| Space Invaders | |
|---|---|
 Japanese arcade flyer | |
| Developer | Taito |
| Publishers | |
| Designer | Tomohiro Nishikado |
| Composer | Michiyuki Kamei[14] |
| Series | Space Invaders |
| Platform | |
| Release | |
| Genre | Fixed shooter |
| Modes | Single-player,multiplayer |
Space Invaders[a] is a 1978shoot 'em upvideo game developed and published byTaito forarcades. It was released in Japan in April 1978, and released overseas byMidway Manufacturing later that year.Space Invaders was the first video game with endless gameplay and the firstfixed shooter, setting the template for the genre. The goal is to defeat waves of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser cannon to earn as many points as possible.
DesignerTomohiro Nishikado drew inspiration from video games such asGun Fight andBreakout,electro-mechanical targetshooting games, andscience fiction narratives such as the novelThe War of the Worlds, the animeSpace Battleship Yamato, and the filmStar Wars. To complete development, he had to design custom hardware anddevelopment tools to use the features in microprocessor technology, which was new to him. Upon release,Space Invaders quickly became a commercial success worldwide; by 1982, it had grossed$3.8 billion ($10 billion in 2024-adjusted terms),[22] with anet profit of$450 million ($1.2 billion in 2024 terms). This made it thebest-selling video game andhighest-grossing entertainment product at the time, and the highest-grossing video game yet.
Space Invaders is considered one of the most influential andgreatest video games ever, having ushered in thegolden age of arcade video games and Japan's long-lasting global success in thevideo games industry. It inspired several prolificgame designers to join the industry and influenced numerous games across different genres. The game has beenported and re-released in various forms, including the 1980Atari 2600 version, which quadrupled sales of theAtari 2600 console and became the firstkiller app forvideo game consoles. Thepixelated enemy alien has become apop culture icon, often representing video games as a whole. The game has spawned dozens of sequels and remakes, been the inspiration for numerous pieces of art and music, been parodied across media, and been the focus of several pieces of legislation to limit access to video games.
Space Invaders is afixed shooter in which the player moves alaser cannon, referred to as a "Laser Base", horizontally across the bottom of the screen and fires at a group of the titular alien invaders overhead. The invaders begin as five rows of eleven—the amount differs in some versions—that move left and right as a group, advancing on the shooter by shifting downward each time they reach a screen edge. The goal is to eliminate all the invaders by shooting them. Regardless of how manygame lives remaining the player has, thegame ends if the aliens reach the bottom of the screen.[16][23][24][25][26]
The aliens attempt to destroy the player's cannon by firing projectiles. The laser cannon is partially protected by stationary defensebunkers that are gradually destroyed from above by the invaders; the bottom will be destroyed if the player fires when beneath one. As the invaders are defeated, their movement, as well as the accompanying music, speeds up. Defeating all the aliens brings another wave that starts lower, a loop that can continue endlessly. A special "mystery ship" will occasionally move across the top of the screen and award bonus points if destroyed.[16][23][24]
Space Invaders was developed by Japanese designerTomohiro Nishikado, who spent a year designing it and developing the necessaryhardware to produce it.[27][28] Because he worked alone and handmade many of the development tools, the process incurred minimal costs.[29] Taito originally did not credit a designer as anonymity was a required part of Nishikado's contract with the company.[28] The game was a response toAtari, Inc.'s 1976 arcade gameBreakout.[29][30][31][32] Nishikado noted thatBreakout-style games were very popular in Japan in 1977.[29][33] He was a fan of the game and aimed to create something better.[28] The developer wanted to adapt the same sense of achievement and tension from destroying targets one at a time, combining it with elements of targetshooting games.[27][28][30][31][32] The game uses a similar layout to that ofBreakout but with differentgame mechanics; rather than bounce a ball to attack static objects, players are given the ability to fire projectiles at moving enemies.[34]
To improve the design, Nishikado felt the targets should have an interesting shape.[28] Early enemy designs included tanks, combat planes, and battleships.[27][32] Nishikado was not satisfied with the enemy movements; technical limitations made it difficult to animate flying.[27][28][35] The designer believed animating human characters would have been easier to program, but he considered shooting them immoral.[35][36] Nishikado also said that shooting people was frowned upon.[28][32] After seeing the release of the 1974animeSpace Battleship Yamato in Japan,[37][38] and seeing a magazine feature about the 1977Star Wars, he thought of using a space theme.[27][30] Nishikado drew inspiration for the aliens from the novelThe War of the Worlds and created initialbitmap images after the octopus-like aliens.[27][30][32][35] Other alien designs were modeled after squids and crabs.[27][32][35] After creating the pixel art, Nishikado created a tool to animate two frames of movement for each character and adjusted the design on-screen with alight pen.[29] He added the bunkers and the mystery ship to the playing field afterward.[33]
Nishikado added several interactive elements that he found lacking in earlier video games, such as enemies reacting to the player's movement and returning fire, and agame over triggered by the enemies killing the player character rather than simply a timer running out.[30] He replaced the timer, typical of arcade games at the time, with descending aliens who effectively served a similar function, where the closer they came, the less time remained for the player.[31] During the process, Nishikado wanted the game's difficulty to increase the longer the game progressed; he reasoned this kept the gameplay fresh and that the game would earn less if players could play for extended periods.[33] He relied on feedback from his coworkers to balance the difficulty; in retrospect, Nishikado stated that without their input he would have made the game less challenging because he struggled to play it.[28] The game was originally titledSpace Monsters after a popular song in Japan at the time, "Monster", but was changed toSpace Invaders by the designer's superiors.[27][30]
Nishikado designed his own custom hardware and development tools forSpace Invaders.[27][35] The game uses anIntel 8080central processing unit (CPU) and displaysraster graphics on aCRT monitor using abitmappedframebuffer.[36][39] The game outputsmonaural sound hosted by a combination ofanalog circuitry and aTexas Instruments SN76477sound chip.[36][39][40][41] The adoption of a microprocessor was inspired by the 1975 arcade gameGun Fight,Midway's microprocessor adaptation of Nishikado's earlierdiscrete logic gameWestern Gun, after the designer was impressed by the improved graphics and smoother animation of Midway's version.[28][42][43] At the time, Taito had licensed Midway's technology to use in its games. Nishikado used Midway's arcadeboard as amotherboard and created additional boards and circuitry to expand the capabilities.[14]
As microprocessors were manufactured in the United States, Nishikado had to rely on his English skills, which he described as limited, to translate the reference material.[29] He dedicated about six months to studying American games and mastering using a microcomputer. While planning the game, Nishikado made iterative improvements to the hardware.[44] He attributes his previous experience working withintegrated circuits and learningassembly language during his university studies with helping him learn how to interact with the new hardware.[29][33]
To add audio, Nishikado worked with Michiyuki Kamei, who created sound effects for Taito's games.[14][45] Kamei spent four to five months on the audio circuitry forSpace Invaders while also working on another game,Blue Shark. As management had prioritizedBlue Shark, his work onSpace Invaders was hurried in order to have both games ready for an unveiling event in the summer of 1978. Kamei decided to reuse parts and designs from other Taito games to meet the deadline. He replacedresistors andcapacitors to adjust thepitch and duration of sound effects he created forBlue Shark. To create the invaders' moving sound effect, Kamei reused the556 timer integrated circuit fromSuper Speed Race.[14] Kamei felt the first invader sound effects were too comical and changed it after seeing the monster on the cabinet artwork and receiving feedback from Nishikado.[14][45] Aiming to emulate theJaws shark theme, he added resistors to the circuit in order to lower the effect's pitch. Texas Instruments had recently provided Taito free samples of the SN76477 sound chip, which Kamei inspected. Despite the higher cost, he chose it to produce the mystery ship's sound effects because the smaller chip saved space on the board.[14]
Despite the specially developed hardware, Nishikado was unable to program the game as he wanted—the Control Program board was not powerful enough to display the graphics in color or move the enemies faster—and considered the development of the hardware the most difficult part of the process.[27][35] While programming, Nishikado discovered that the processor was able torender each frame of the alien's animation graphics faster when there were fewer aliens on the screen. Since the alien's positions updated after each frame, this caused the aliens to move across the screen at an increasing speed as more were destroyed;[30][46] the accompanying audio sped up as well.[46][47] Rather than design a compensation for the speed increase, he decided to keep thisundocumented feature as agameplay mechanism.[30] In retrospect, Nishikado noted that this aspect made the game more interesting and compensated for the hardware's limitations.[44]
The cabinet artwork features largehumanoidmonsters absent from the game, which Nishikado attributed to the artist basing the designs on the original "Space Monsters" title rather than referring to the in-game graphics.[27] In the upright cabinets, the graphics are generated on a hidden CRT monitor and reflected toward the player using asemi-transparent mirror, behind which is mounted a plastic cutout of amoon bolted against a painted starry background. The backdrop is visible through the mirror and thus appears "behind" the graphics. Both Taito's and Midway's firstSpace Invaders releases have black-and-white graphics with strips of transparent orange and greencellophane over certain portions of the screen to add color to the image. Later Japanese releases feature a rainbow-colored cellophane overlay; later versions had a color monitor and an electronically generated color overlay.[16]
Taito first publishedSpace Invaders on April 19, 1978.[48] The company unveiled the game to businesses in June 1978. The focus of the event wasBlue Shark, which Taito management believed would be more successful, andSpace Invaders was included later during the event planning.[14] By July 1978, the company began mass-producing the game.[49][50] Taito first released anupright arcade cabinet, which it announced in August 1978.[51] The next month, the company released acocktail-table cabinet version, which was namedT.T. Space Invaders in Japan to indicate it was a "table-top" version.[39][52] Taito then submitted atrademark request for the game's name with theJapan Patent Office on September 18, 1978.[53]
Soon after release, the developers became aware of abug with the coin mechanism. Since only a few hundred units had been released at the time, Taito was able to apply a fix by replacing the machines'read-only memory (ROM).[45] Taito also received requests to repair the game's audio, which Kamei discovered resulted from theloudspeaker's paperdiaphragm breaking from usage. The company replaced the diaphragms in existing machines with a more durable version and included the upgrade in future arcade cabinets.[14] Agameplay bug was discovered that prevented the invaders' attacks from harming the laser cannon at very close range.[27][45] Although a programming fix was possible, Taito's management decided against a second ROM replacement; by then, the game's wide-spread popularity made it cost prohibitive.[45] Players eventually adopted the bug as a strategy and named it "Nagoya shooting" and "Wall of Death".[27][45]
The company had installed over 100,000 machines in Japan by the end of the year.[15][54] To cope with the demand, Taito licensed the overseas rights to Midway for distribution outside of Japan near the end of 1978.[1][2][9] Midway released upright and cocktail versions.[55] By December 1978, Taito had to import Midway cabinets into Japan to meet the country's demand. It added Japanese instruction cards to the cabinets and referred to them asSpace Invaders M.[45][56] The company also released a color version ofT.T. Space Invaders that same month.[56] Success prompted Taito to invest in manufacturing and expand globally, leading the company to found a subsidiary, Taito America, in the United States in 1979.[57] Taito then filed a trademark request for its arcade game with theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office on December 10, 1979.[58] The company produced 200,000–300,000 units for the Japanese market by June 1979 and increased production to 25,000–30,000 units per month with Taito projecting to manufacture 400,000 machines in Japan by the end of 1979.[50] By the end of 1979, an estimated 750,000Space Invaders machines were installed worldwide, including 400,000 in Japan and 85,000 in the United Kingdom.[9] Within a year of releasing in the United States, 60,000 units were in the country;[59][60][42] the number of units in the United States eventually reached 72,000 by 1982.[61] Nishikado wanted to design newer hardware to stay competitive, but the widespread demand led Taito to support the existingSpace Invaders hardware by creating new games compatible with it. This provided other companies time to develop technology that could match Taito's.[28]Space Invaders cabinets have since becomecollector's items, with thecocktail andcabaret versions the rarest.[55] At the end of 2003, Taito announced plans to produce 10,000Space Invaders cabinets to sell again for the game's 25th anniversary.[62]
The1980 port to theAtari 2600 was the first officiallicensing of an arcade game for consoles and became the firstkiller app forhome video game consoles after quadrupling the system's sales.[16][63] Other official home releases include a1980 conversion forAtari 8-bit computers and a 1982 release for theAtari 5200 console. Taito released its own version for theNintendo Famicom in 1985 exclusively in Japan. By 1982, versions ofSpace Invaders were available forhandheld electronic game devices, tabletopdedicated consoles,home computers,watches andpocket calculators.[15]
More than a hundredSpace Invadersvideo game clones were released for various platforms.[64] At the time, software and video games were not formally recognized as copyrighted works underJapanese copyright law.[45][65] After the company won a case involving a sequel (Space Invaders Part II) in theTokyo District Court in December 1982, Taito could pursue legal action against unauthorized reproductions.[65][66] Clone examples include the 1979Super Invader forApple computers,Epoch Co.'s 1980TV Vaderdedicated home console, and the 1981TI Invaders for theTI-99/4A computer;[67][68][69] the latter became thetop-selling game for its platform by the end of 1982.[69] Prior to its industry dominance, Nintendo's foray into arcade games consisted of clones of existing popular games, including the 1979Space Invader cloneSpace Fever.[70] The influx of clones led to the term "Invader game" to identify the generic classification of games.[70][65] Unofficial copies dominated the video game market in South Korea, and the market demand for the machine's hardware spurred the early growth ofKorea's semiconductor industry.[71]
Space Invaders initially received mixed responses from within Taito and little interest from Japaneseamusement arcade owners.[28][72] Nishikado's colleagues praised it, applauding his achievement while queuing up to play, whereas his bosses predicted low sales as games often ended more quickly than timer-based arcade games. Whileamusement arcade owners initially rejected it,pachinko parlors andbowling alleys adopted the game;Space Invaders caught on in those businesses, with many parlors and alleys installing additional cabinets.[72] Within months, the game became so popular that specialtyvideo arcades, referred to as "Space Invaders Parlours" and "Space Invaders Houses", opened with nothing butSpace Invaders cabinets.[27][36][73]
A year after its release,Space Invaders became thearcade game industry's all-time best-seller.[74] It remained the top arcade game for three years through 1980.[15] By the end of 1978, the game hadgrossed TaitoUS$670 million (equivalent to$3.2 billion in 2024) in Japan alone.[15][54] By June 1979, each arcade machine was earning an average of$46 (equivalent to $199 in 2024) per day.[50]Space Invaders' popularity propelled it to become the first game that recouped a United States arcade machine's owner within a month of purchasing;[42] prices ranged from $2,000 to $3,000 per machine in 1982.[75] It had grossed more than$1 billion by 1979 (equivalent to$4.8 billion in 2024).[76] In 1981, the game earned$7.7 million weekly in arcades in the United States, second only toPac-Man.[77] TheArcade Awards ceremony was created that same year to honor the best video games, withSpace Invaders winning the first Best Coin-Op Electronic Game award.[78] By 1982, it had grossed $2 billion (equivalent to $6.52 billion in 2024),[79][80] with anet profit of $450 million (equivalent to $2.17 billion in 2024).[80] This made it thebest-selling video game andhighest-grossing "entertainment product" of its time,[79] with comparisons made to the thenhighest-grossing filmStar Wars,[79][80] which had grossed $486 million, with a net profit of $175 million in the early 1980s.[80] By 1982, it had grossed$3.8 billion, equivalent to over$13 billion as of 2016.[22]Space Invaders earned Taito profits of over $500 million by 2008 (equivalent to $730 million in 2024).[27][81]
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Ports have received mixed reviews; theAtari 2600 version was successful, while the Famicom version was poorly received.[16] After selling over1.0 million units its first year, the Atari 2600 port sold over4.2 million copies by the end of 1981, becoming thebest-selling Atari 2600 game until the 1982Atari version ofPac-Man released. By 1983, the Atari 2600 version had sold almost6.1 million cartridges.[82]Bill Kunkel and Frank Laney inVideo magazine found the variants on the arcade game interesting but suggested that purists will probably focus on the original version of the game included.[83] Media writerHoward J. Blumenthal suggested that it requires skilled agility and hand-eye coordination and concluded that it was "a highly competitive reaction game, and one of the best available."[84]Electronic Games magazine writers rated the game a perfect ten overall, noting high rankings for single-player gameplay, while only finding the game's graphics and sound to be merely good.[85] The writers also reviewed the port for Atari's 8-bit home computers, complimenting the game for its excelling gameplay while finding its graphics and sound and enjoyment as a one-player game to be merely "good".[86] Conversely, an editor for thePersonal Computers & Games book found this version to be unfaithful to the original game, recommending Roklan'sDeluxe Invaders for an experience more attuned to Taito's arcade game.[87]
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AllGame | Arcade: 5/5[88] Atari 5200: 4/5[89] SNES: 4/5[90] |
| Eurogamer | Arcade: 9/10[91] |
| Games World | Game Boy: 80%[92] |
| Publication | Award |
|---|---|
| Arcade Awards | Best Coin-Op Electronic Game (1980)[78] |
| VideoGames | Runner-up for Best Game Boy Game (1994)[93] |
| Guinness World Records | Top Arcade Game of All Time (2008)[24] |
| The Times | Most Influential Video Game Ever (2007)[94] |
The game has received a positive retrospective reception decades after its release. In rating the arcade release a perfect five stars, Brett Alan Weiss ofAllgame notedSpace Invaders' groundbreaking features and quick success in the United States.[88] While he pointed out the arcade version's simple graphics and level of engagement haven't aged well, Spanner Spencer ofEurogamer lauded the game's historical impact. He further describedSpace Invaders as the epitome of fundamental gameplay with "no frills" that retro game enthusiasts seek.[91]
Ports of the original received generally positive reviews from video game publications. Weiss rated two of the console ports favorably but slightly lower than the arcade. Comparing it to the Atari 2600 version, Weiss complemented the gameplay of the Atari 5200 release, commenting that the different gameplay is a welcome change from the arcade game, but questioned why both Atari console versions were so similar.[89] Writing forEntertainment Weekly, Aaron Morales ranked it the third top game for the Atari 2600 in 2013, citing how it demonstrated that good ports were possible on the console.[95] Reviewing the Super Nintendo Entertainment System release, Weiss praised the quality of the graphic's reproduction as well as how enjoyable the different modes are to play. Conversely, he noted how simplistic the visual are by contemporary standards and commented that players unfamiliar with older games would find it "archaic".[90]Games World magazine's four reviewers—Dave Perry, Nick Walkland, Nick Roberts, and Adrian Price—praised the release for theGame Boy handheld console. While several noted the nostalgia as a major selling point, they also said that the basic gameplay was dated. Perry and Roberts drew attention to its improved graphics when played on theSuper Game Boy, which they considered the best way to play it.[92] Writing forPolygon in 2019, Jeremy Parish ranked this version the 21st greatest title on the handheld system.[96]
Numerous publications have rankedSpace Invaders among the most important video games. Editors fromFlux andNext Generation magazines listed it on their respective lists of top video games in 1995 and 1996.Flux magazine staff rankedSpace Invaders the top game and lauded the scenario for deviating from the contemporary trend of reality-based simulations. They noted that while most games are classics for being either revolutionary or pure,Space Invaders was both.[97] In placing the game at number 97,Next Generation editors wrote that it "provides an elegance and simplicity not found in later games."[98] Over a decade later,Guinness World Records consideredSpace Invaders the top-rated arcade game in terms of technical, creative, and cultural impact as well as one of the most successful arcade shooting games.[24][99] In 2021, Keith Stuart ofThe Guardian listed it as the third-greatestvideo game of the 1970s.[100]
Several publications have regardedSpace Invaders as an influential game. Ryan Geddes and Daemon Hatfield ofIGN listed it as one of the "Top 10 Most Influential Games" in 2007, citing it as a source of inspiration to video game designers and the impact it had on theshooting genre.[101] Writing forThe Times Online, Michael Moran ranked it the "most influential video game ever" in 2007, citing its "immensely addictive" gameplay and explosive effect on the industry's growth.[94] In describing it as a "seminal arcade classic",IGN's Levi Buchanan listed the game as the number eight "classic shoot 'em up" that same year.[102]1UP.com's Rowan Kaiser ranked it the third "Most Influential Game of All Time" in 2011, callingSpace Invaders "the first video game as a video game, instead of merely aplayable electronic representation of something else" like earlier arcade games.[103]Space Invaders was inducted into theWorld Video Game Hall of Fame in 2016.[104] Nishikado noted that he had little attachment to the game for twenty years following its release.[44] He previously considered an earlier game, the 1974Speed Race, his favorite project overSpace Invaders.[27] After learning how much the game is still played and appreciated decades later, he changed his opinion in the 2010s, recognizingSpace Invaders as his best work.[44]
Space Invaders has been remade on numerous platforms and spawned many sequels. Re-releases includeported and updated versions of the original arcade game, some of which feature different graphics and additionalgameplay options. Sequels feature several modes of gameplay and integrate new elements into the original design.[16]Bally released apinball version in 1980 with no elements of the arcade game present and the aliens resembling thexenomorphs from the filmAlien; Bally was successfully sued over the resemblance toH. R. Giger's designs.[105] It became the third highest-grossing pinball machine of 1980 in the United States.[106] Super Impulse released a miniature version in 2017 as part of itsTiny Arcade series.[107] Numskull Designs created another miniature arcade cabinet in 2023, released in the company's Quarter Arcades line.[44]
Taito has released several arcadesequels. The first wasSpace Invaders Part II in 1979[108][109] featuring color graphics, anattract mode, new gameplay elements, and added anintermission between gameplay.[99][110] This was released in the United States asDeluxe Space Invaders (also known asSpace Invaders Deluxe), but featured a different graphical color scheme and a lunar-city background. Another arcade sequel,Space Invaders II, was released exclusively in the United States. It was in acocktail-table format with very fast alien firing and a competitivetwo-player mode. During the summer of 1985,Return of the Invaders was released with updated color graphics and more complex movements and attack patterns for the aliens.[16] Subsequent arcade sequels includedSuper Space Invaders '91,Space Invaders DX, andSpace Invaders'95, each introducing minor gameplay additions to the original design. Several of the arcade sequels have become collector's items, though some are considered rarer.[55] In 2002, Taito releasedSpace Raiders, athird-person shooter reminiscent ofSpace Invaders.[111][112]Space Invaders Extreme, released on theNintendo DS andPlayStation Portable in 2008, integrates musical elements into the standard gameplay.[113][114] A 2008spin-off forWiiWare,Space Invaders Get Even, allows players to control the aliens instead of the laser cannon in a reversal of roles.[115] Later arcade releases includeSpace Invaders Frenzy in 2017 andSpace Invaders Counter Attack in 2020.[116][117][118] Both games feature two-playerelectro-mechanical gameplay with a large amount of invaders.[119][120]
Space Invaders and its related games have been included invideo game compilations.Space Invaders Anniversary was released in 2003 for thePlayStation 2 and included nineSpace Invader variants.[121] A similar game for the PlayStation Portable,Space Invaders Pocket, was released in 2005.[109][122]Space Invaders,Space Invaders Part II andReturn of the Invaders are included inTaito Legends, a compilation of Taito's classic arcade games released in 2005 on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC.[123][124]Super Space Invaders '91,Space Invaders DX, andSpace Invaders'95 were included inTaito Legends 2, a sequel compilation released in 2006.[125] In 2025, Blaze Entertainment announced it would release a Taito-themed Alpha bartop arcade and a Taito cartridge for theEvercade handheld game console, both which includeSpace Invaders among other classic Taito games.[126]
"Space Invaders and games like it represent the roots of everything we see today in gaming. It represents the birth of a new art form, one that literally changed the world.Space Invaders is important as an historical artifact, no less than the silent films of the early twentieth century or early printed books."
Figures in the video game industry have highlightedSpace Invaders's milestones and the impact they have had.Shigeru Miyamoto, the longtime general manager ofNintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development, considersSpace Invaders thevideo game industry's most revolutionary title.[128] Video game historian Alexander Smith described Nishikado's design of "allowing targets to attack the player" without a timer as "a new paradigm in video games."[129] DeveloperEugene Jarvis noted that many games "still rely on the multiple life, progressively difficult level paradigm" of Space Invaders[130] and that the game's characters, story, and action "laid the groundwork for a whole generation" of video games.[131] Parish creditsSpace Invaders as the first to capitalize on quirky characters, noting that the alien characters' "charm" and "rudimentary sense of personality" helped video games break away from a "realistic simulation" design style—previous games were predominantly inspired by sports and racing.[132] Video game journalists Brian Ashcraft and Jean Snow attribute the introduction of multiplevideo game lives toSpace Invaders.[133] While several publications have credited the game for introducing the concept of saving high scores,Guinness World Records recognizes the 1976 arcade gameSea Wolf as the first to implement the feature.[23][101][99]
Technology journalist Jason Whittaker noted thatSpace Invaders helped action games become the dominantgenre in arcades and on consoles, and he attributes the popularity of shoot 'em ups to the game's simple gameplay rules.[134]Electronic Games writers observed an increase ofscience fiction and space-themed games followingSpace Invaders' release. They noted that many built upon its gameplay throughiterative changes, likeGalaxian and derivatives with a similar style, while others drew inspiration fromSpace Invaders but took the design in new directions, such as Atari'sAsteroids and Activision'sLaser Blast.[135] Scott Osborne ofGameSpy noted the derivative design ofNamco's 1979Galaxian and 1981Galaga games but acknowledged that their innovative changes and refinements made the games very successful in their own right.[136] The game's influence extended to the development ofWilliams Electronics's first game, the 1981Defender; early versions drew heavily fromSpace Invaders before its developer, Jarvis, took it a different direction.[137] Outside shooting games,Sega/Gremlin's 1979Head On adopted the concept of "going round after round" in lieu of a timer after a senior developer from its parent company,Sega, had seenSpace Invaders. The game's designer, Lane Hauck, credits this change toHead On's success.[138]
McCarthy consideredSpace Invaders an early game that shaped the wider shooter genre.[139] In listing it as one of the ten most influential games, Geddes and Hatfield creditedSpace Invaders for introducing design elements that became common place in the industry. The two attributed the popularity of shooting-endless-waves-of-enemies gameplay to the creation of the shoot 'em up subgenre, citing titles likeGalaga,Centipede, andIkaruga as its lineage.[101] Kevin Bowen ofGameSpy noted that numerous titles, likeGalaga andGradius, have been influenced by the gameplay established bySpace Invaders.[23] Edwards also credited it for spawning the shoot 'em up subgenre, which was very prominent in Japan during the 1980s and early 1990s. He noted that though there were several notable shooting games before it,Space Invaders "put it all together" in way unseen before.[36]Gamest magazine staff also considered it the beginning of the shooting game genre, outlining the evolution of titles from fixed shooters, likeSpace Invaders andGalaga, to scrolling shooters, likeScramble and theGradius series.[140]
Writing forGameSetWatch in 2010,Simon Carless noted a similar influence on contemporaryfirst-person shooters likeCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, commenting that it andSpace Invaders share core principles: take cover behind walls and shoot enemies to obtain a high score.[141] Ashcraft credits the game with the origin of thecover system of gameplay, as well as the use ofdestructible barriers.[142] Video game journalist Craig Granell noted that since its introduction inSpace Invaders, the destructible shields concept has become a common-place element in games.[44] In observing the lineage betweenSpace Invaders andWolfenstein 3D, English professor Ronald Strickland commented that the two, as well as all previous first-person shooting games, were grounded on the same theme of "kill or be killed".[143] Interactive media professor Frans Mäyrä made a similar comparison toDoom, commenting that both present a clear challenge to survive by "shooting everything that moves."[144] Nishikado attributed the game's popularity among younger players to these elements, commenting that the more interactive attacks from enemies, coupled with the requirement to defeat them all, made the gameplay more thrilling.[30]
Music scholar Andrew Schartmann wrote that the fundamental audio techniquesSpace Invaders introduced shaped the industry and that the game's immense popularity facilitated a widespread adoption of those techniques. Prior toSpace Invaders, music typically played during introductions or closings. Itslooped music plays during gameplay while the game's interactions generate sound effects, which together Schartmann described as a "rich sonic landscape". He further noted that while the four-note loop seemed "pedestrian", its ability to stir a reaction from players moved video games closer to an art form. The title's changing tempo popularized variability in game music; developers later applied the strategy to pitch, rhythm, form, and other parameters to accommodate nonlinear aspects of games.[145] Karen Collins, a professor of interactive media, echoed similar statements, noting that the combination of introducing continuousbackground music anddynamically changing the pace during gameplay was itself a worthy milestone.[47]
Next Generation editor Neil West citedSpace Invaders's music as an example of great video game art, commenting on how the simple melody's increasing tempo and synchronization with the enemies' movement chills and excites the player.[146]Tommy Tallarico, a video game composer and sound designer, citedSpace Invaders as an example of how video game music is "not a passive linear medium", stating that the interaction elevates the experience to a higher level for the senses. He echoed West's assessment, commenting that the simple beats increased the player's heart rate—instilling a sense of panic—as the invaders approached the bottom of the screen.[147] In describing the audio's increasing pace, video game journalist and historian Bill Loguidice likened the background music to thesound of a heartbeat. He noted that the effect carried forward into other games; for example,Dungeons of Daggorath features a similarheartbeat sound to indicateplayer health.[148] Writing forGameSpot, Glenn McDonald made similar observations about the effect the game's audio and noted a similar technique used inAsteroids.[149]
Space Invaders's success is considered a watershed moment for the Japanese video game industry. Parish calledSpace Invaders Japan's first "hit game".[132] Whittaker remarked that the game was the start of Japanese developers obtaining market success, a trend that culminated in the country's dominance of the industry in mid-1980s.[150] Martin Picard, a scholar of Japanese culture, called the game's release the turning point for the Japanese video game industry, which led to the global spread of the country's gaming creativity.[70]
Numerous publications pointed to the game's success as a catalyst for the video game industry's growth.Electronic Games's editors calledSpace Invaders the impetus behind video gaming becoming a rapidly growing hobby in 1981 and "the single most popular coin-operated attraction of all time."[151]Edge staff ascribed the shift of games frombars andamusement arcades to more mainstream locations, such as restaurants anddepartment stores, toSpace Invaders;[152] by the end of the 1970s, arcade games began appearing in hotel lobbies, airports, and convenience stores.[153] Writing forIGN, Levi Buchanan attributed the launch of the "arcade phenomenon" in North America in part to the title.[102] Whittaker creditedSpace Invaders with ending thevideo game crash of 1977 and ushering in thegolden age of video arcade games.[150] Staff forGame Informer magazine considered it, along withPac-Man, one of the most popular arcade games for tapping into popular culture and generating excitement during the golden age of arcades.[154] Benj Edwards of1UP.com wrote thatSpace Invaders demonstrated video games could compete against the major entertainment media at the time: films, music, and television.[36]
In 1980, Atari sponsored a nation-wideSpace Invaders tournament in the United States.[135][155][156] Media coverage of the tournament helped establishvideo gaming as a mainstream hobby.[135] Video game journalist David McCarthy noted that players continued competing to achieve the highest score forSpace Invaders decades after its release.[99]Twin Galaxies, who officiated and tracked competitive high scores for players, recorded high scores for the arcade version and some of its handheld ports into the 2000s.[157]
Severalgame developers citedSpace Invaders as their introduction to video games. Miyamoto—the creator ofDonkey Kong,Mario, andThe Legend of Zelda—commented that the game incited his interest in video games, leading him to pursue it as a profession.[128] During his time injunior high school,Pokémon creatorSatoshi Tajiri felt inspired to make aSpace Invaders sequel after playing it.[158][159]Hideo Kojima, creator ofMetal Gear, citesSpace Invaders as the first game that "pulled him in".[160] Jarvis began his career at Williams Electronics developing pinball games but pursued arcade games after seeingSpace Invaders's gameplay, leading him to work onDefender.[131][130] He described the industry scene at the time as an "incredible universe now open to video game designers", citing the hype ofSpace Invaders and other popular space games released around 1979.[130] The creators ofDoom,John Romero andJohn Carmack, have named it as their introduction to video games.[161][162] Romero commented that he thought games likeSpace Invaders andTarg opened up creative possibilities because they were not limited by physical materials like pinball and electromagnetic games.[161]Andrew and Philip Oliver, the creators of theDizzy series, ascribed their initial desire for video games toSpace Invaders.[163] Writing forThe Observer, Giles Richards attributed the popularity of the game's home console versions to encouraging users to learn programming, many of which later becoming industry leaders.[164]
Musicians have drawn inspiration for their music fromSpace Invaders. Soon after the game's arcade release, theJapanesesynthpop groupYellow Magic Orchestra reproducedSpace Invaders sounds in its 1978self-titled album and hit single "Computer Game";[165][166] the latter sold over 400,000 copies in the United States.[167] The next year, the band Funny Stuff released "Disco Space Invaders" in Japan and songwritersRussell Dunlop and Bruce Brown released "Space Invaders" in Australia as the group Player One.[166][168][169] The trend continued in 1980 with two more songs titled "Space Invaders"; one onThe Pretenders'self-titled album and another byWGCL disc jockey Victor Blecman.[166][170]
Decades later,Video Games Live performed audio fromSpace Invaders as part of a specialretro "Classic Arcade Medley" in 2007.[171] In honor of the game's 30th anniversary,Taito produced an album titledSpace Invaders 2008 that features music inspired by the game. Released byAvex Trax in December 2008, the album includes six songs that were originally in thePSP version ofSpace Invaders Extreme.[172] Taito produced aSpace Invaders-themed animatedmusic video to promote the album. Initially showcased only in its chain of stores (Taito Station) starting in April 2008, the company later released the video on DVD in October 2008.[173]
Multipletelevision series have aired episodes that either reference or parodySpace Invaders, such asDanger Mouse,[174]That '70s Show,[175]Scrubs,[176]Chuck,[177]Robot Chicken,[178]Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles[179] andThe Amazing World of Gumball.[180] Elements are prominently featured in the "Raiders of the Lost Arcade" segment of "Anthology of Interest II", an episode ofFuturama.[181][182] TheSpace Invaders aliens appear in the French onlineshort filmPixels, whichHappy Madison Productions adapted into afeature film by the same name in 2015.[183][184]
In 2010,Warner Bros. Pictures approached Taito for the film rights to the video game, withMark Gordon,Jason Blum, andGuymon Casady attached as producers.[185] By the time Warner Bros. acquired the rights in 2014,Akiva Goldsman was slated to produce.[186] In February 2015, Daniel Kunka was set to write the script for the production company,Safehouse Pictures.[187] The project stalled until July 2019, when Warner Bros.'s subsidiary,New Line Cinema, announced thatGreg Russo would write the script. Goldsman remained the producer alongside Safehouse Pictures partnersJoby Harold andTory Tunnell.[188] Taito filed the nameSpace Invaders for film production with theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office on July 07, 2021.[189] Years later, Safehouse Pictures brought in Ben Zazove and Evan Turner in August 2025 to write a new script.[190]
Space Invaders has been the subject of several books, such as the 1980Space Invaders byMark Roeder and Julian Wolanski, the 1982Invasion of the Space Invaders byMartin Amis, and the 2006Tomb Raiders and Space Invaders by Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska.[191][192][193] It has been recreated in other video games. Players have used the gameplay mechanics in thesandbox gamesMinecraft andAstroneer to reproduceSpace Invaders.[194][195]Epic Games included a hidden game inFortnite that features gameplay similar toSpace Invaders.[196] In 2020, Taito made theerror page of its website an interactive version ofSpace Invaders.[197]
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Writing forThe New York Times, Jeremy Horwitz comparedSpace Invaders's impact on thevideo game industry to that ofThe Beatles in the pop music industry.[198] Video game journalist Chris Kohler considersSpace Invaders "the first 'blockbuster' video game", stating that it became synonymous with video games worldwide for some time.[199] Many publications and websites use thepixelated aliengraphic as anicon for video games in general, including the video game magazineElectronic Gaming Monthly, technology websiteArs Technica, and concert eventVideo Games Live.[36] Brazilianzoologists Adriano Kury and Carla Barros named a new species ofarachnidTaito spaceinvaders in 2014 due to the resemblance of the species' fleck on its dorsalscutum to aSpace Invaders alien.[200] The invader character was adapted into the "alien monster"emoji in version 10 of theUnicode standard in 2017.[44][201]
The game has permeated numerous cultural aspects of society. In 1981, "Space Invaders Wrist" was documented as an ailment inThe New England Journal of Medicine.[202][203] Technology author and lecturer Tom Forester noted that North American doctors had identified a condition called "Space Invaders elbow" as a complaint in the 1980s.[204] The game became the center of anurban legend that its popularity led to a shortage of100-yen coins in Japan,[27][99][164] but reports from those living in Japan at the time indicate "nothing out of the ordinary" aroundSpace Invaders's release[205] and Nishikado expressed skepticism.[72]Numismatist Mark Fox noted that arcade operators would have regularly emptied their machines, keeping thecurrency in circulation[205] and attributed the myth to lower 100-yen coin productions in 1978 and 1979.[206][205]Highways England launched asafety campaign in 2018 titled "Don't be a Space Invader, Stay Safe, Stay Back"—featuring the game's logo and alien character—to raise awareness on the dangers oftailgating.[207][208]
Several politicians have lobbied to restrict children from accessing the game. In the United Kingdom,George Foulkes proposed aPrivate Member's Bill in 1981 titled "Control of Space Invaders and other Electronic Games Bill" to allowlocal councils to restrict it and similar games vialicensing for its "addictive properties" and for causing "deviancy".[28][209][210][211] The bill was never considered byParliament, as a motion to bring it up was defeated 114 votes to 94 votes.[209][210][211]Guinness World Records recognized this as the "First arcade videogame debated in Parliament".[211][212] In 1981, theIrvington, New York board of trustees proposed a resolution to place age restrictions onSpace Invaders and other arcade games as well as limit the quantity in businesses.[213] A similar restriction occurred inMesquite, Texas, resulting in a court case that was appealed to theSupreme Court of the United States, who ruled the city ordinance unconstitutional in 1982.[36][214]
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Space Invaders has been the subject and inspiration for multiple pieces of art and endeavors. As part of theJapan Media Arts Festival's 10th anniversary in 2006,Space Invaders was one of several video game-related media selected to represent Japanese entertainment; the media were on display at a special exhibit atThe National Art Center in Tokyo. The project selections were compiled by Japan'sAgency for Cultural Affairs via a mix of polling from the general public and industry professionals.[215][216] That same year,Space Invaders was included in the LondonScience Museum'sGame On exhibition, meant to showcase aspects ofvideo game history,development, andculture,[217] and included in theBarbican Centre's traveling exhibition.[218] At the Belluard Bollwerk International 2006 festival inFribourg, Switzerland, Guillaume Reymond made a three-minutestop motion video recreation of a game ofSpace Invaders as part of the "Gameover" project using people sitting in auditorium seats as pixels.[219][220] The GH ART exhibit at the 2008Games Convention inLeipzig, Germany, included anart game namedInvaders!, which featuredSpace Invaders's gameplay with references to theSeptember 11 attacks in the United States.[221][222] The game attracted criticism online and a response from Taito stating that it was "considering all available options – including legal actions." In response, the creator asked forInvaders! to be removed from the exhibit.[222] A bridge inCáceres, Spain, projected by engineers Pedro Plasencia and Hadrián Arias, features a pavement design based onSpace Invaders, with the laser cannon, shots, and several figures visible on the deck.[223] Anonymous Frenchstreet artistInvader has createdmosaic artwork ofSpace Invader aliens around the world,[36][224] including theInternational Space Station andEuropean Space Agency installations.[225][226]
The audio for early arcade games like Pong and Space Invaders was built from analog circuitry, more of a job for an engineer than a sound designer.
Within one year of its US release, an additional 60,000 machines had been sold. One arcade owner said of Space Invaders that it was the first arcade game whose intake "represented a significant portion of the cost of [buying] the game in any one week." That is, it was the first video game that paid for itself within about a month.
By 1980, some 300,000 Space Invader video arcade games were in use in Japan, and an additional 60,000 in the United States.
In fact, figures compiled last year by Replay magazine indicate that the remarkably popular Pac Man created by Midway Manufacturing Co., a subsidiary of Bally Manufacturing Co., singlehandedly earns about $8.1 million a week. That sum would place it about $2 million ahead of movie record-breaker Superman II on Variety's most recent top-grossing films chart. Even its nearest Midway competitor, the legendary Space Invaders game, grosses about $7.7 million.
According to TEC, Atari's arcade game Space Invaders has taken in $2 billion, with net receipts of $450 million. ... They compare this to the box office movie top blockbuster Star Wars, which has taken in only $486 million, for a net of $175 million.
Space Invaders offered a novelty: players had three lives. Those who got good at the game could play for as long as they could keep from being blown to bits.
The gameplay ofDoom is at its core familiar from the early classics likeSpace Invaders ... it presents the player with the clear and simple challenge of surviving while shooting everything that moves.
By the mid-1970s every videogame manufacturer in the world released a Pong clone so that the glut of hardware led to the first crash in 1977. As quickly as they arrived, computer games appeared to be on the edge of extinction, but the arcade market was really only on the verge of a golden age. The renaissance came with Taito's release of Space Invaders in 1978. ... While Taito, a pachinko manufacturer, had kick started the revolution with Space Invaders, most successful games were being manufactured in the USA at this point. From the mid-1980s, however, arcade games and then consoles were dominated for a decade by the Japanese company Nintendo and its rival Sega.
In the UK, the Labour MP George Foulkes led a campaign in 1981 to curb the 'menace' of video games, maintaining that they had addictive properties. His 'Control of Space Invaders and other Electronic Games Bill' was put to the Commons and only narrowly defeated.
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