back to article Thirty-five years ago today: Space Invaders conquer the Earth

Tomohiro Nishikado already had a string of almost a dozen arcade games under his belt when he started on what was to become the best remembered - certainly the most played - game he was ever to create: Space Invaders, released in Japan 35 years ago this month. Nishikado was an engineer who had joined vending machine company …

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  1. LesC
    Go

    TTL Heaven!

    Jeezus look at all that LS / TTL decode logic, 74154 and all these latches, counters and w.h.y. It's been a very long time.... had me reaching for the manuals, um, Google as i'd forgotten what a 74166 and what not did! Excellent.

  2. Tony Pomfret
    Happy

    I met Tomohiro Nishikado while working at Software Creations (Manchester) in 1990... he was a polite, humble small gentleman but I still bowed to him as if he was a god!

    Space Invaders was a game that set the stage for future gaming creations and Tomohiro was quite simply a genius of his time and in my heart and mind he still is.

  3. Eaten Trifles
    Thumb Up

    Boot Hill

    I remember seeing the cowboys and cactus one in an amusement arcade in Porthmadog, circa 1980.

    It wasn't called "Western Gun" though. It was called "Boot Hill" and was brilliant.

    1. slime

      Re: Boot Hill

      Thanks! I was struggling to remember what it was called, remember playing it with my dad at Mannings in Felixstowe. It was the only one he'd play, other than Pong.

    2. JQW

      Re: Boot Hill

      Boot Hill was the sequel to Gun Fight/Western Gun. The main difference was the display, which on the sequel was backlit.

  4. Jens Tingleff
    Go

    They're still everywhere!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invader_%28artist%29

  5. ecofeco Silver badge
    Coat

    Dun dun, dun dun, dun dun, dun dun, dun dun

    PHEW! PHEW! PHEW!

  6. john41
    Pint

    Original and the best

    Played this in City Poly college bar in '78, never got as good as the experts but still managed some reasonable scores. Counting shots was the key to getting maximum points from downing the mystery ships at the top (was it 21, then 13?).

    Never really liked any of the other versions - this was perfection.

  7. Trustme
    Pint

    A pint for all the happy memories :)

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Some Space Invader pretenders could never...

    ...get them to move properly! If they only studied the game even slightly they'll realise that one moves every frame, making the speed up natural when their numbers decrease.

    And the bass movement sounds are four semitones around D! ( Oh crap, I never thought I would actually write that down ;) )

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