Trendsetters: The 10 Most Significant Games
8/26/2008 6:16 PM | 9 Comments | Page 6 of 10
Steve Kent
Status: Have you figured out the status secret yet?
Space Invaders(Taito, arcade, 1978)
Videogames made their first big splash with
Pong and soon began to fade. Arcades filled up with
Pong-alikes and driving games... and it was dull. There were standouts:
Tank,
Gunfight,
Breakout, and
Death Race all made a mark; but pinball began remained the king of arcade games. Then, in 1978,
Space Invaders changed everything.
"Before
Space Invaders, arcades were dominated by pinball machines and target shooting," says Arnie Katz. "After
Space Invaders, arcades became dominated by videogames.
"
Space Invaders introduced a play mechanic that served the industry very well, particularly in the first golden age with
Galaxian,
Centipede,
Galaga and others. They were all of the same theme."
Space Invaders was so successful in Japan that it caused a coin shortage -- there were so many 100 yen coins out of circulation because they were sitting in
Space Invader cabinets that the government had to increase production.
Space Invaders popularized rather than introduced shooters. There had been games in which players controlled fighter jets before
Space Invaders. But
Space Invaders, with its undaunted attackers, brought new excitement. It also attracted unheard-of crowds to arcades. At a time when companies considered games that sold 10,000 copies a success,
Space Invaders sold 300,000 arcade machines worldwide.
"When we saw the success of
Space Invaders in arcades, it motivated everybody to do videogames. It was a big motivation," says Minoru Arakawa. "It was so successful as a coin-op game that it changed the structure of all the coffee shops and bars."
In fact, Nintendo's first successful coin-op game was
Radar Scope, a
Space Invaders rip-off. Nintendo, however, overestimated the appeal of
Radar Scope and built more machines than it could sell, leading to the creation of a conversion kit for the game called
Donkey Kong.
While creating
Asteroids, Ed Logg looked to
Space Invaders as his inspiration, the idea being to create a
Space Invaders game in which the aliens attack from all sides. Dave Theurer also took inspiration from the game when he created
Tempest, a game originally conceived as a 3-D version of
Space Invaders.
But the real impact of
Space Invaders remains the effect it had on arcades. The American arcade business rose from tens of millions of dollars in the mid 70s to a $4 billion crescendo in 1981. That growth started with
Space Invaders.
The significance of
Space Invaders does not begin and end with the golden age of arcades, however. In 1980, Atari CEO Ray Kazar decided to license
Space Invaders for the Atari 2600. It was the first time a console game company licensed an arcade hit. For the next decade, consoles would live and die by the arcade hit. While arcade properties are not an important part of the home game business today, licensing properties such as James Bond movies remains an important part of gaming.
