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Space Invaders Facts

Space Invaders Facts
Space Invaders is a video game that was created for the arcade in 1978, by Tomohiro Nishikado and sold by Taito, in Japan, and Midway in the United States. Space Invaders is two-dimensional, with a laser canon controlled by the player which moves back and forth across the bottom of the screen to shoot up and kill aliens that descend upon it. The player's score increases as alien invaders and mystery ships are destroyed. Tomohiro Nishikado spent a year designing Space Invaders, in which time he also developed the hardware required for its production. By the end of 1978 Space Invaders had grossed more than $600 million in Japan, and went on to become the best-selling video game of its time period.
Interesting Space Invaders Facts:
Space Invaders was the first video game that made it possible to save scores and achieve high scores.
The technology of microcomputers of the time could not allow for Space Invaders to work so the game's designer had to create it.
With Space Invaders, music was used for the first time in a game to influence a player's emotions.
The designer of Space Invaders was said to have been influenced by Star Wars, Breakout, and The War of the Worlds while creating the game.
Space Invaders was originally created to be a table top arcade game but when it was released in the west it was converted to the arcade cabinet format.
The term 'Space Invader's wrist' came about because people were concerned that the game would rot player's minds and hurt the wrist by playing for extended periods.
A killer app is a term used to describe a video game that had major impact on sales of game consoles. Other killer apps include Halo and Super Mario 64.
Space Invaders was one of the very first shooting arcade games that went to market and is believed to have contributed to paving the way for more games of its kind.
By 1981 more than $1 billion had been made through Space Invader arcade games.
Space Invaders was the first cartridge video game to be sold that sold more than one million copies.
There was a rumor that there was a shortage of 100-yen coins in Japan when Space Invaders was released because the coins were all being used to play the game. This was never proven.
Space Invaders is also credited with helping to bring video games mainstream as opposed to just being a novelty.
Space Invaders has been parodied in TV shows and has been featured in cultural exhibits.
There have been remakes and even sequels to Space Invaders, including Space Invaders Extreme, Space Invaders Get Even, and Space Raiders.
Space Invaders characters have been featured on many handmade items, and continue to be used for a variety of purposes due to the game's iconic place in video game history.
Space Invaders has appeared in Pixels, The Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
There have been numerous books about Space Invaders published dating as far back as 1982.


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