Galaxian

Galaxian (ギャラクシアン) is an arcade game developed by Namco in 1979. It was published by Namco in Japan and was imported to North America by Midway in 1980. A fixed shooter-style game in which the player controls a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and shoots enemies descending in various directions, it was designed to compete with the successful earlier game Space Invaders.

The game was highly popular upon its release, and has been a focus of competitive gaming ever since. It spawned a successful sequel, Galaga, in 1981, and the lesser known Gaplus in 1984, as well as many later ports and adaptations. Along with its sequel, it was among the most popular games during the golden age of arcade video games.

Galaxian expanded on the formula pioneered by Space Invaders. As in the earlier game, Galaxian featured a horde of attacking aliens that exchanged shots with the player. In contrast to Space Invaders, Galaxian added an element of drama by having the aliens periodically make kamikaze-like dives at the player's ship, the Galaxip. This made it the first game to feature enemies with individual personalities. The game's plot consisted of a title screen that displayed the message "WE ARE THE GALAXIANS / MISSION: DESTROY ALIENS".

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