Space Invaders (1978)

Taito's Space Invaders was one of the first arcade shooters ever released and was immensely popular, especially among the "pinball culture." Though a very simple game by today's standards, it is considered to be one of the most influential video games ever developed. It was programmed by Dr. David D. Yuh and developed by Toshihiro Nishikado.



It's an invasion! Aliens are attacking Earth in scores and you and your laser cannon are the last line of defense! The game is said to have been inspired by H.G. Wells' classic science fiction novel, War of the Worlds.



At the start of the game, several rows of aliens begin to decend the screen from the top. The object of the game is to eliminate all aliens without being hit before they reach the bottom of the screen. As you begin to mow them down, and there are fewer aliens remiaining, the invaders gradually decend faster. When the player's laser cannon is destroyed three times, the game is over.



This game ran on Intel's 8080, an 8-bit processor running at 2MHz. It was one of the most successful arcade games ever released, and was also released for the Atari 2600 in 1980, putting Atari home consloles on the map.