Throughout the 1970s and up to the early 1980s a bunch of culture-shaping video games were produced. These classics were the start of a revolution whose consequence was a new entertainment industry that nowadays surpasses all the others in revenue. The road was bumpy though, with a lot of prejudice originating in different sectors for varying reasons keeping the audience restricted and two major crashes due to overcrowded markets almost putting a stop to the fast growing hobby. The first crash happened in 1977 and a new game single-handedly solved it within a year. That game was developed solely by Tomohiro Nishikado (who also built the custom hardware he needed for it) for Taito and it's called Space Invaders.
The seminal shoot 'em up, that brought the action genre to the center stage, had so much success that it supposedly led to a shortage of 100 yen coins (used in Japan in the arcade machines). It led video games to the mainstream like nothing before and made Shigeru Miyamoto, arguably the most influential designer ever, become interested in video games. For the first time, it gave the player lives and cover while providing the enemies with weapons and intelligence. Even its music was innovative, the first continuous, dynamic and interactive soundtrack. Eventually it became the best-selling video game and highest-grossing entertainment product of its time, absolutely invading pop culture.
Straight from a time when games had no plot and the objectives were made obvious immediately, Space Invaders maintains its appeal and addictiveness thirty-five years later. Oh, it was also the first game to save high scores. Mine is above 120000 points. Have fun.
The seminal shoot 'em up, that brought the action genre to the center stage, had so much success that it supposedly led to a shortage of 100 yen coins (used in Japan in the arcade machines). It led video games to the mainstream like nothing before and made Shigeru Miyamoto, arguably the most influential designer ever, become interested in video games. For the first time, it gave the player lives and cover while providing the enemies with weapons and intelligence. Even its music was innovative, the first continuous, dynamic and interactive soundtrack. Eventually it became the best-selling video game and highest-grossing entertainment product of its time, absolutely invading pop culture.
Straight from a time when games had no plot and the objectives were made obvious immediately, Space Invaders maintains its appeal and addictiveness thirty-five years later. Oh, it was also the first game to save high scores. Mine is above 120000 points. Have fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment