Prior to the release of Space Invaders in 1978, the Taito corporation of Japan was a manufacturer of Pachinko games. (Players drop balls into a coloured playfield and guide them into holes to win points). Space Invaders was the brainchild of Toshihiro Nishikado, who originally wanted to have tanks as the targets.

However the computers of the time were too slow to let the tanks turn and move smoothly. The familiar aliens were used to avoid the problem.

There is also an urban legend that Nishikado based Space Invaders on a dream......

'Some Japanese school kids were waiting for Santa to arrive on Christmas Eve. Instead the sky was filled with row upon row of aliens. To fight back, the kids built a laser blaster from the hubcap, spark-plugs and battery of a parked car. They moved left & right, blasting aliens out of the sky. After 4 waves, the aliens gave up and the earth was saved. The next morning the kids were rewarded with extra presents & figgy pudding.'

Nishikado single-handedly designed and programmed the game for Taito. This was not unusual, as many early video games were solo endeavours.

Space Invaders was based on the Intel 8 bit 8080 microprocessor and boasted analogue audio. The colour display was simulated by a transparent red and green colouring gel overlay fitted over a monochrome monitor.

Two circuit boards held the game. The first contained the processor, ROM, RAM and other components for generating the video & playing the game. The second board contained the sound effect circuitry and audio amplifier.

Space Invaders was an instant hit when it debuted in Japan, and hundreds of thousands of machines were produced.

Their popularity even caused a severe shortage of the 100 yen coin used to play. (Japan's Yen supply was later quadrupled). It was so popular that many shops removed their products and converted into Space Invaders parlours overnight. Giant speakers broadcast the 'thump-thump-thump' of the advancing invaders into the streets. When restaurants complained that their customers were playing instead of eating, Taito simply supplied them with sit-down cocktail cabinets, further fuelling the Space Invaders hysteria. Salary-men even skipped work to play. This was the first game to escape the dark arcades into pizza parlours, laundrettes &, of course, the local chippy......

Bally Midway released the game outside Japan. The phenomenon stunned conservative adults who were certain the games soured the minds of their youngsters. Residents of Mesquite, Texas, pushed the issue all the way to the U.S. supreme court in their efforts to ban the illicit machines from the bible-belt community.

As well as boasting very impressive graphics & sound for its time, Space invaders is credited with introducing the concept of the high score to the world. Most games of this period either had a set time limit, or continued forever without changing. Trying to get the highest score gave players a great incentive to play again, and again......

Over 28 years later Space Invaders lives on.