Posts Tagged ‘figment’
Spaced Invaders is 30 Years Old
To most of us, the Spaced Invaders game will always be a figment of our past. It has addicted a lot of us mature citizens today and incidentally, it would be glad to note that this game which turns 30 years old today is still up and about.
Space Invaders, for the one or two of you who haven’t had the pleasure, is a two-dimensional shoot-em-up in which the player controls the left and right movement of a laser cannon across the bottom of the screen. The player’s cannon is partially protected by several stationary defence bunkers which can be shot away gradually by both the player and the advancing ‘invaders’.
Space Invaders spawned a number of sequels, remakes and remixes on several formats. In 1980 a Space Invaders release on the Atari 2600 console proved to be one of the first ‘killer apps’ and quadrupled sales of the hardware. Some other ports and copycats received a far less enthusiastic reaction however.
Space Invaders is as synonymous with electronic gaming as the guitar is to rock music. It opened the doors for what is now a bigger industry than film or music. The pixilated imagery of the invaders is known across the globe by consumers spanning three generations.
It’s an icon of a time where games were designed to make you want to insert another coin, then another until your pocket money had vanished down that slot at which point you’d stand there and enviously watch the next kid do the same.
(Source) Stuff