Together Retro Game Club: Galaga
Presented by: Fastbilly1 & Racketboy
New To Together Retro? Check out the introduction to the club
Released in 1981, Galaga is widely regarded as one of the seminal arcade titles of the early 80s. Sequel to Galaxian, heir to the Space Invaders throne, Galaga is a fixed shooter with a cult following. Even though this title is very well known it is our next choice in Together Retro because we wanted a score-focused arcade classic to get our competitve juices flowing.
History
Most of us know the history of Galaga, since it is on one of the most well known games of all time, so we are not going to spend to much on the general history of it (see Wikipedia for a more in-depth write up)
Released in the middle of the golden years of the arcade, Galaga had tough competition. But it’s easy and addictive gameplay, with beautiful spritework, and a great score system, made Galaga standout. Following in its fathers footsteps, Galaga quickly became one of the staples of arcades. And twenty eight years later you can still find it squirreled away in a corner of most larger arcades (though it is often the anniversary cabinet where it is paired with Ms. Pacman). Being one of the first games with a bonus stage, Galaga also has the unique distinction of being one of the most bootlegged games of all time.
Recommended Ports
Being an Arcade game we would all ideally play it on a cabinet. The downside to this is that Galaga, and its rereleases, are very pricey even in poor condition. So as an alternative we recommend the Namco Museum series (which is availible for nearly every modern console), most notably the 50th Anniversary which is available for the PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, and PC. With the Anniversary pack you also get Galaxian, Galaga 88, and thirteen other arcade classics. In the end, Galaga has been distributed to so many consoles and handhelds, you really don’t have much of an excuse for not playing it.
Check Amazon.com for Namco Museum Collections
Check eBay for Namco Museum Collections
Legacy
Galaga is part two of the Galaxian series of games. And while there are five in the series, Galaga is the most well known. Joining these two are Gaplus/Galaga 3, Galaga 88, and Galaga Legions – Galaga 2 was never created. It has been ported to almost every console in one way or another, and is available for many cell phones. Its hardware was used to power other titles like Rally X and Bosconian. It is hard to measure the effect this well built title had on the industry, but it is well known for its quarter munching ability and is seen in many parts of popular culture – ie the invaders coming down noise is the opening sound in “Your Wildest Dreams” by The Moody Blues and the Submarine in the third season of Lost is named Galaga.
How to Play & Tips
Thanks to StrategyWiki for their guide to Galaga
- Controls
- Characters
- Scoring
- Double your fire power
- Entrance patterns
- Challenging Stage
- Transforms
- Secret: Disarm the bugs
- Share Your Tips in the Forum
Emulation
Like with all arcade games, we suggest MAME32UI. (see the Emulation section of the forum for help).
Together Retro Discussion / High Scores
Instead of posting in the comments section of the blog, we will be using the forum for all of our discussion in order to keep things more organized. So play some Galaga and talk to us about your thoughts and play experiences in the forums. We want to know your tactics, your strategies, your successes and your failures.
We also want everyone to post their high scores along with the version of the game they are using. That way we can get some friendly competition going and keep us motivated to get better! I hope to have an automated system very soon for keeping track of high scores, but for now, just post them in the forum thread below.
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