Galaga

Galaga (ギャラガ,, Gyaraga^?) is a shoot em' up arcade game developed by Namco in 1981. It was published by Namco in Japan and by Midway Manufacturing in North America. It is the second game in the Galaxian series and is a direct sequel to Galaxian.

Gameplay[]

The player controls the Fighter, the successor to the Galaxip from Galaxian, and must defeat waves of bug-like aliens known as the Galaga. Like with its predecessor, the player can move the Fighter only left and right along the bottom of the screen. However, unlike in Galaxian, up to two of the Fighter's bullets can be on screen at any time, allowing it to have a much faster fire rate.

During normal stages, the player is tasked with eliminating one wave of Galaga. Instead of appearing instantaneously like in Galaxian, the Galaga fly into formation in single-file lines from the top and edges of the screen. The player can shoot at the Galaga during this period to speed up the stage, but they must be careful since the Galaga can still shoot at their ship. When all surviving Galaga are in formation, they will start diving and shooting bullets at the Fighter in an attempt to destroy it. If the Fighter is struck by a bullet or collides with one of the Galaga, it will be destroyed, and the player will lose a life. The player must fight back by shooting at the Galaga while also dodging enemy fire. If a Galaga completes its dive and is not shot down, it will return to its original position in the formation; however, once the majority of the wave has been eliminated, the remaining Galaga will abandon the formation and start constantly diving at the player, stopping only when the player dies. This makes the enemies much more difficult to shoot down. When the last Galaga of a wave is killed, the next stage begins.

Occasionally, one of the Boss Galaga will dive toward the player by itself and deploy a tractor beam. If the player enters that beam, their Fighter will be sucked in, and they will lose directional control. The Fighter will change from white to red, signifying that it has been captured, and the Boss Galaga will return to its original spot in the formation with its prize in tow. This counts as losing a life, but if the player is able to reclaim their lost Fighter if they have more ships in reserve. If the player defeats the Boss Galaga that captured their Fighter while it is diving, the original Fighter will be freed and join with the ship the player is currently using to form the Dual Fighter. Since it is a combination of two normal Fighters, the Dual Fighter fires two bullets at a time, doubling the player's firepower. Using the Dual Fighter allows the player to hit two Galaga at different locations, increasing the rate at which they can complete stages. A big weakness of the Dual Fighter, however, is its size. Creating a Dual Fighter increases the length of its hit box, which can make it more difficult for the player to dodge oncoming bullets. As such, the Dual Fighter also gains an extra hit point. When a Dual Fighter is hit, the Fighter that was struck will explode while the other will break free, reverting to a regular Fighter.

The player gets an extra life once their score reaches 20,000 points. Afterwards, extra lives are awarded at every 70,000 points. The amount of points necessary can be changed on both the arcade original (using DIP switches) and on certain rereleases.

Enemies[]

Standard Enemies[]

There are nine types of enemy Galaga that the player will encounter. The most prevalent Galaga in the game are Zakos, Goeis, and Boss Galagas. The amount of points the player receives for defeating these enemies depends on whether they are in formation or actively attacking the player. Zakos and Goeis that are diving give twice as many points as those that are still in formation. Boss Galagas follow the same rule with one addition. Like Galbosses before them, Boss Galagas will sometimes dive with one or two Goeis as escorts; these Boss Galagas will give more points than those that dive alone. Unlike with Galbosses, however, there is no need to defeat the Goeis before the Boss Galaga to get a higher score.

Note that the Galaga are also considered to be "attacking" when they first arrive at the beginning of a stage as well as during challenging stages.

Enemy	Behavior	Convoy	Charger	Charger w/One Goei	Charger w/Two Goeis
Zako	Zakos are the most common enemy out of the three, with twenty appearing per wave. When they leave formation, Zakos will fly in the direction Fighter's position before diving straight down. However, when they reach the bottom of the screen, rather than exiting and reappearing at the top of the screen, they will turn around and head back up, attempting to ambush the player from behind. At the end of each stage, Zakos will instead circle around the Fighter before leaving through the bottom of the screen like the other enemies.	50	100	N/A
Goei	Sixteen Goeis appear in each wave. When they leave formation, Goeis fly in a zig-zag pattern, often veering to the player's general position. When a Goei escorts a Boss Galaga, it will assume the behavior of a Boss Galaga. It will continue to do so even after the Boss Galaga it is protecting has been destroyed; this is most noticeable at the end of a stage when Galaga do not return to formation.	80	160	N/A
Boss Galaga	Four Boss Galagas appear per wave, making them the least prevalent of the three; however, unlike Zakos and Goeis, Boss Galagas can absorb two hits before being destroyed. Boss Galagas change color after being hit once. Defeating a Boss Galaga while it is diving will cause all enemies onscreen to stop firing for a short period of time. Boss Galagas exhibit two kinds of behavior. Their first behavior is to fly in a loop before diving in the direction of the fighter. Boss Galagas may bring one or two Goeis with them when they perform this behavior. Their second behavior is to fly diagonally towards a random spot on the screen. They will then stop mid-flight and deploy their tractor beam. If the Fighter is caught in the tractor beam, it will be captured. The player may choose to do this intentionally to get a Dual Fighter. Boss Galagas will never summon Goeis when they perform this behavior. Boss Galagas will alternate between these two behaviors unless a Fighter has been captured, the player has a Dual Fighter, or the formation breaks up; when any of these occur, they will perform only their first behavior.	150	400	800	1600
Captured Fighter	When a Fighter is captured by a Boss Galaga, it will be taken to the top of the stage. If the player manages to shoot the Boss Galaga that captured it while it is diving, the Captured Fighter will be freed. However, if the player kills the Boss Galaga holding it hostage while it is still in formation, the Captured Fighter will act as an enemy. Even though it yields points upon its defeat, the player should avoid shooting down a Captured Fighter since doing so is essentially sacrificing a life. Unlike other enemies, Captured Fighters dive only once during a stage. If the player lets it escape, it will reappear in the next stage, bound to a new Boss Galaga.	500	1000	N/A

Transformed Enemies[]

Staring in the fourth stage, a Zako (or a Goei when there are only a few Zakos left) in the formation will transform into a group of three new Galaga. There are three types of Galaga a Zako can transform into: Ogawamushis, Eis, and Galbosses. Each group of three enemies flies towards the bottom of the screen in a particular formation and manner. These Galaga are always considered to be attacking, so the scoring rules that standard enemies follow don't apply to them. If the player shoots all three Galaga in the group, they will receive bonus points. If the player dies when one of these groups are on screen, one of its members will return to the formation and transform back into the Zako or Goei it spawned from.

Enemy	Behavior	Defeating One	Bonus for Defeating All Three
Ogawamushi	Ogawamushis first appear in Stages 4, 5, and 6. When they are summoned, they fly in a single-file line. Depending on where they spawn in the formation, they will descend towards the left or right and then fly straight down before leaving in the opposite direction (i.e. if they descend towards the left, they will leave towards the right).	160	1000
Ei	Eis first appear in Stages 8, 9, and 10. When they are summoned, they form a diagonal line. Whenever the Eis turn, the formation fans out a little, making them more difficult to hit. Like Ogawamushis, they will descend towards the left or right (depending on where they spawn) and then fly straight down before leaving in the opposite direction.	160	2000
Galboss	Returning from Galaxian, Galbosses first appear in Stages 12, 13, and 14. When they are summoned, only one will seem to emerge, but while it is in flight, two more will suddenly pop out and quickly fly to the bottom of the screen at a slightly different angle. This makes defeating all three Galbosses much more difficult. The original Galboss obeys the same flight pattern as Ogawamushis and Eis.	160	3000

The type of transformed enemy the player encounters rotates after each challenging stage. For example, after encountering Galbosses in the fourteenth stage, the player will be treated to Ogawamushis for the next three stages.

Special Enemies[]

In addition to the aforementioned enemies, there are three enemies that never appear outside of their respective challenging stages. As such, they never attempt to attack the player.

Enemy	Behavior	Point Value
Tonbo	This enemy appears only during the third challenging stage.	160
Momiji	This enemy appears only during the fifth challenging stage.	160
Enterprise	This enemy appears only during the eight challenging stage.	160

Challenging Stages[]

Galaga Challenging Stage — Screenshot of the first Challenging Stage

Galaga is the first entry in the series to include Challenging Stages. These bonus levels take place starting at the third stage and every fourth stage afterwards (seventh, eleventh, etc.). Unlike in normal stages, the Galaga will neither attempt to attack the player nor enter formation. Instead, they fly in various patterns across the screens, making these stages akin to a shooting gallery. Each challenging stage contains one type of enemy (e.g. Zakos in the first challenging stage, Goeis in the second) along with four Boss Galagas. In total, there are eight distinct challenging stages.

Challenging stages consist of five waves, with each wave containing eight Galaga. The player's goal is to defeat as many enemies as possible, but they do not need to kill all of them to progress. If the player kills all the Galaga in a wave, they will earn a certain amount of bonus points; the amount of points they receive depends on the challenging stage they are playing.

#	Stage #	Enemy	Bonus Points for Clearing a Wave
1	3	Zako	1000
2	7	Goei	1000
3	11	Tonbo	1500
4	15	Ogawamushi	1500
5	19	Momiji	2000
6	23	Ei	2000
7	27	Galboss	3000
8	31	Enterprise	3000

At the end of the stage, the player receives 100 bonus points for every enemy they shot down; however, if they manage to defeat all forty Galaga, they will instead earn 10,000 bonus points.

After Stage 31 is completed, the challenging stages repeat in the same order. For instance, the next challenging stage, Stage 35, is a repeat of the first challenging stage.

Development[]

Due to the success of Galaxian, Namco had produced a surplus of Galaxian arcade boards. This gave Namco's developers the opportunity to produce new games using the boards. Eventually, a small team that included Shigeru Yokoyama, Shigeichi Ishimura, and Kazunoro Sawano—the designer of Galaxian—produced a new arcade game for the hardware called King & Balloon. Following King & Balloon's release, Namco tasked Yokoyama with developing a new space-themed game to compete with similar games being released by rival companies. The game was initially going to be developed for the Namco Galaxian board; however, the project was soon moved to a more advanced board after Ishimura informed Yokoyama of its development. As a result, the original concept for the game was scrapped completely.^[1]

Concept boss galaga tractor beam — A page from Yokoyama's design documents for *Galaga*, showing a Boss Galaga using its tractor beam.

With the aide of programmer Toru Ogawa, Yokoyama produced two prototypes for Galaga. According to Yokoyama, the first prototype was very similar to Galaxian, with the most notable difference being how the enemies appeared on screen. Although the prototype had reached a playable state, Yokoyama chose to scrap it because, in his opinion, it was too similar in gameplay to its predecessor. ^[1] Yokoyama then came up with an idea for a new gameplay mechanic: the tractor beam. Inspired by a movie he had seen, Yokoyama decided to give the Boss Galaga the ability to capture one of the player's Fighters. Yokoyama also chose to allow the player to retrieve Captured Fighters. While he initially thought about just adding the reclaimed ship to the player's lives, he instead chose to reward the player by making the restored Fighter fuse with the one the player was piloting, creating the Dual Fighter.^[1]

During the development of the second prototype, Ogawa presented Yokoyama with a glitch that made the Galaga leave the screen instead of entering formation and prevented them from shooting. Ogawa wanted to know if the glitch could be incorporated into Galaga's gameplay. Yokoyama had wanted include a feature similar to Rally-X's Challenging Stages or Pac-Man's Coffee Breaks, and both he and Ogawa agreed that it would be fun for the player to try to shoot at the moving enemies. This led to the creation of Galaga's Challenging Stages. ^[1] It was also during the second prototype's creation that the ability for Zakos and Goeis to transform into groups of three new Galaga was added. Yokoyama and Ogawa decided to add these Galaga to the Challenging Stages. ^[1]

The earliest concept sprites for Galaga were created by Yokoyama himself^[2]; however, once development on the actual game started, Hiroshi Ono was brought on to create new sprites. All of the sprites present in the final game were done by Ono.^[3]

Release[]

When the game was tested internally at Namco, it was received well among the staff. Yokoyama was encouraged by the reception among Namco's female personnel as well as that from Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani.^[4] The game's first location test was conducted near Nishi-Ogikubo Station in Tokyo; notably, none of the players attempted to obtain a Dual Fighter, despite the cabinet including an instruction card on how to do so.^[4]

Although Galaga was well-liked, an issue popped up during testing. Galaga's average play time was around 4-5 minutes longer than that of the average arcade game; as a result, it earned less money than was expected. Despite low profits from the test run, Yokoyama convinced the company to release the game without any further modifications.^[4]

Like previous games, Galaga was released in the forms of both upright and table cabinets. However, Galaga's table cabinet was notable for being the first of its kind to have an upright control panel, positioned similarly to that of an upright cabinet^[1]. Prior to this, all Namco tablet cabinets had their control panels affixed to their sides. According to Yokoyama, this change was made to allow players to mash the fire button more easily.^[1]

Ports & Rereleases[]

As one of Namco's most popular games, Galaga has been ported to and rereleased on numerous systems. For a full list, see: Galaga/Ports & Rereleases.

External Links[]

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Trivia[]

Galaga's name is derived from "Gala-" , the first four letters of Galaxian, and "ga" (蛾), the Japanese word for "moth."^[1]
At one point, the Dual Fighter was going to be formed by two Fighters fusing together vertically. This was scrapped in favor of a horizontal fusion.^[1]
Galaga stops awarding extra lives after the player's score surpasses 1,000,000 points^[5], meaning that the player can earn only fifteen extra lives (1,000,000÷70,000≈14; 14+1=15). Adding these lives to the three the player starts gives the maximum number of lives the player can have: eighteen.
Enterprise's design is a reference to the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek.
Because shooting is not disabled while the Fighter is trapped inside a tractor beam, it is possible to kill a Boss Galaga while being captured.
On certain versions of the game, there is a glitch that can be done in the first stage that prevents the Galaga from shooting for the rest of the game.^[6]
Galaga has multiple different kill screens, depending on the difficulty setting the game is currently on.^[7]
- If the game is set to Rank A (Easy), the game simply crashes. Some random sprites, such as that of a Goei and a Zako, may appear before this occurs.
- If the game is set to Rank B (Medium), the game will load a copy of the second challenging stage. Since it is treated as a normal stage, Zakos appear in addition to the usual Goeis and Boss Galagas.^[8]
- If the game is set to Rank C (Hard), no enemies will spawn, softlocking the game.
- If the game is set to Rank D (Hardest), the player is treated to the first stage on a much higher difficulty.^[9]