Space Invaders

Kill the aliens with your laser cannon in this classic video game. Space Invaders is a vintage video game that is a forerunner to many of the modern games that have been developed and in many ways was an inspiration to game developers. The game was developed by Taito Corporation and published by Midway. Released in 1978 in Japan, the game went on to become an icon in popular culture. Gamers control a laser cannon that moves in a horizontal line across the bottom of the screen in an attempt to blow up rows of aliens above. As gamers advance in levels the aliens get quicker and the music of the game speeds up as well. Killing the enemies brings in more waves that are harder to kill and the game can continue forever. The game was developed by Tomohiro Nishikado, who took a year to create the game and put together hardware that was capable of running it. It was an arcade style game in which players put in a quarter to play. The game was enormously popular both in Japan and internationally. It sold more than $2 billion in quarters by 1982 and made a profit of $450 million, which is equivalent to more than $1 billion in 2013. These sales made it the best-selling video game and the top grossing entertainment product of any kind during its time. It was even more popular than the top selling Star Wars film of that period. In 2003, an anniversary edition was released for PlayStation 2 and a pocket version came out in 2005 for PSP.