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Galaga

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Galaga
galaga.png
Developer(s)Namco
Publisher(s)Midway
Namco
Platform(s)Arcade, NES, MSX, Game Boy Color, Atari 7800, BBC Micro, Sega SG-1000, Xbox Live Arcade, Virtual Console, Mobile phone
Release1981
Genre(s)Fixed shooter
Mode(s)Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Arcade systemNamco Galaga

Galaga is a fixed shooter arcade game and the sequel to Galaxian. It was released by Namco in 1981; the US version was released the same year under license to Midway.

Gameplay

Like Galaxian, the player controls a spaceship referred to in-game as a Fighter (which can move only right or left) and shoots at swarms of incoming insect-like aliens that fly in formation above him and occasionally swoop down to bomb him in a kamikaze-like dive. The enemies in the top row will sometimes dive with one or two escorts. Enemies that survive a dive will rejoin the formation from the top. When all enemies are destroyed, the player moves on to the next level. The game is over when the player's last ship is destroyed or captured. Or if the player manages to make it past level 255 (which is level 0) where there is nothing but the player's ship flying in space.

Differences from Galaxian

The game differs from Galaxian in several ways:

  • Two player shots can appear on the screen simultaneously.
  • At the beginning of each level, enemies fly into the formation in groups, which the player can shoot on their way in. In later stages, extra enemies in each group break off and dive at the player.
  • Boss Galagas (green-and-yellow aliens that replace the Galaxian Flagship) take two hits to destroy. They also occasionally stop in mid-dive and attempt to capture the player's Fighter with a tractor beam. See Captured Fighters below for more information.
  • Galaga introduces a bonus stage, referred to as a Challenging Stage, in which a set of 40 enemies (including 4 Boss Galagas) fly in predetermined patterns. The player's goal is to destroy all 40 enemies before they exit the playfield.
  • Once you collect 3 ships in the original game, the score multiplies by 2 for the remainder of that round.
  • Starting on Stage 4, a single non-boss enemy splits into three special enemies (referred to in Namco Museum as "Fish"), two of which exit the playfield if not destroyed first. Destroying all three of the split enemies yields extra bonus points.
  • When destroyed, the player's Fighter emits a much more realistic explosion sound effect than the effect heard in Galaxian.
  • The game keeps track of all of the player's shots and displays the player's "hit-miss ratio" at the end of the game.
  • In two-player mode, it is possible for an experienced player to play an entire game before the second player gets a first turn.

Captured fighters

File:GalagaStuckSwitch.JPG
Attract mode self-test screen on a Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga arcade unit

Perhaps the most famous element [citation needed] of Galaga is the ability for the player's Fighter to be captured by the enemy. Boss Galagas (the green enemies at the top of the formation) occasionally stop mid-dive and attempt to capture the player's Fighter with a tractor beam. If the Fighter is captured, the boss carries it back up into the formation. If the captured Fighter is the player's last Fighter, the game ends.

The captured Fighter acts as an escort to the Boss Galaga that captured it, and dives down simultaneously with the Boss Galaga. To free the Fighter, the player must destroy the Boss Galaga in mid-dive — if the Boss Galaga is destroyed in the formation, the captured Fighter will attack on its own and leave the playfield, returning with another boss Galaga in the next round.

If the player successfully frees the captured Fighter, the two Fighters join together side-by-side, moving and shooting as one and effectively doubling the player's firepower. If one of the Fighters is hit, only that Fighter is destroyed and the player continues with the surviving one. Because of the obvious benefit of double firepower, a common Galaga strategy is to purposely let a boss Galaga capture a player ship early in the game, then immediately free it.

Ports and re-releases

File:A7800 Galaga.png
Galaga on the Atari 7800

The original arcade version of Galaga has been ported to several systems. These include:

The game has been re-released on the following systems:

Galaga has also been released as part of the Namco Museum series of collections across several platforms:

In 2001 Namco released a "20 Year Reunion / Class of 1981" arcade unit which contained the original Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga games. Some of the original game's bugs are still present in this version. This version added a continue feature, once the player's lives are exhausted, the player can choose to continue or start over.

Namco most recently released Galaga on mobile platforms, starting in 2004. The game is available for play on most game-enabled cell phones, Palm devices and Pocket PCs. [1] In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the game, Sprint is also offering their wireless subscribers the chance to start the game in Dual Fighter Mode.[2].

Legacy

Galaga was successful enough to spawn several follow-up games.

Complete arcade series

  1. Galaxian (1979)
  2. Galaga (1981)
  3. Gaplus (1984)
  4. Galaga '88 (1987)

Two "rapid fire" modifications are available for the arcade version. One replaces chip 3J on the original Galaga CPU board, allowing the player to hold down the fire button and fire continuously. The other modification changes the speed of the player's shots, occasionally causing shots to pass through enemies due to the animation speed.

Galaga Arrangement

In 1995, Namco re-released this game and a game titled Galaga Arrangement, a remake of sorts that featured a number of changes from the original. The game has seen arcade and home console releases on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube releases of Namco Museum.

This game was released alongside Galaga in the Playstation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube version of Namco Museum.

Tekken Galaga Minigame

In 1995, a Galaga mini-game consisting of challenging stages was included in the Playstation version of Tekken.

Galaga: Destination Earth

In 1998, an updated classic version of Galaga was released for Windows, PlayStation, Game Boy Color called Galaga: Destination Earth.

Clones

File:Galaxy Game Screen.png
Galaxy, a Galaga clone for the Commodore 64

Although Galaga was never officially released for the Commodore 64, a game called Galaxy, released by Kingsoft, was an almost exact clone. Gameplay was somewhat slower, but the tractor beam and tandem fire features were included.

A remake of the game was created by Edgar Vigdal in the early nineties for the Amiga called Deluxe Galaga. He also released a Windows compatible version called Warblade.

  • The TV series Lost included a submarine named Galaga, in honor of the arcade game. Writers of the series would often play the game between writing sessions.[1]
  • In 1982, MGM sent a Galaga machine to Matthew Broderick for him to practice prior to shooting the movie WarGames. He practiced for two months and the Galaga arcade unit makes two appearances in the film.[2]

Further reading

  • Sellers, John (2001). Arcade Fever: The Fan's Guide to the Golden Age of Video Games. Running Press. pp. 160 pages. ISBN 0-7624-0937-1.

References

  1. ^ Official Lost Podcast/April 16, 2007
  2. ^ Matthew Broderick - Fact File
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