Wired is currently running a fascinating chat with Tomohiro Nishikado on the creation of Space Invaders. It’s been 45 years since the game’s release, a time during which Nishikado has largely ignored his early influence on video games.
Recently, however, this has changed. But what was in mind when work began on what would become Space Invaders?
“I decided to plan a shooting game, which was my forte. But until then, shooting games were mainly time-based—players defeated as many targets as possible within a set period. So I decided to make a game with a lives system, and interactive gameplay in which multiple enemies would attack the player.”
After deciding that shooting people was “not a good idea,” Nishikado was inspired to move development closer to what we know as Space Invaders after watching George Pal’s War of the Worlds (1953) and various depictions of alien life. This informed the graphics, but what caused the invaders to speed up as the level progressed?
It turns out, that was a “feature” of the hardware…
“It was designed to draw one invader every 60th of a second, instead of all the invaders at once. At the start of the game, it takes about a second for all the invaders to take a step. As their number decreases, the time to draw them all becomes shorter, and so their speed of movement increases. This makes the game more interesting and effective—and compensated for the board’s lack of capacity.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Tomohiro Nishikado talks about how Space Invaders‘ importance to gamers has become increasingly apparent to him over the years.
“I didn’t have much attachment to Space Invaders for 20 years after its release. But especially during the past 10 years, I’ve discovered how many people still play and appreciate the game, and that even children know it. It’s a wonder how we were able to make it in that environment. But I now recognize Space Invaders was the best game I ever made.”
Unsurprisingly, Tomohiro Nishikado will be remembered for the seminal Space Invaders. But he has plenty of other credits, from early (pre-Space Invaders) cabinets like Gun Fight and Speed Race to work on Chase HQ 2, Darius II, and various other titles. Currently, 79-year-old Nishikado has a consultancy role with Taito.
(Wired)
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