Galaxian was the last of the first arcade games, featuring as it did a lone, undergunned ship battling against several rows of relentlessly descending invaders from space – much like Space Invaders, come to think of it. It would be harsh and wrong to simply dismiss it as a Space Invaders clone, however, so whatever you do, don’t.

Released in 1979, Galaxian bought a host of innovations to the table.  In fact, it bought the table itself, being the first commercially viable non-cabinet arcade game. This new table top format proved popular with arcade owners who noticed that players purchased more space dust, Quattro and non-sugarfree sticks of Juicy Fruit while sitting down, and were also more likely to place cigarettes in an ashtray, rather than perch them on the cabinet housing, melting the vinyl decorations and releasing highly toxic fumes.

So, let’s list the innovations. Firstly, it introduced multi-coloured sprites and explosions, without mucking about with coloured overlay sheets.  Secondly, it had a crude theme tune, which was rubbish but a significant leap nonetheless.  Thirdly, it had a scrolling background, giving the impression of hurtling though space, albeit at a number of adversaries who were also hurtling through space, backwards.  Fourthly, it had graphic icons showing how many ships the player had left, and while the numbers between one and three are not especially difficult to remember, there WAS a lot of sugary food and toxic fumes about in early arcades, as we have observed. Fifthly, the player’s score was displayed in a different colour to the rest of the screen which, yes alright, doesn’t rank alongside gene splicing or going to Mars as a scientific breakthrough, but was a big deal in 1979. Any successful arcade game at the turn of the ’80s has inevitably had a far reaching impact upon the gaming genre, and Galaxian is no exception. Most notably, Namco used the overall feel of the game as a basis for Pac-Man, which incorporated many of its stunning-at-the-time visual effects.

Gameplay was significantly different to Space Invaders too, largely due to small squadrons of suicidal aliens who would peel off from the main formation and fly straight at your ship, which was improbably titled the Galaxip. This kind of behaviour only served to underline the sage wisdom behind the title screen, which read ‘We are the Galaxians! Mission? Destory Aliens!‘.  Among the most enthusiastic adherants of this rather grumpy welcome was Aart Van Vleit, who in 2009 set a new world record of 1,653,270 in a single coin game that had presumably been going on for several years.  The interstellar security the Earthlings enjoy today is in no small part due to his efforts.