Video games - Galaga

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	Video games - Galaga

Galaga is an arcade game that was released by Namco in 1981. It was one of the most popular arcade games and is still sought after by collectors.

Gameplay

Galaga is a sequel to Galaxian
and has similar gameplay. The player controls a spaceship (which can move only right or left) and shoots at swarms of incoming insect-like aliens which fly in formation above him and occasionally swoop down to bomb him in a kamikaze-like dive. The enemies in the top row will sometimes dive with one or two escorts. Enemies which survive a dive will rejoin the formation from the top. When all enemies are destroyed, the player moves on to the next level.

The three types of enemy each have a different score value. A blue enemy is worth 50 points in formation and 100 when attacking. A red enemy is worth 80 in formation, 160 when attacking. A boss is worth 150 in formation, and its attack value depends on whether it is accompanied by red escorts: 400 points if alone, 800 with one escort, and 1600 with two. This point value is determined when the boss's attack is initiated, so shooting escorts before the boss (or missing them entirely) will still earn the higher point values.

A "rapid fire" chip is available, replacing chip 3J on the original Galaga CPU board. It allows for a continuous stream of fire, as opposed to the stuttered firing limitation of the stock 3J chip.

Changes

The game differs from Galaxian in several ways:

The ship can shoot more rapidly.

At the beginning of each level, the enemies arrive in five groups of eight enemies each, which fly in from the sides or top of the playfield and enter formation. Later on in the game, they arrive in groups of 10 or 12, with the two or four extras breaking their flight path in mid-flight to ambush the player. The player can shoot these enemies as they arrive, and they shoot back. Enemies only drop bombs while they arrive or while they are in a dive; they do not drop bombs while in formation.

The boss Galaga, the green aliens at the top of the formation, take two hits to destroy (the first hit will turn it blue).

In perhaps the most famous element, boss Galagas are capable of stopping mid-dive and attempting to capture the player's spaceship with a tractor beam. If the ship is captured, the boss carries it up into the formation. If the player still has additional lives, he can regain his ship by destroying the boss during a dive; once freed, the captured ship connects beside to the player's current ship to form a pair which fires two shots at a time (but is also twice as wide and thus harder to defend; if one of the ships is hit, only that ship is destroyed and the player continues with the surviving one). The captured ship can also be destroyed if the player is not careful with his shots. Due to the benefit of the double firepower, a common Galaga strategy is to allow one's ship to be captured then free it. Contrary to rumor, the double ship cannot in turn be captured and released to form a "triple ship" (although the sequel game Galaga '88
included such a ship).

Galaga was one of the first games with a bonus round, here called the "Challenging Stage." A Challenging Stage consists only of groups of enemies entering the playfield, circling, then leaving; there is no formation to clear. If the player destroys all 40 enemies before they depart, he earns a "Special" bonus of 10,000 points, otherwise he scores 100 points per enemy destroyed. Destroying entire groups of enemies is also worth a bonus of 1000-3000 points. The doubled firepower earned by freeing a captured ship on a previous level is very useful here.

The Challenging Stage was also a loading game in the PlayStation titles Ridge Racer
and Tekken
. (Ridge Racer had Galaxian, Tekken had Galaga, and sequel Ridge Racer Revolution had Galaga '88). The prize for destroying all 40 enemies before they fly away is a bit different in these games; instead of 10,000 points, you receive the eight enemy cars that race against you in Ridge Racer, while an alternately-costumed character is unlocked in Tekken to Unlocked the Devil Kazuya.

In Ridge Racer
, however, two of the bonus cars have the colors of the Galaga bugs. The car in that game with the red and yellow bird's colors is named "Galaga RT Prid's" while the car with the light blue and carrot orange bee's colors is named "Galaga RT Carrot". These cars were also used in Ridge Racer 2, Rave Racer, Ridge Racer Revolution and Ridge Racer 64.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Galaga ]

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Video games - Galaga

Gameplay

Changes

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