Space Invaders

About Space Invaders

Space Invaders is a 1978 fixed shooter video game developed and published by Taito for arcades. Taito released it in Japan in July 1978 and overseas through a partnership with Midway Manufacturing later that year. Space Invaders was the first video game with endless gameplay and the first fixed 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.

Space Invaders is considered one of the most influential and greatest video games ever, having ushered in the golden age of arcade video games, as well as Japan's long-lasting success in the video games industry. It inspired several prolific game designers to join the industry and influenced numerous games across different genres. The game has been ported and re-released in various forms, including the 1980 Atari 2600 version, which quadrupled sales of the Atari 2600 games console and became the first killer app for video game consoles. The pixelated enemy aliens have become pop culture icons, 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.