Space Invaders

A 1978 arcade game by Taito in which players defend against descending formations of alien attackers. Its moving targets, rising tension, and persistent high-score table helped define arcade video games.

Fixed shooter: A shooter game in which the player controls a craft that stays near one edge of the screen. Space Invaders established the fixed-shooter pattern of aiming upward at approaching enemies.
Tomohiro Nishikado: A Japanese game designer who created Space Invaders for Taito. Nishikado designed the game and built much of its hardware and software himself.
Arcade video game: A coin-operated electronic game designed for public play on dedicated hardware. Space Invaders became a defining commercial success for the arcade-game format.
Galaxian: A 1979 Namco arcade shooter featuring alien formations that break away to attack the player. Unlike Space Invaders' marching ranks, its enemies swoop individually toward the player.
Pixel art: Digital artwork built from visible picture elements arranged on a grid. The game's aliens and barriers are assembled from small, legible pixel patterns.
Taito: A Japanese entertainment company founded in 1953 that became a major arcade-game producer. Taito developed and released Space Invaders in 1978.
Video game crash of 1983: A sharp contraction of the North American video-game industry in 1983 and 1984. Space Invaders helped fuel rapid growth in the home-console market that preceded the crash.
Asteroids: A 1979 Atari arcade game in which players maneuver a spaceship and destroy drifting asteroids. It replaces Space Invaders' fixed firing lane with free movement in an open arena.
Game loop: A repeated sequence of actions and responses that structures play in a game. Players move, fire, clear formations, and face a faster next wave.
Breakout: A 1976 arcade game in which a paddle bounces a ball to destroy a wall of bricks. Nishikado cited Breakout as an influence on the challenge of shooting targets.

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