Galaga Collection
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Galaxian is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade game by Namco and released by Midway.

Gameplay[]

The player controls a starship called the Galaxip, the objective being to clear each round of aliens. The enemies appear in formation towards the top of the screen, with two escort ships, labeled the "Galaxian Flagship" or "Galboss". Enemies will make a divebomb towards the bottom of the screen while shooting projectiles in an attempt to hit the player. The Galaxip can only fire a single shot on-screen, and must wait for it to hit the top before being able to fire another, due to limitations of the hardware. Flagships will make a divebomb with two red escort ships - shooting all three of these will award the player bonus points, with extra points awarded to the destruction of the flagship. Enemy movement will increase as the game progresses alongside the number of shots that the enemies fire. Rounds are indicated by small flags at the bottom of the screen. The game's attract mode featured a slim scenario, reading "WE ARE THE GALAXIANS. MISSION: DESTROY ALIENS".

Description[]

Galaxian expanded on the formula pioneered by Space Invaders. As in the earlier game, Galaxian featured a horde of attacking aliens that exchanged shots with the player. In contrast to Space Invaders, Galaxian added an element of drama by having the aliens periodically make kamikaze-like dives at the player's ship. The gameplay was relatively simple. Swarm after swarm of alien armies attacked the player's ship that moved left and right at the bottom of the screen. The ship could only fire sparingly by default, but rearmed instantly when an enemy was hit. The player would defeat one swarm, only to have it replaced by another more aggressive and challenging army in the next screen. A plain and repetitive starfield scrolled in the background. Galaxian was very successful for Namco and introduced several "firsts". Although true color (as opposed to a color overlay for a game that was otherwise black and white) began appearing as early as 1975, Galaxian took graphics a step further with multi-colored animated sprites and explosions, a crude theme song, different colored fonts for the score and high score, more prominent background "music" and the scrolling starfield, and graphic icons that showed the number of ships left and how many rounds the player had completed. These elements combined to create a look/feel that would set the standard for many other 1980s arcade games such as Pac-Man. The "official" highest score in a game of Galaxian was achieved by Gary Whelan of Manchester, England on August 13, 2004 when he managed to amass a total of 399,290 points. The world record however is accomplished by David Lyne who got a score of 2,010,000 points.

Mini Version[]

Gameplay of Galaxian Mini

In 2000 a Java port was released onto Legacy-type phones called "Galaxian Mini" that was a remake of Galaxian with small formations of enemys to shoot.

Ports[]

  • Atari 8-bit family
  • Atari 2600
  • Atari 5200
  • Apple II
  • ColecoVision
  • Commodore 64
  • Famicom (Japan)
  • IBM PC
  • Legacy-type Phones
  • NEC PC-8801
  • Sharp X1.
  • VIC-20
  • ZX Spectrum.
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