Alien Sky, 2004 / 2005
It's not easy to survive under the alien sky when there's always someone to blast you with his weaponry. But you have to prevent the invasion of Earth!
Galaga: glorious past
It started in 1981, when Namco released one rather nice "shoot-em-up-with-your-spaceship" game. Technically, Galaga was a sequel to another space shooting arcade Galaxian (and we shouldn't forget about Space Invaders, which gave a start to the whole thing). However, this game contained that little something that was enough for a revolution to begin. Was it the bonus stage introduced for the first time in the whole genre, or maybe the enemies flying in formations, or the bosses capturing your ship with a tractor beam? I believe that the secret ingredient was the passion. A passion that gave birth to (and continues to nourish) the whole space-shooter genre.
Galaga has been ported to every single computer platform and re-released about ten times; original coin-op arcades were taken to pieces, re-assembled and taken to pieces again by collectors and fans in search of cheats, tricks and replacement parts; below are a few nice links for those who want to dive deeper.
- Great collection of screenshots from every single release/port/bootleg/hack.
- Box artwork (some pieces just rule) from different releases.
- Everything you ever wanted to know about Galaga cabinet's insides (archived on the Wayback Machine).
And even now, 45 years later, the game is far from being history; it is more like
Inspiration for the present
Needless to say, numerous discarded Galaga cabinets have finally landed in classic arcade lovers' living rooms, lounges and garages (you may wanna find and buy one too). But now for something completely different: Patrick Laarhoven did a truly marvelous job building PocketGalaga, a perfectly working Galaga cabinet scaled down to 1/6 of the original upright. Yes, it took an HP iPAQ 2210 for the screen&heart (though the iPAQ is still removable), a disassembled gamepad, a nail and a pair of microswitches for the joystick, plenty of nous and 3 months of nontrivial work. But the result is very nice, and so is the construction essay (with lots of photos).
Moreover, Galaga's still inspiring at least one TV series writer: a Galaga submarine was first mentioned in the LOST series episode "Every Man for Himself" (season 3) and then appeared in "The Man from Tallahassee" episode. A former DHARMA Initiative submarine, it was appropriated by the Others, who used it as a means of recruiting personnel from the outside world. Current status: exploded and sunk with a little help from Locke and some C-4. What a pity.
Mentioned in numerous comics and having given its name to numerous pets, servers and RPG characters, Galaga proved itself to be perpetual — and it keeps reincarnating in a remarkable number of re-releases and clones. I personally recommend taking a look at the PC game Warblade by Edgar M. Vigdal (its official website is now only available on the Wayback Machine): though it seems like the project isn't developed anymore, the current version of the game features a nice fusion of original Galaga gameplay elements with modern graphics and special FX. However, if you're feeling ready for a step far beyond remakes and interpretations, it's time to find
Passion for the future
Or just Alien Sky, a mind-blowing Galaga follower (oddly enough, made by our company). It's not easy to survive here when there's always someone ready to blast you with his weaponry or overcome you with his tactics. However, you have to. Because you and your ultramodern spacefighter are the only chance to prevent an alien invasion which is almost ready to start, turning your homeworld into ruins.
