Developed by Namco and released in Japan in October 1979, Galaxian was imported to North America by Midway that December and the UK shortly afterwards. It established itself as one of the most popular games of its era and is remembered fondly by those of us of a certain age.
Galaxian was a hugely successful ‘fixed shooter’ 1 or 2 player game in which the player controls a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and shoots enemies descending in various directions. It was designed to compete with Space Invaders, Taito’s landmark game which was released a year earlier. (Space Invaders was also imported to the US by Midway Games).
Galaxian did very well for Namco and introduced several innovative features. Although not the first colour video game, Galaxian took screen graphics a step further with multi-coloured animated sprites and explosions, different coloured fonts for the score and high score, the scrolling star field, and graphic icons that show the number of lives left and how many stages the player had completed.
It spawned an even more successful and long-lived sequel, Galaga in 1981, and the lesser-known Gaplus and Galaga ’88 in 1984 and 1987 respectively.
