari acquired exclusive rights to produce Space Invaders for their Atari Video Computer System. The VCS, (later renamed the Atari 2600), had not been selling well for the first two years of it's release. But once it was announced that Space Invaders had become available for the system, sales blew through the roof.
The game was also the first game in which players would hold lengthy discussions of strategy. Perhaps the most important discovery for Invaders players was the discovery of how to nail the maximum points on the flying saucer each time. As most will remember, a saucer would occassionally appear during each wave of the game, and would give the player from 50-300 points when shot. Someone discovered that the score was not determined by random events, but rather by the number of the shot the player had rung off. Expert gamers soon mastered the art of counting shots and nailing 300 point saucers right and left, scoring as high as 100,000 points according to some printed reports from the era (officially recognized world record is 55,160).
Interestingly enough, one of the games most popular features came across by accident. Of course, as more and more invaders were blown away, the remaining ones would speed up. This was not a planned feature, rather, the hardware would budget a certain amount of memory to moving the invaders. As less invaders remained, the memory had more of a budget and the surviving attackers would speed up. It remained in the game.
The titanic success of Space Invaders was followed up on in 1980 with the release of Space Invaders Part II, (also dubbed Deluxe Space Invaders). It rose from the dead again in 1989 with Super Space Invaders, followed by Majestic Twelve in 1991. The stubborn aliens also made a cameo appearance in 1980's GORF. The invaders were the key players in a now classic episode of the Futurama cartoon, and also still have merchandise for sale in many stores today.
While much more entertaining clones such as Galaga appeared the following years, Space Invaders still remains as an all time classic. It was truly the game that helped bring video games into the public eye, and started the momentum toward the early eighties, when video games became an international phenomenon.
Website Content © 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Hyperspace Arcade Entertainment. All game names, graphics, and logos are copyrights of their respective owners.