A series of arcade video game retrospectives wouldn’t be complete without Taito’s seminal Space Invaders. Was it really responsible for coin-op gaming’s golden era? Dan Snook thinks so…
DU, du, du, du… The slow, rhythmic, descending four-note loop that accompanied the advancing phalanx of Invaders, to my game-obsessed mind, was a metaphor for the entire industry, for it wasn’t long after the game’s 1978 debut that true diversity in arcades really began to emerge.
Pong’s 1972 entrance was rightly credited as the beginning of mass-produced commercial games, but up until Taito released its now classic extra-terrestrial shooting gallery the whole scene had almost ground to a halt. Space Invaders changed everything. In fact, if it wasn’t for developer Tomohiro Nishikado’s creation, I’d argue that Pac-Man may not have even existed. I’ll explain.
