game
| title | Galaga (Namco) |
| set name | galagao |
| manufacturer | Namco |
| year | 1981 |
| genre | Shooter (hof) |
| category | Shooter / Gallery (hof) |
| driver status | imperfect |
| driver source | galaga.c |
| snapshots | MW: in game
| parent
/ CT: in game
| title
| parent
/ Mr. Do: parent
/ PS: in game
| title
| scores
| parent
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| rating |   73.2% after 93 votes |
| parent | Galaga (Namco rev. B) |
| other clones | Galaga (Midway set 1 with fast shoot hack) Galaga (Midway set 1) Galaga (Midway set 2) Gallag Gatsbee |
display
| colour emulation | good |
| palette | 576 |
| display type | raster |
| orientation | vertical |
| resolution | 224x288 |
| frequency | 60.606060Hz |
sound
| sound emulation | good |
| channels | mono |
controls
| players | 2 |
| nplayers | 2P alt |
| controls | 2 way joystick |
| buttons | 1 |
| coin slots | 2 |
hardware
| cpu | Z80 @ 3.072MHz |
| cpu | Z80 @ 3.072MHz |
| cpu | Z80 @ 3.072MHz |
| cpu | MB8844 @ 0.256MHz |
| audio | Namco @ 0.096MHz |
| audio | Discrete |
data
| version added | .030 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| last change(s) | .079u1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| roms |
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cabinet art
| cabinet | galaga.png galaga.png |
| marquee | galaga.png |
| control panel | galaga.png |
| flyer | galaga.png |
| PCB | galaga.png |
additional information
| info | 0.79u1 [Nicola Salmoria] 0.21 [Nicola Salmoria, Martin Scragg] TEST MODE:
Other Emulators:
Cosmic Alien Cosmo Galaxian Destroyer Mad Alien Moon Cresta Moon Quasar Phoenix Space Firebird UniWar S 4 Fun in 1 (Galaxian) Defend the Terra Attack on the Red UFO Galaga Galaga - Namco Classics Collection Vol.1 Galaga '88 Ghostmuncher Galaxian (bootleg) Gaplus Pisces Cosmo Gang the Video Space Bomber Romset: 40 kb / 16 files / 23.5 zip |
| history | Galaga (c) 1981 Namco. GALAGA is a space fighter game where you are the pilot of a spaceship referred to in-game as a Fighter, stationed in space, to defend your planet against the on-coming hordes of invaders. Your mission is to destroy as many of the enemy ships as possible. These invaders arrive in convoys. They will attack you while swerving back and forth across the screen, dropping bombs all the while. A certain breed of the enemy ships, the Boss Galaga, can put out a tractor beam and capture your Fighter. That Fighter changes color from white to red and stays with that particular Boss Galaga for the rest of the game. You can get it back by destroying the Boss Galaga that captured it while they are both attacking your current Fighter. If you do this, the rescued Fighter changes color again from red back to white, and links up with your current Fighter. This doubles your fire power. As your skill level increases, the number of attackers coming at you at any one time and the speed with which the enemy ships attack is gradually increased, plus their attack patterns become more and more complex. Bonus Fighters are awarded to you periodically throughout the game as you reach or pass certain preselected point values ('Bonus Life' dip switch setting). Each enemy ship has an assigned point value (see Scoring below). 2 major new features of your GALAGA game are : 1) The player is given the chance to double his fire power at certain points throughout the game. 2) The game has a rapid fire (automatic firing) option whereby the player just holds the FIRE button down and his space fighter continues to fire at the Galaga army in bursts of 2 missiles each. To double his fire power, the player must let one of his Fighters be captured by one of the Boss Galagas and then rescue it (CAUTION : If the player's last Fighter is captured, the game is over). The Boss Galaga ships MUST BE SHOT TWICE to destroy them. When shot once, they change color from green to blue. When shot again, they explode. The rescued Fighter then links up with the one that rescued it and they now work as a team - both moving together and firing at the same time. The object of the game is to survive as long as possible while destroying as many enemies as you can. As you do this, each following convoy of enemies will be harder to destroy. The game is made up of convoys of invading alien space ships. You, as defender, try to destroy as many convoys as you can. The convoys are displayed one at a time at the top of the screen. They are made up, in order from top to bottom on the convoy, of Boss Galaga, Butterflies (red/white bug ships), and Bees (blue/yellow bug ships). These ships fly onto the screen from different angles, going by your position (giving you an opportunity to shoot them down) and then take up their positions in the convoy formation at the top of the screen. In the 1st STAGE, the enemies do not drop bombs on you as they fly onto the screen and go by your position. However, they will in later stages. After the convoy (or what's left of it after you've finished shooting at them as they fly onto the screen and head for their respective spots in the convoy formation) finishes forming up at the top of the screen, enemies will begin peeling off and diving at your fighter. They weave back and forth across the screen dropping bombs all the while. The Boss Galaga can put out a tractor beam and capture your Fighter. When this happens, that Fighter changes color from white to red and stays with that particular enemy Boss Galaga for the rest of the game. You can get your Fighter back by destroying the Boss Galaga that captured it while they are both attacking your current fighter. The Boss Galaga MUST BE SHOT TWICE to destroy them. When shot once, they change color from green to blue. When shot again, they explode. If, however, you mistakenly shoot the captured fighter, it will be destroyed. Bees and Butterflies will explode as soon as they are hit by one of your shots. Starting with Stage 4, a squadron of special bonus enemies called "transforms" begin appearing. They're called transforms because a Bee will begin pulsating and move out of formation to change into these bonus enemies. They appear in the form of yellow scorpions in Stages 4, 5, and 6, green ships from "Bosconian" in Stages 8, 9, and 10, and Galaxian Flagships in Stages 12, 13, and 14. After that, the three different transforms repeat in the same order. Transforms are always worthwhile targets because they are not very aggressive and are worth more than the other enemies, and if all 3 transforms are destroyed, bonus points will be awarded. When you destroy the last ship of a convoy, the screen gives the following display centered on the monitor screen : STAGE (and the number of the next stage). The only exception to this would be when the next STAGE is a CHALLENGING STAGE. The first CHALLENGING STAGE comes at the end of the 2nd STAGE. After this, they come at the end of every third STAGE. When you destroy the last ship of the 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, 18th, etc. convoys, you will see this display centered on the monitor screen : CHALLENGING STAGE. A CHALLENGING STAGE is made up of 40 enemy ships that fly by your fighter in 5 groups of 8 ships each while describing varying patterns. They do not drop any bombs and the object is to shoot down as many of them as you can. When you shoot down one COMPLETE formation of 8 enemy ships, bonus points (between 1000 and 3000 depending on the STAGE) are added to your score. If you can destroy all 40 GALAGAS, you will be awarded a SPECIAL BONUS OF 10000 POINTS for that particular CHALLENGING STAGE. As you destroy more convoys, the attacks on you become faster, are in a more rapid succession, and follow trickier flight patterns. For instance, they will try to trap you in a cross fire, or in one corner of the screen, etc. You've really got to watch them closely. If they can't bomb you, they'll ram you in the rear. That's one of their favorite tricks, to fly in a circle and come up behind you. - TECHNICAL - Galaga machines came in 4 formats (not counting bootlegs, which were all different) : * Upright machines were the most common, and accounted for the vast majority of all Galaga machines. They were in cabinets that were identical to the "Pac-Man"/"Galaxian" design, and most of them were black (although a few white ones were made as well. White Galagas, if they are factory made, are usually converted "Bosconians". Bosconian never sold well, but Galaga did). The sideart consisted of a large oval shaped sticker with an image of one of the buglike enemy ships. Two different marquees exist. The common one is a green 'Galaga' logo on a black background, while the alternate one is a (totally different) gold 'Galaga' logo on a white background. The control panel features blue graphics and a single 2-Way joystick, a fire button, and start buttons. Most machines also have a large sticker on the kickplate (front panel), that is another picture of the same bug ship that adorns the side of the machine (this sticker is also available as a repro, but Namco doesn't have any more originals left). * The mini cabinet is a much smaller copy of the basic upright design (about a foot shorter, a foot shallower, and 6 inches narrower). These are finished in woodgrain and black, and seldom have any sideart. The marquee and control panel graphics match those of the upright. * The cocktail cabinet is a standard woodgrain Namco cocktail with a small control panel on each end, and some subtle 'Galaga' labels underneath the glass (most cocktail tables look very similar to one another, and this one is no exception). These are generally the most valuable of all the Galaga machines (mainly due to the fact that they don't require a truck to haul, and look smaller in the eyes of the significant other, even though they technically eat a lot more floor space, as they need chairs on both ends. Namco also produced a 'portable' in very limited numbers. These used smaller screens and were similar in appearance to the little pay televisions that you might encounter in a bus station. They were designed for use on buses and airplanes, although very few of them ever saw service in that way. Game ID : GG Main CPU : Z80 (x3), MB88xx Sound Chips : Namco 3-channel WSG, discrete circuitry (for the ship explosion sound) Screen orientation : Vertical Video resolution : 224 x 288 pixels Screen refresh : 60.61 Hz Palette colors : 32 (16 colors for tiles + 16 colors for sprites) Players : 2 Control : 2-way joystick Buttons : 1 (FIRE) - TRIVIA - Released in September 1981. Licensed to Bally Midway for US manufacture and distribution (December 1981). Although Galaga was a superior game, it didn't sell the large numbers that its predecessor did. One of the first games with a bonus stage. The game 'rolls over' at 999,990 points. The player 1 score counter is 6 digits, but the player 2 counter is 7 digits. Therefore, most good players start a 2 players game and play exclusively on the player 2 side so their score won't 'roll over' at 999,990. After the 1,000,000 mark, new Fighters are no longer awarded. What happens after finishing the 255th stage depends upon the skill level set in the DIP switches: * On the easy skill, the game resets. * On the medium skill, the game flips to "Stage 0" which plays as a strange cross between the 2nd challenging stage and a regular level where the enemies shoot. The game will advance to stage 1 after completion, and the game will get easy again. * On the hard skill setting, the words "Stage 0" stay on the screen forever. No more enemies ever appear. The player can continue to move the ship and fire, but there is no way to advance to the next level, or to die. To play again, the machine must be reset. * On the hardest skill, the game flips to "Stage 0" which plays like stage 1 (no extra enemies when flying onto the screen), but it is still as difficult as stage 255. The game will advance to stage 1 after completion, and the game will get easy again. If you have more than 7 extra men, the marker for the screen will only show 7 1/2 (!) men remaining. Additional extra men will still be credited, even though they won't show on the screen. The Bees are also referred to as 'Zako' and the Butterflies are also referred to as 'Goei'. Stephen Krogman holds the official record for this game with 15,999,990 points. A bootleg of this game is called "Gallag". A hack is known as "GATsBEe". A Galaga unit appears in the 1983 movie 'WarGames', in the in 1983 movie 'Spring Break' (being played by one of the main characters), in the 1984 movie 'The Karate Kid', and in the 1987 movie 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'. - SCORING - Bee (Blue/yellow bug ship) : 50 points in formation or 80 points in flight. Butterfly (Red/white bug ship) : 80 points in formation or 160 points in flight. Boss Galaga : 150 points in formation or 400 points in flight. Boss Galaga : 800 points in flight with 1 wingman. Boss Galaga : 1,600 points in flight with 2 wingmen. Scorpions : 160 points each, 1000 points for destroying all 3. Bosconian ships : 160 points each, 2000 points for destroying all 3. Galaxian Flagships : 160 points each, 3000 points for destroying all 3. Captured fighter : 500 points in formation or 1000 points in flight. Challenging Stage : 100 points per ship destroyed if less than 40. Challenging Stage : 10,000 points for destroying all 40 ships (perfect). Challenging Stage : 1000 points on the first 2 Challenging Stages, 1500 points on the 3rd and 4th, 2000 points on the 5th and 6th, and 3000 points from the 7th onward for destroying a complete formation of 8 ships. - TIPS AND TRICKS - * Easter Egg : 1) Enter service mode. 2) Keep B1 pressed and enter the following sequence : Right(x5), Left(x6), Right(x3), Left(x7). '(c) 1981 NAMCO LTD.' will be added at the bottom of the screen. * Enemy Stop Shooting : on the first stage, kill everything but the 2 Bees in the bottom left corner. Then just wait, dodging the enemies' shots, until the enemy no longer drops any shots towards you. After the enemies stop firing, let them pass for 2 more trips and then kill them. For the rest of the game, the enemies will not drop shots. It will take approximately 15 minutes for the enemies to quit shooting at you, so this trick requires a lot of patience. Note : in a 2-player game, only one person has to do the cheat for both players to benefit. But as soon as 1 of the players game is over the enemies begin shooting again. * (BUG) Take The Control Of The Fighter For Free : during the Galaga demo, the Boss Galaga comes down and tries to tractor-beam up the player's ship. As soon as that tractor-beam starts, the player can take control of the ship in the demo. The player has 2 choices here and this will effect how the game handles this bug : If the player allows himself to be captured, the demo will continue as normal and he has the option of controlling the player Fighter or not. The player can choose whether to save the captured Fighter, try to complete the level, etc. The demo mode will complete after 30 seconds and the high-score screen will appear. If the player takes control of the Fighter and destroys the Boss Galaga with the tractor beam, some of the characters on the screen will freeze while others are still moving and doing what they are suppose to be doing. This will last 15-20 seconds, then the game will go to the high score screen. * Challenging stages are easier if the high score numbers are used to refine your aim. These tips assume a 6-digit high score : 1) On the first 2 challenging stages, aim your ships so that your left set of bullets falls between the second and third numbers in the high score list. 2) On subsequent challenging stages, aim one set of your bullets between the first and second numbers in the high score list (if the units come from the left) or between the last and next-to-last numbers (if the units come from the right). This will allow you to hit descending enemies at the highest possible point. * Here Is A neat (and useless) Galaga Trick : it is possible to end the game with a 200% ratio. The 200% hit-miss ratio trick can only be done with your first shot of the game. When the game starts, don't move, and fire only one shot. If you time it correctly, 2 enemies will be killed at once. Let your remaining Fighters be destroyed, and presto : a better-than-perfect result. - SERIES -
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