Arcade Files · 👾 The golden age (1978–83)

G33Z3R Arcade Files · 19781983

Did Space Invaders really cause a coin shortage?

Space Invaders

Released
1978
Made by
Taito; designed by Tomohiro Nishikado; distributed in the U.S. by Midway
How it played
Rows of aliens march down; you have a cannon and four crumbling shields; they speed up as you kill them
The coin story
The 100-yen shortage in Japan is legend, not documented fact — but the game did earn billions

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The file

The game that started the golden age. The aliens sped up as you cleared them because the hardware ran faster with fewer sprites, and Nishikado kept the bug because it was terrifying.

It was the first game with a high score that saved, which is why kids started staying. The Atari 2600 version in 1980 quadrupled the console's sales and was the first killer app.

Sources: Wikipedia — Space Invaders

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