The objective of Galaga is one that is probably loved by all Entomophobiacs (people with a phobia against insects). That is, you are a space fighter who's solemn goal is to destroy every last one of these space insects! Why there are giant space insets...I have no idea, maybe they didn't want to infringe on something, or the producer hated insects, we may never know. But destroying these "space invaders" scores you points, and you want as many of those as you can get.
 |
| You can see above the insect style enemies, along with their ensnaring tractor beams. |
Now you may of caught my little play on words there. The game is a lot like the game I have posted about before, Space Invaders. That is because it basically is. I know big shocker right, a popular space shooter in the early 80's...when space shooters were one of like 5 styles of game play at the time. Well, this is also because the game Galaxian, that was prequel to Galaga, was designed to compete with Space Invaders. At the time of these game's release, patents were not very widely used.
So it is quite obvious now where the game got its influence from. Besides some major copy right infringements on Taito Corps. (think if Galaga never did come out because of this...mind blower), if patents were used at the time, Galaga is a lot of fun to play. The game is a little difficult without a joy stick, but the style of game play works very well. With the addition of falling enemies and tractor beams, after playing Space invaders, you can see the challenge of the game. This adds a level of excitement to the game that becomes very addicting. The game also has a style of play that began to become very popular all the way up to today's generation of games, that is to lose to win. I know that doesn't make much sense, if you lose how are you suppose to win? The answer is in the tractor beam! "captain it is useless, we are caught in their tractor field" bum bum bummmmmmm... When you your ship becomes captured in an enemies tractor beam, you lose a ship [a life], but your ship gets carried behind the enemy ship. When this happens, you have the chance to shoot down that enemy and re gain that ship. If you do this, you not only regain a ship, but you increase the damage and capabilities of your current ship! This can even double your ship's firepower. So as I said, to lose to win. You lose your ship, with the possibility of winning more power at that expense.
The is also a game that is very pleasing both visually and in the ways of how it sounds. The different sounds as the enemies fall and the tractor beams become active, along with the many different colors and flashing colors, attract people to the game. This works very well for the game because during the game's release, it was produced in arcade cabinets, so the games colors and sounds would attract customers. this increased productivity and revenue.
Though personally I don't really like the game. Well it's not that I don't like the game, it's more I cant play it for more than 10 min. Just like Space Invaders, the repetitiveness of the games just shuts down the fun zone of my brain. those first 10 min though, are still fun don't get me wrong. 11 min is just pushing my attention span though.
As I stated earlier, the game is still a lot of fun to play (before 11 min). I found the increased difficulty of kamikaze enemies, tractor beams, and losing to win game play a great advance in the changes of the styles of games in gaming history.
One last little fun fact, Galaga is even become so extensively popular that Namco celebrated its 30th aniversy, even though they did not for Galaxian. The game is another video game and arcade classic.
References:
http://www.classicarcadegaming.com/forums/index.php?topic=3900.0
http://www.classicgamesarcade.com/game/21637/galaga.html
http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=galaxian&page=detail&id=901
http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=galaga-upright-model&page=detail&id=898
http://www.enotes.com/topic/Galaga
No comments:
Post a Comment