Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Space Invaders at 40: 'I tried soldiers, but shooting people was frowned upon'
In the 1970s, as Tomohiro Nishikado began to consider designing his next arcade game, the video game medium was in a fledgling state. With few rules to follow or break, the pioneering game developer had the creative freedom he needed to build a true cultural phenomenon. The game Nishikado was starting to plot out in his mind was Space Invaders, the iconic shoot 'em up that is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
"I had no idea the game would become so popular it would become a social phenomenon," Nishikado remembers. "I was totally taken aback." Despite his surprise, the game designer had certainly crafted something of great cultural significance.
[...] Nishikado linked points to in-game progression and introduced the concept of saving scores to the arcade cabinet. That framed score as a signifier of skill and survival, and lured players back to a given arcade cabinet to beat the tallies of others who had played before them; a convention that established competitive gaming. "My initial intention was not to create a game that centred on scoring mechanics, but rather one where players would compete to see who could clear the most waves," he explains. "However, making the UFO's score a mystery led to players becoming very conscious of their score and eventually they started competing on that basis.
(Score: 2) by aim on Wednesday June 06 2018, @08:45AM
Space Invaders was one of the first video games I played (with my brother) on our Atari VCS 2600 (Pacman being the other one we got right away with the Atari).
Together with my first (baby) steps in IT on a Dragon 32 home computer, it started my passion for computing.
Yes, I do feel old sometimes :-P