Galaga For PC Archives




Game info:

box cover Game title: Galaxian Platform: MS-DOS Author (released): Namco (1979) Genre: Action, Shooter Mode: Multiplayer Design: Kazunori Sawano Music: Game manual: not available Download: not available (stream only) Game size: 18 kB Recommended emulator: DOSBox From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:    Galaxian is an arcade game that was developed by Namco in October 1979. It was published by Namco in Japan and imported to North America by Midway that December. A fixed shooter game in which the player controls a spaceship at the bottom of the screen, and shoots enemies descending in various directions, it was designed to compete with Taito Corporation's successful earlier game Space Invaders (which was released in the previous year, and also imported to the US by Midway Games). The game was highly popular for Namco upon its release, and has been a focus of competitive gaming ever since. It spawned a successful sequel, Galaga, in 1981, and the lesser known Gaplus and Galaga '88 in 1984 and 1987 respectively, as well as many later ports and adaptations. Along with its immediate sequel, it was one of the most popular games during the golden age of arcade video games.    The gameplay is relatively simple. Swarm after swarm of alien armies attack the player's ship that moves left and right at the bottom of the wraparound screen. The ship can only have one shot on screen at a time. The player defeats one swarm, only to have it replaced by another more aggressive and challenging swarm in the next stage. A plain and repetitive starfield scrolls in the background. More details about this game can be found on Wikipedia.org. For fans and collectors: Find this game on video server YouTube.com or Vimeo.com. Buy original game at Amazon.com, eBay.com or GOG.com. The newest version of this game can be purchased on Xzone.cz, GameExpres.cz orGameLeader.cz.   Platform: This ver­sion of Galaxian was de­sig­ned for per­so­nal com­pu­ters with o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem MS-DOS (Mi­cro­soft Disk O­pe­ra­ting Sys­tem), which was o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem de­ve­lo­ped by Mi­cro­soft in 1981. It was the most wi­de­ly-used o­pe­ra­ting sys­tem in the first half of the 1990s. MS-DOS was sup­plied with most of the IBM com­pu­ters that pur­cha­sed a li­cen­se from Mi­cro­soft. Af­ter 1995, it was pu­s­hed out by a gra­phi­cal­ly mo­re ad­van­ced sys­tem - Win­dows and its de­ve­lop­ment was ce­a­sed in 2000. At the ti­me of its grea­test fa­me, se­ve­ral thou­sand ga­mes de­sig­ned spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for com­pu­ters with this sys­tem we­re cre­a­ted. To­day, its de­ve­lop­ment is no lon­ger con­ti­nue and for e­mu­la­tion the free DOSBox e­mu­la­tor is most of­ten used. Mo­re in­for­ma­ti­on about MS-DOS operating system can be found here.   Available online emulators: 5 different online emulators are available for Galaxian. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic features of each emulator available for this game Galaxian are summarized in the following table:   Emulator Technology Multiplayer Fullscreen Touchscreen Speed Archive.org JavaScript YES NO NO fast js-dos JavaScript YES YES NO fast js-dos 6.22 JavaScript YES YES NO fast jsDosBox JavaScript YES NO NO slow jDosBox Java applet YES YES NO fast

On the other hand, The Tower of Druaga would have been best left behind in the East. Its top-down exploration and puzzle-solving may have influenced titles like The Legend of Zelda, but it’s too difficult and confusing to be much fun now. Similarly, the Dragon Buster titles are absolute slogs of woefully outdated RPG mechanics with poorly aged graphics and sound. And while the Mappy titles are still considered classics by many gamers who grew up in the ‘80s, the controls feel far too stiff now. Platformers have come a long way and there are even better examples of the genre in this collection.

One of the biggest draws here are the two “new” games: Pac-Man Championship Edition and Gaplus. This version of Pac-Man Championship Edition is a demake of the 2007 classic featuring 8-bit graphics. You’re still collecting pellets in a constantly shifting maze with a 5-minute time limit, but now everything looks and sounds like the1980 original, and when you try to move off-screen, you scroll to the other side of the maze. It’s just as fun as the original release for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and it’s such an ingeniously simple idea, I’m just surprised that Namco didn’t think of it sooner.

Release Date: June 18, 2020
Platforms: XBO (Reviewed), PS4, Switch, PC
Developer: Bandai Namco
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Genre: Arcade Compilation

Gaplus, the sequel to Galaga was only released in North American arcades in 1984. Unsurprisingly, it plays very similar to Galaga, except now you can move vertically and there are new enemies and a new scoring system. This version of Gaplus is based on what an NES port would have looked like if a home version had ever released. And it’s pretty good. It feels exactly like the arcade version, and the graphics have that classic 8-bit Nintendo feel that retro fans know and love.

As far as bonus features, neither volume includes anything about the history of these games, which is somewhat disappointing. The requisite wallpapers and screen resizing options are included, as are save states and a rewind feature, which is very welcome given the high difficulty of most of the games included in these collections.

Curiously, reminders to open the system menu or use the rewind feature are always present in the bottom left corner of the screen. You can only stop these from blocking part of the screen of whatever game you’re playing if you change the default display size, but otherwise, these reminders always present by default. This isn’t a big deal for most of the games in the collection, but it makes it almost impossible to see the very bottom left portion of the maze while playing Pac-Man. 

Developed by
Namco Limited
Released
Dec, 1987
Also For
Game Gear, Sharp X68000, TurboGrafx-16, Wii
Published by
Namco Limited

Perspective
Side view
Setting
Sci-Fi / Futuristic
Genre
Action
Gameplay
Arcade, Shooter
Visual
Fixed / Flip-screen

Description

Galaga '88 takes the basic gameplay of Galaga and adds higher-quality graphics, triple ship abilities, parsec progression, power-ups, asteroids, bosses and other enhancements. Periodically the player encounters Challenging Stages, which are set to music and feature "dancing" enemies. The objective is to shoot all 40 enemies before they disappear, for a bonus of at least 10,000 points. There are a total of 29 stages. The player can begin with one ship with two in reserve or start right out with a dual ship (but only one in reserve).

Some enemies now have the ability to combine into a much larger single enemy that takes multiple shots to destroy. Others explode in a brilliant shower of fireworks when destroyed, and occasionally these enemies drop a small formation of much smaller enemies that "wiggle" their way down the screen. Some enemies arrive in spherical "eggs" and emit a loud, high-pitched noise when hit. These creatures take multiple hits to destroy in flight (just one hit in formation), and their main attack pattern is to move about halfway down the screen, stop, fire multiple shots at once, and then fly straight down off the bottom of the screen. Another type of enemy takes at least five hits to destroy, and it grows larger with each consecutive hit, making it both a larger target and allowing it to act as a shield to other enemies.

Later in the game some enemies are equipped with armor that renders them invincible while in formation. When one of these enemies starts its dive, it will flip over and expose its vulnerable side, then flip over again and become invincible while it moves back up the screen, then flip one more time and finish its dive. While vulnerable, this enemy can be destroyed in one hit, scoring bonus points. In addition, many different kinds of obstacles appear throughout the game, including blue crystals, boulders and green blobs.

From Mobygames.com. Original Entry