Space Invaders

Space Invaders is an arcade video game designed by Toshihiro Nishikado and released in 1978. His intention was to develop a shooting game with different levels of progress.

Nishikado acknowledges the influence of the film “Star Wars”, released in 1977, on his idea, as well as the novel «The War of the Worlds» by H.G. Wells, and «Break Out», the popular game produced by ATARI.

It was the first game in which enemies shot at you, the first to keep a record score, the first with a soundtrack (albeit a four-note one), and the first with increasing difficulty and speed, although this was originally a «bug», since as there were fewer enemies on the screen, the chips of the time had to do fewer calculations and the faster the action went.

Like many developers of this era, Nishikado was a true one-man band. He was in charge of hardware, programming, sound and art.

With more than 350,000 machines sold and $2 billion in worldwide sales, Space Invaders is the second most successful arcade game of all time, second only to Pac-Man. It turned the video game company into a global enterprise. The success was such that in Japan there was a shortage of 100 yen coins, which were used in the arcades.

Space Invaders was the first great video game created in Japan and inspired a whole generation of designers, and its pixelated aliens are pure Martian pop culture.