Galaxian
Introduction
Galaxian was developed and published by Namco, released in arcades in 1979 as the company’s answer to the runaway success of Taito’s Space Invaders the year before. Players control a starship at the bottom of the screen, firing upward at a formation of alien insect-like enemies that, unlike the steadily advancing rows in Space Invaders, periodically break formation to dive-bomb the player’s ship in unpredictable individual and group attacks. That diving-attack pattern demanded much faster reflexes and more precise dodging than earlier fixed shooters, and Galaxian is widely credited as the first arcade game to use true multi-colored sprite graphics rather than the monochrome or overlay-tinted displays common at the time. Its commercial success was substantial enough to spawn Namco’s own long-running Galaxian universe, most famously its direct sequel Galaga a few years later, which refined the diving-attack formula into one of the most enduringly popular shooters ever made. Galaxian’s combination of colorful visuals and aggressive, unpredictable enemy behavior helped push the shoot ’em up genre forward at a pivotal early moment in arcade history.
