Initial planning for the project took two months.
Although Yokoyama was not given explicit instructions to make a shooting game, management expressed desire for him to make a game similar to Galaxian. This new arcade board was named the Namco Galaga and was used in games including Bosconian (1981) and Dig Dug (1982). The second game was instead made for newer hardware as suggested by Namco's Research & Development division. The first of these was King & Balloon (1980), a fixed shooter that is cited as the first video game to incorporate speech. īy the early 1980s the game was becoming harder to sell, so to help clear out inventory, Yokoyama was tasked with creating two new games that could run on the Namco Galaxian board. Namco's first big video game hit in arcades was Galaxian (1979) the game's success led Namco to produce a large number of Namco Galaxian arcade boards to keep up with demand. Galaga was created by Japanese developer Shigeru Yokoyama, a long-time veteran of Namco. The third stage and every fourth thereafter is a bonus stage, where the aliens fly in a preset formation without firing at the player. Enemies become more aggressive as the game progresses, increasing their number of projectiles and diving down at a faster rate. Stages are indicated by emblems located at the bottom-right of the screen. Some enemies can morph into new enemy types with different attack patterns, with one even taking the form of the Galaxian Flagship. The ship will return in a later level as part of the formation. However, destroying a Boss Galaga with a captured ship while it is in formation will instead cause the fighter to turn against the player and act as an alien. Shooting it down as it dives towards the player will result in the captured ship being rescued, and it will join the player's ship, transforming it into a "dual-fighter" with additional firepower and a larger hitbox. Should additional lives remain, the player has an opportunity to shoot down the Boss Galaga holding the captured ship. These aliens can use a tractor beam to capture the player's ship, returning with it to the top of the formation and costing the player a life. Ītop the enemy formation are four large aliens known as the "Boss Galaga", which take two shots to destroy. Similar to Galaxian, aliens will dive towards the player while shooting down projectiles colliding with either projectiles or aliens will result in a life being lost. The objective of each stage is to defeat all of the Galaga aliens, which will fly into formation from the top and sides of the screen. The player mans a lone starfighter at the bottom of the screen, which must prevent the Galaga forces from destroying all of mankind. Gameplay A Boss Galaga uses a tractor beam, while the player exchanges shots with aliens in formation. It was followed by a sequel in 1984, Gaplus. Galaga is also included in many Namco compilations. Several home ports were released for a multitude of platforms, including the MSX, Atari 7800 and Nintendo Entertainment System, alongside releases on digital distribution platforms such as Xbox Live Arcade. Critics applauded its gameplay, innovation, addictive nature and improvements made over its predecessor. It is widely regarded as a classic of the golden age of arcade video games and one of the greatest video games of all time. The project became immensely popular around the company, with Namco's president Masaya Nakamura even taking interest.Īlthough early location tests were unsuccessful, Galaga received critical acclaim and went on to become one of the most successful arcade games, routinely appearing on Japanese and American arcade charts through 1987. Inspiration for the dual fighter mechanic was taken from a film that Yokoyama had seen prior to development, where a ship was captured using a large circular beam. Originally developed for the Namco Galaxian arcade board, it was instead shifted to a new system as suggested by Namco's Research and Development division. Initial planning took about two months to finish. Shigeru Yokoyama led development with a small team.
Some enemies can capture a player's ship via a tractor beam, which can be rescued to transform the player into a "dual fighter" with additional firepower. Controlling a starship, the player is tasked with destroying the Galaga forces in each stage while avoiding enemies and projectiles. It is the sequel to Galaxian (1979), Namco's first major video game hit in arcades. In North America, it was released by Midway Manufacturing. Galaga is a 1981 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco.
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