Space Invaders
1978 · Fixed Shooter · Arcade
Overview
Space Invaders is a 1978 Taito arcade game that single-handedly transformed the video game industry into a global phenomenon. Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, the game has players move a laser cannon horizontally across the bottom of the screen, shooting waves of descending alien invaders before they reach the ground. It was so popular in Japan that it caused a national shortage of 100-yen coins and was credited with quadrupling the size of Japan's arcade industry. Space Invaders was the first game to introduce persistent high scores, inspire dedicated fan communities, and prove that video games could be a dominant entertainment medium.
Deep Dive
Tomohiro Nishikado designed and programmed Space Invaders over one year, creating custom hardware because the available microprocessors couldn't handle the game's requirements. The aliens moved faster as fewer remained on screen — originally an unintentional side effect of the hardware processing fewer sprites, but Nishikado kept it as deliberate design when he saw how well it worked. The game introduced concepts like escalating difficulty, multiple lives, and the persistent high-score display. Atari paid $11 million for the home console rights, and the Atari 2600 version became the first killer app in console history, quadrupling the console's sales. By 1982 the game had grossed over two billion dollars, making it the highest-grossing entertainment property in history at that time.
Developer Story
Space Invaders was designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, a Taito engineer who spent a year building both the game and the custom hardware to run it. Nishikado was inspired by Breakout, Star Wars, and H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. He hand-drew and pixel-painted every alien sprite. Space Invaders was the first game to save high scores permanently and the first to build suspense through procedural audio — the iconic four-note bassline sped up as fewer aliens remained.
Did You Know?
- Space Invaders caused a coin shortage in Japan — Taito's game consumed so many 100-yen coins that the government had to triple production of the coin.
- Nishikado designed humans as the original enemies, but changed them to aliens after consulting with Taito about the ethics of shooting people.
- The game originally ran too slowly when all 55 aliens were on screen. As players shot aliens, the processor freed up and the survivors moved faster — this "bug" became the core tension of the game.
- Space Invaders was the first arcade game to save the high score after the machine was turned off.
- When licensed to Atari for the 2600, it became the first "killer app" for a home console — quadrupling 2600 sales in 1980.
