Space Invaders - A Blast from the Past!
Space Invaders is considered one of the forerunners of modern video gaming. The arcade video game was designed by Tosshihiro Nishikado in 1978. It was originally manufactured by Taito and licensed for production by the Midway division of Bally for the United States.
The success of Space Invaders made the entertainment industry take notice of the growing video game market. Within the first year of its release, the game had generated $100’s of millions in revenue – with the majority of it coming from kids in the United States. The video game frenzy among the kids was so strong that some kids resorted to panhandling for quarters so that they could continue playing the games. And on the other side of the planet, the game caused a coin shortage in Japan until the Yen supply was quadrupled.
One of the reasons for Space Invaders success was its new style of game play. Up until its release, video games were timed to a clock and would end once the players’ time was up. With Space Invaders, the game ended only when the players had exhausted the three allotted “lives” or when the invaders landed on the bottom of the screen. A person could play as long as their skill level allowed.
According to the Stratford Video Gaming Records, 1980 Premiere Edition, Eric Furrer (age 12) of Toronto, Canada, set a record of playing Space Invaders for 38 hours and 30 minutes and scored 1,114,020 points.
How do you match up to Eric’s record?
The success of Space Invaders made the entertainment industry take notice of the growing video game market. Within the first year of its release, the game had generated $100’s of millions in revenue – with the majority of it coming from kids in the United States. The video game frenzy among the kids was so strong that some kids resorted to panhandling for quarters so that they could continue playing the games. And on the other side of the planet, the game caused a coin shortage in Japan until the Yen supply was quadrupled.
One of the reasons for Space Invaders success was its new style of game play. Up until its release, video games were timed to a clock and would end once the players’ time was up. With Space Invaders, the game ended only when the players had exhausted the three allotted “lives” or when the invaders landed on the bottom of the screen. A person could play as long as their skill level allowed.
According to the Stratford Video Gaming Records, 1980 Premiere Edition, Eric Furrer (age 12) of Toronto, Canada, set a record of playing Space Invaders for 38 hours and 30 minutes and scored 1,114,020 points.
How do you match up to Eric’s record?
posted by I'm not Bob Vila... at
10:03 AM
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