Space Invaders (1978): the elements of game

Which element of the game (found in Jessie Schell's elemental tetrad) is the most important?

• Mechanics

• Story

• Technology

• Aesthetics

• They're all equally important

Space Invaders (スペースインベーダー) is an arcade video game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado and released in 1978. Have you ever played Space Invaders? What kind of animation is it, do you think?

Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to defeat waves of aliens with a laser cannon to earn as many points as possible. In designing the game, Nishikado drew inspiration from popular media: Breakout, The War of the Worlds, and Star Wars. Which of these does it resemble the most? Just tell us your opinion!

• Breakout, this 1975 film that I totally know and have watched.

• War of the Worlds. That's basically it – aliens from space trying to invade the Earth!

• Star Wars. Definitely.

• I don't see any of these! Space Invaders is so primitive in comparison with them!

Space Invaders was one of the forerunners of modern video gaming and helped expand the video game industry from a novelty to a global industry (and marked the golden age of video arcade games). When first released, Space Invaders was very successful. What other arcade games of the golden age do you remember?

Technology: All new games need to be innovative in some way. The technology behind Space Invaders was custom designed for the game. It was the first video game that allowed a player to fight an advancing army, and this was only possible due to the custom motherboard that was created for it. An entirely new set of_______________ was made possible with this technology. It was created solely for that purpose!

• game designs

• gameplay mechanics

• character avatars

• pitches

Mechanics: The gameplay mechanic of Space Invaders was new, which is always exciting. But more than that, it was ____________________. Not only does a player shoot at advancing aliens that shoot back at him, the player can hide behind shields that the aliens can destroy (or that the player can choose to destroy himself). There is no need for a time limit, because the game can end two ways: the player’s ships can be destroyed by alien bombs, or the advancing aliens will eventually reach the player’s home plane.

• boring and poorly balanced

• shocking and nerve-wracking

• interesting and well-balanced

• childish and monotonous

Story: This game didn’t need to have a story. It could have been an abstract game where a triangle shoots at blocks!

But having a story makes it far more exciting and easier to understand. The original story for Space Invaders, though, was not a story of alien invaders at all. It was originally a game where you fired at an army of advancing human soldiers! It is said that Taito decided this sent a bad message, so the story was changed. Why, do you think, it was a bad message?

The new story, a story about advancing aliens, works much better for several reasons:

● Several war-themed games ________________________ (Sea Wolf, 1976, for example). But a game where you could be in a space battle was actually novel at the time! ● Some people are squeamish about war games where you shoot people (Death Race, 1976, had made violence in videogames a sensitive issue back in the day). ● The “high tech” computer graphics _______________________ to a game with a futuristic theme. 👾

• had already been released; lent themselves well

• were already released; lended themselves well

Aesthetics: Some may sneer at the visuals, which now seem so primitive, but the designer did a lot with a little. The aliens are not all identical. There are three different designs, each worth a different amount of points. The display was not capable of color back then— but a simple technology change took care of that!..

(Hey. What does "sneer at" mean?)

• to look at something in an unkind way that shows you do not respect or approve of it

• to declare enthusiastic approval of something

Since the player in a game was confined to the bottom of the screen, the aliens to the middle, and the saucer to the top, colored strips of translucent plastic were glued to the screen so that your ship and shields were green, the aliens were white, and the saucer was red.

• This simple change in the technology of the game worked only because of the nature of the arcade games, and greatly improved the aesthetics of the game.

• This simple change in the technology of the game worked only because of the nature of the game mechanics, and greatly improved the aesthetics of the game.