If you were born in the 1980s or even had exposure to someone born during that time period then you likely understand exactly what the popular arcade game, Galaga, is. If you weren’t then we’ll clear that up for you. Galaga is a popular arcade game made in the year 1981 by both Namco and Midway (2 Japanese game development companies). It was the sequel to the popular arcade game Galaxian and basically put players in control of their own ship – which they’d use to battle the aliens stationed at the top of the screen. Continue reading this article to see the remainder of the well-researched content in this article. You will also get access to a few cheat codes along the way.
*hint: we’re going to show you how to get a triple ship
Video of Galaga gameplay
How to play
The entire goal of Galaga is to collect as many points as you possibly can by killing aliens that present themselves near the top of your screen. You’re able to do this by using your starship equipped with alien-killing ammo. To make the game a bit more interesting, the aliens that appear near the top of the screen have the ability to shoot bullets towards you in an attempt to inflict damage (duh, right?).
To avoid taking the shots that the aliens are bound to send towards your craft the designers of the game equipped your ship with the ability to be moved both left and right. Did I forget to mention that the aliens have the ability to crash into your ship after the get close enough – during later levels aliens tend to break formation way earlier than typical, which means that your reflexive abilities have to be on point enough to dodge them. With the introduction of Galaga (from the game Galaxian) the game has the ability to support 2 different players appearing on the screen.
*Galaga also gives aliens the ability to change formation after a certain point – which only makes the game a bit harder for players who have the aim of coordinating their attacks.
*You also want to make sure that you’re aware that in the newer gameplay aliens have the ability to capture either you or your partner’s ship. To get away from this, the only option the player has available to them is to shoot the ship down while being pulled in by the ship.
Challenging Stages 1-8:
First Stage
To defeat the ships in the first challenging stage you must stay in the middle of the space and continue hitting action repeatedly before they’re able to break formation.
Second Stage
There will be multiple waves of enemies in the second challenging stage. Since the first wave will come in from the far left of the screen and come very close to your ship – all you’ll have to do is shoot them down since they’ll be coming so close. It should be very simple for you to destroy them since they’ll be so close to you.
Third Stage
In the 3rd stage, the enemies you’ll find will come from a variety of different areas and formations. Essentially you’ll run into enemies who start off moving in the regular formations but, who also end up moving in a ton of different ways as time moves on. If your ship is aimed towards the left side of the screen you should be able to handle the ships in the first wave very easily. You should be able to beat the next level by performing the same thing as the first step.
Fourth Stage
The enemies in the fourth round will come about in a kind of diagonal angle from the left-hand side of the screen. It’s very arch like. The best way to beat these enemies – since they won’t go past the middle of the screen – is to stay in the left-hand side of the screen. The second wave will also come from this side of the screen so you want to make sure that you don’t go past the middle of the screen. The third wave will come in from the opposite side of the screen. And finally, the final wave will come from the left side of the screen.
Fifth Stage
The goal for getting a perfect score in the 5th round is to basically aim your ship towards the center but, with it being nudged a bit towards the left. Since the ships that come in will be flying in an arching pattern it’s suggested that you simply move from right to left and then left to right all while shooting them down. You want to make sure that you use the center of your screen as a guide and that you don’t move too far from the center of the screen. As long as you do this you should be able to finish the game with a near perfect score.
Sixth Stage
If you want to get rid of all the aliens in this stage it’s suggested that you simply shoot each ship as soon as you see it. You want to have your ship lined up with them so that you can get rid of them as soon as their pixels hit the screen. You also want to follow the remaining ships so that you can destroy them as soon as they enter the screen.
Seventh Stage
For this
Eighth Stage
This last stage will move at a much quicker pace than it’s predecessors. As ships come in from the left of the screen you’ll want to have a continuous burst of fire coming fro your ship. After this wave
Bonus Morphing Stages 1-3
Stage 1
In this
Stage 2
In this
Stage 3
You’ll find not only yellow ships but also red and green ships as well as a red platoon that chooses to fly in a difficult pattern. Every enemy you eliminate will award you with a 3000 point bonus.
Zero level
Once you play past the 255th level you will run into the zero level. If you play at the max difficulty setting you’ll find that the levels will no longer change but your score and the speed of the enemies will continue to go up.
To play the game online you can go here
http://www.free80sarcade.com/galaga.php
A brief history
As mentioned above, the game Galaga was created in the year 1981 by a collaboration between Namco and Midway (2 major Japanese gaming producers in that time period – and actually still very popular gaming producers in today’s age). It wasn’t the first game in the series though – the first of them was Galaxian ( a watered-down version of Galaga with way fewer features). While the game itself doesn’t offer much in the way of backstory, it was named after the alien army you’ll find yourself fighting.
*due to the game being so old (and developers loving puzzles) there were a ton of bugs found in the code that could and have been exploited during gameplay. One of which I’ll mention to you near the bottom of the page.
When the game was first created it was limited to only being used/played on the Amicon or the Atari 7800 gaming system. However, as time passed it was able to be played on the Nintendo home game entertainment system as well as on the first Sega system and PCs. It was also one of the first gaming systems that could be used on the Game Boy in 1989.
That’s pretty much it. There is no crazy story that comes up behind Galaga’s creation – even though I could definitely make one up right now, lol.
Play Galaga below
Fun facts about Galaga
- You can classify your enemies:
- Red ships: These are the shops that you’ll find dart out to the edge of the screen relatively quickly during gameplay. If you want to avoid damage it’s suggested that you pay attention to the sides of the screen – if not, you’ll eventually find yourself running into diving ships.
- Blue ships: These are also ships that come to the edge of the screen and move around on a regular basis. They will sometimes find themselves leaving the screen and have the ability to turn into kamikazes if given enough time.
- Kamikazes: If you don’t take out colored ships (red and blue) after a certain period time you’ll eventually find yourself running into kamikazes. These are ships that will come diving at you and will continue attacking you until you either die or destroy them.
- Boss Ships: These are typically the last ship you’ll find entering the field on any level and they are the only ships that allow you to get a double ship bonus. The great thing is that they don’t have any more killing capability than any other ship you find.
- Double and Triple ship bonus: To get a double ship in Galaga players must simply follow a rule that is actually very well – known. All you have to do is allow your ship to be captured by an enemy ship (or ship equipped with a tractor beam). After getting your ship captured your next move is to use your reserve ship to attack and kill that same bug – successfully rescuing your spacecraft (this allows you to get a double shot ship).
- Triple Ship: This cheat is meant for a spin-off of Galaga or, Galaga 90 in which players had the ability to choose a triple ship as an option during gameplay. By performing the very same steps used to get the double ship players are able to equip a double shot ship.
- Not taking any enemy fire: This one is actually pretty simple. If you don’t want to take enemy fire during gameplay all you have to do is kill all of the enemies but 2 during the first round of gameplay. You then have to fly around and avoid the fire of those 2 ships for 10-15 minutes until they inevitably stop firing at you. Once this is over all you have to do is shoot them and no other ship will be able to fire at you for the remainder of the game.
*remember that ships will still be able to crash into you to inflict damage though.
- No rapid fire: While rapid fire can be activated in Galaga gameplay by upgrading your ship it doesn’t automatically come as a feature of the game. You get 3 shot bursts when you first start out and must continually press the action button if you want to give of the appearance of firing off an endless stream of bullets.
Conclusion
So, there you have it – all you need to know to get started playing Galaga (and then some). We now know who the game was made by, how to play it, and a few cheat codes that’ll help you improve your gaming experience (or simply help you win). For more check out the resources at the bottom of the article.
The information in this article was sourced from Wikipedia
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaga
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