Namco Galaxian: And then there was colour!

1979. The year arcade games got proper colour graphics and also the year Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned and seized political power in Iran. But, really, who was responsible for this? The Shah? The US? Atari? Imperialism in general? Simple, it was Galaxian. The first ever colour video game and thus the first game to put a stop to the utterly disgusting habit of sticking colored cellophane across monochrome displays.

Galaxian, a Namco creation and a glorified Space Invaders clone (ok, an evolution of the Space Invaders concept then) is one of the bestselling coin-ops ever and a ridiculously successful video game, that has already spawned almost 20 sequels on platforms ranging from the PSP, to the Game Boy Color to the ZX Spectrum. As for the remakes and ports, well, they are just countless.

To have a taste of some Galaxian gameplay, or to simply remember those glorious arcade years, you could be cheap and try this decent online version, irrational and purchase the rather mediocre Namco Museum 50th Anniversary or even be truly adventurous and hit the road in search of old arcades, bootlegged whiskey, good jazz and that beat mentality of yore. Mind you, even though underage gamers are not allowed to go all Kerouac, they will definitely enjoy this classic shmup. It's much faster, definitely creepier (it's insectoid thingies you're fighting here) and way more polished than Space Invaders, thus still astonishingly addictive.

On the other hand, if finding out more about Galaxian is all you're here for, then by all means do try some of those lovely hand-picked links:

• The rather unofficial Galaxian homepage
• Galaxian @ KLOV
• Galaxian flyers
• The obligatory Wikipedia entry
• and the MobyGames one

Related @ Gnome's Lair: Peter Favaro on Alter Ego, Mean Machines issue 0, Adventure, Guitar Hero C64


Related Tags: Galaxian, Namco, Midway, Retro gaming, Arcades, Shmup, Coin-op, Retro, Games, Game, Space Invaders, Video games