Space Invaders Thirty Years Later

In 1977 Tomohiro Nishikado, a 33-year-old Japanese computer programmer, was a company employee, like millions of others. In his spare time he played video table-tennis, manoeuvring white paddles up and down a black-and-white TV screen to return a white blob of a ball to his opponent. In the amusement arcades, he had noticed a new game called Breakout, which involved moving a paddle from side to side to hit a ball, in order to destroy a series of blocks at the top of the screen.

One day, Nishikado had an idea. What if the blocks in Breakout could fire back? “I was absolutely hooked on Breakout,” Nishikado recalls. “I had already developed some games, so I wanted to make one that was better than this. I realised that the fun thing about Breakout was the sense of accomplishment when you finish a stage by clearing a set number of targets. At the time, we had heard good things about Star Wars, so I thought it might be a good idea to shoot some aliens.”

It was a great idea, so great that Space Invaders, the game he invented, is still going strong 30 years later, with a new version Space Invaders Extreme, released yesterday.

When Space Invaders arrived in Japanese arcades in 1978, it was a sensation. Entire arcades were given over to the game; at one point, the Japanese Government was forced to mint extra 100-yen coins because, it is said, the game’s cash-boxes were removing so many from circulation.

The following year, it reached Britain, and it hooked me right in – my idea of a perfect Saturday morning as a boy was being given £3 and then seeing how long I could make it last. The first time I managed to clock the machine (score so many points that the score counter returns to zero) is as memorable as my first kiss, but took a lot longer.

Seen from the high-definition flat-screen world of 2008, Space Invaders is laughably simple. Five rows of white aliens march horizontally across a screen, descending progressively towards your laser cannon, which is protected by a series of green buildings. You must destroy all the invaders before they reach the bottom of the screen. As they descend, the aliens drop bombs, which you must avoid. You have three lives, then it’s game over.

It’s simple, but hugely addictive, the frustration of being destroyed keeps you coming back for more. It’s a model of perfect gameplay, but Nishikado wanted more. “I wasn’t particularly happy with the game,” he says. “The capacity of the hardware was very low. I wanted to make it faster and more colourful, but I couldn’t.”

Elsewhere, though, Space Invaders was creating waves. In Kyoto, Japan’s second city, Shigeru Miyamoto, a young graphic artist and amateur cartoonist with no real interest in video games, played Space Invadersfor the first time. Two years out of college, Miyamoto had just landed his first job, with a local company that specialised in producing playing cards but had recently branched out into electronic entertainment. The company was called Nintendo, and over the next 30 years Miyamoto and his team would transform it into an entertainment giant.

The cast of celebrated characters that Miyamoto has created in the scores of games he has personally developed for the company – Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong – is matched only in the 20th century by Walt Disney. Miyamoto’s most recent triumph is the best-selling Nintendo Wii console. His lasting legacy, however, is likely to be the part that he has played in turning a minority activity into a global business. The Mario games alone have sold nearly 300 million copies, and in a recent report, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that the global sales of video games will be worth $68.3 billion in 2012, up from $41.9 billion in 2007. For comparison, music industry sales were worth $11.5 billion last year. And it all started with Space Invaders.

We’ve come a long way in 30 years. Happy birthday, Space Invaders.

A (VERY) BRIEF HISTORY OF GAMING

1977 Atari releases the 2600, its fi rst game console, and the fi rst to use cartridges. It sells over 2 million units by the end of 1980.

1978 The golden age of the arcade begins with Space Invaders.

1980 Pac-Man arrives in arcades, the fi rst video game to come with a named, animated hero.

1981 Donkey-Kong, and Mario (Jump-Man) is born.

1984 Nintendo Famicom, its fi rst home entertainment console.

1986 Launch of NES home console.

1989 Sim City created by Will Wright; Sega launches the Megadrive.

1990 Launch of SNES.

1994 Sony launches PlayStation. Sega counters with Saturn in 1995.

1996 Lara Croft’s debut; Nintendo 64 offers 3D.

1999 Sega launches Dreamcast.

2000 PS2 launch followed in 2001 by Nintendo GameCube and Gameboy Advance; Microsoft Xbox. Sega quits console business.

2004 Nintendo PSP in 2005.

2006 Next-gen consoles Xbox 360 and PS3, plus the Nintendo Wii.

Space Invaders Extreme is out on Sony PSP and Nintendo DS

[Via TimesOnline]

By Nigel Kendall

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