game
| title | Galaxian (Namco set 2) |
| set name | galaxiaj |
| manufacturer | Namco |
| year | 1979 |
| genre | Shooter (hof) |
| category | Shooter / Gallery (hof) |
| driver status | good |
| driver source | galdrvr.c |
| snapshots | MW: in game
| parent
/ CT: in game
| title
| parent
/ Mr. Do: parent
/ PS: in game
| title
| parent
zoom 
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| rating |   68.5% after 21 votes |
| parent | Galaxian (Namco set 1) |
| other clones | Galaxian (bootleg) Galaxian (Midway set 1) Galaxian (Midway set 2) Galaxian (Taito) Galaxian Part 4 (hack) Galaxian Part X (moonaln hack) Galaxian Test ROM Galaxian Turbo (superg hack) Moon Alien Moon Alien Part 2 Moon Alien Part 2 (older version) Space Invaders Galactica (galaxiaj hack) Star Fighter Super Galaxians (galaxiaj hack) Super GX Swarm (bootleg?) Zero Time |
display
| colour emulation | good |
| palette | 32 |
| display type | raster |
| orientation | vertical |
| resolution | 224x768 |
| frequency | 60.606061Hz |
sound
| sound emulation | good |
| channels | mono |
controls
| players | 2 |
| nplayers | 2P alt |
| controls | 2 way joystick |
| buttons | 1 |
| coin slots | 2 |
hardware
data
| version added | .037b11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| last change(s) | none since version .53 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| roms |
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cabinet art
| cabinet | galaxian.png galaxian.png |
| marquee | galaxian.png |
| control panel | galaxian.png |
| flyer | galaxiaj.png |
additional information
| info | 0.15 [Nicola Salmoria] 0.05 [Nicola Salmoria, Robert Anschuetz] Bugs:
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: 15 kb / 8 files / 10.0 zip |
| history | Galaxian (c) 1979 Namco. Galaxian is a legendary single-screen shoot-em-up that took everything that made Taito's ground-breaking "Space Invaders" so good, and improved upon it on every level. Each screen starts with a wave of multi-coloured aliens moving left and right at the top of the screen; the aliens quickly break ranks and start dive-bombing the Galaxip (player's ship) - either in single units or in groups of 3 - dropping multiple missiles as they descend. All of the aliens need to be destroyed before the player can progress to the next wave. CAST OF CHARACTERS Galaxip : This is the name of the ship which you control at the bottom of the screen. Galaxian : These attacking aliens come in 3 varieties, blue, purple, and red. They begin in formation at the top of the screen and will occasionally swoop down to attack you before returning to their position in the formation. Flagship : At least two of these appear at the top of the formation at the start of each stage. They will swoop down to attack with one or two red Galaxians if any are nearby. If a flagship is one of the last enemies left of the screen, it will run away and appear as a third Flagship at the start of the next stage. - TECHNICAL - This was the first title to use the now familiar 'Namco Cabinet', which was used for Galaxian, "Galaga", "Pac-Man", "Ms. Pac-Man". Several other titles used nearly identical cabinets as well. These machines are white, with painted sideart of a green dragonfly alien (done up in blue, green. and black). The marquee is rather large and displays a blue and green 'Galaxian' logo (which is painted on a sheet of glass, they don't make them like that anymore). The control panel and monitor bezel are not highly decorated, but do feature some game instructions. Finally this machine uses neon green t-molding (edge trim), it is difficult to find replacement trim in that same exact shade. The earliest Galaxian machines used a 25inches G02 monitor, but later machines shipped with the standard 19inches Electrohome G07 monitor. Any normal standard resolution arcade monitor should work as a replacement. "Pac-Man" PCBs will work in Galaxian machines, but require a 4-Way joystick, instead of the 2-Way model that Galaxian normally has. The sound pinout is also different, so one would need to rewire the connector to hear any Pac-Man sounds. You can also plug a Galaxian PCB into a Pac-Man. Again, the sound would need to be wired up at the connector and you'd have to push UP on the joystick to fire :) Main CPU : Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz) Sound Chips : Tone generator and discrete circuits Screen orientation : Vertical Video resolution : 224 x 256 pixels Screen refresh : 60.61 Hz Palette colors : 16 Players : 2 Control : 2-way joystick (LEFT and RIGHT) Buttons : 1 (FIRE) - TRIVIA - Released in October 1979. Licensed to Midway for US manufacture and distribution (December 1979). The Nichibutsu version is known as "Moon Alien". Space battles of all kinds played a major role during the golden age of video games. With the introduction of Galaxian in 1979, players were transported to the most colorful and challenging space battle yet. This was the first video game released with 100 percent of its graphics displayed in true R.G.B. color. * A place in video game history : "Galaxian captivated the minds of quite a few arcade enthusiasts," said Chris Lindsey, director of the National Video Game and Coin-Op Museum in St. Louis. "It was a relatively early entry in the golden age of video games, and it capitalized on the enthusiasm created by the earlier video game classic, "Space Invaders", while providing a more colorful, enjoyable, and demanding gaming experience. Galaxian had smarter bad guys than "Space Invaders", and it demanded that the player really pay attention to what was going on. And there were no shields, like many games have today. You really had to stay on the ball. Galaxian also had great sound and used elements that have since become standard -- such as flags and other symbols to mark the player's progression through different levels of game play.". * The great 25-cent escape : "Galaxian definitely gets an enthusiastic response," Lindsey said. "In fact, I deliberately position the game near the entrance of the museum. Often it's the first game people go to." Lindsey often sees parents trying to convey to their child the excitement of these great games. "It is funny for me when I see a father trying to explain a game to his kid. Junior really just wants to get on the game and figure it out, and Dad wants to do a demo. Dad starts instructing Junior while Junior is sort of looking around, wondering how he can get away. But Dad continues, busily explaining the nuances of the game, which he knows Junior can't get on the first play. This all shows the enthusiasm that a certain generation still has for these terrific games." With or without a parent's help, Lindsey sees a younger generation embracing the classic arcade games. "Kids by themselves will actually do quite well on these games," Lindsey said. "I'm somewhat surprised when I see how good kids are at picking up games. I sort of think that because I'm older, I should be able to play better, and that's not always the case with video games. That's a lesson an entire generation has had to learn.". * Namco notes : Galaxian was one of Namco's first video games, and engineers throughout the company were gathered into a special team. As the game neared completion, the engineers suspected they had created a good game because other Namco employees were extremely "excited and crazy about the game." Once Galaxian was released, they knew they had a winner because, as one Namco engineer reported, "People [at the arcades] piled their coins onto the game cabinets to keep playing, and those who were waiting were very irritated because their turn never came. There were huge lines of people around each machine.". The Galaxian Flagship became a trademark of Namco as it makes cameo appearances in other Namco classics : "Pac-Man" and "Pac-Man Plus" as the prize in levels 9 and 10. "Galaga" as one of the 3 enemies that a Zako (normal blue/yellow bug ship) can transform into when it splits into 3. "Dig Dug" as the prize in levels 16 and 17. "Super Pac-Man" as the food item of level 15. "Pac & Pal" as the power-up item of levels 1 and 2. A silver-gray version appears as an enemy in later areas of "Super Xevious". A 3-D version appears as a prize in later levels of "Pac-Mania". The board layout in level 5 of "Quester". Gary Whelan holds the official record for this game with 1,114,550 points, achieved the 24th August 2006 at Dukinfield in the UK. Some hacks of this game are known as "Galaxian Part 4", "Galaxian Turbo", "Super Galaxians", "Super Invaders Galactica", "Swarm" and "Galaxian Part X". A Spanish bootleg made by Petaco S.A. is known as "Zero Time". A Galaxian unit appears in the 1983 movie 'Joysticks'. It is also heard (but not seen) in the 1987 James Bond movie 'The Living Daylights'. - UPDATES - The only code difference between the original Namco version and the licensed Midway version is that the BONUS GALAXIP text is printed on a different line. In clone Namco Set 2: * Lives dip switch can be set to 3 or 5 lives. The default is 3 lives. * Extra life dip switch can be set to 4000 (meaning a bonus Galaxip at 4000 points), 5000 points, 7000 points, or None (meaning no bunus Galaxip at any time). The default is 4000. - SCORING - Light Blue Ship in formation : 30 points Light Blue Ship attacking : 60 points Purple Ship in formation : 40 points Purple Ship attacking : 80 points Red Ship in formation : 50 points Red Ship attacking : 100 points Flagship in formation : 60 points Flagship attacking with no escorts : 150 points Flagship attacking with 1 escort : 200 points Flagship attacking with 2 escorts, flagship killed before BOTH escorts : 300 points Flagship attacking with 2 escorts, flagship killed AFTER both escorts : 800 points * The maximum possible score shown is 999,990. Scores higher than this roll back to zero, but the high score will show the last score achieved before the rollover, which can vary from 999,990 to 999,200. - TIPS AND TRICKS - * The action starts immediately as soon as you start your game. The Galaxians will be set up in formation and your Galaxip will be placed in the middle of the bottom of the screen. The action starts immediately. You can only have one shot in the air at any time so plan your shots accordingly. The game starts off slowly with only 2 or 3 Galaxians attacking your Galaxip at one time. They will drop 3 to 4 laser shots. As the waves progress, more Galaxians will come after your Galaxip until you will usually have 10-15 at any one time swooping down on it. Each wave starts out with the Galaxians in formation, in the following quantities (in order from top to bottom) : Flagships : 2 (plus any that have escaped from battle in the previous wave, up to a maximum of 4 altogether) Red Galaxians (Escorts) : 6 (in 1 row, directly above the flagships) Purple Galaxians : 8 (in 1 row, directly above the red Galaxians) Blue Galaxians : 30 (in 3 rows of 10, directly above the purple Galaxians) Gold and Red are special enemies : they create convoys. Gold flagships have other special properties (see below). Purple and Blue are regular enemies. * The Galaxip can fire only shot on the screen at a time. It is possible to kill 2 enemies with one shot if they are flying extremely close to each other. * Missiles shot at the formation which miss by going between columns or near an outer edge of a column, will cause the formation to pause its left-right movement for a very short moment. This will usually, but not always, prevent missed shots near the columns from hitting the enemies in the upper rows of the formation which might otherwise be hit by moving into the shot as it flies by. * Enemies peel away from the formation and attack the Galaxip. Enemies fire at the Galaxip during their attack, but they can’t fire after they pass an invisible horizontal line just above the player’s ship. * Enemies always begin attack runs from the edges of the formation, never from the middle. This also applies to flagships but it is not readily observable unless there are 3 or 4 flagships present. * A 'swarm' is triggered by either of 2 criterion : 1. The total number of enemies in formation is 3 or less. 2. The total number of blue and purple enemies in formation is zero. This can occur when there are many flagships and escorts still present in formation. * When the 'swarm' starts, enemies that begin an attack do not return to formation : they keep attacking. Once started, a 'swarm' can only be ended by killing all of the enemies and/or letting them escape, or by the Galaxip getting hit. * Before the 'swarm' starts, enemies that attack, which are not killed, return to the formation. Since these enemies were on the edge of the formation and able to attack once, they are very likely to attack again soon. * When not in 'swarm', a maximum of 4 regular enemies can attack at any one time. * Flagships and convoys can attack at any time as long as another convoy attack is not already commencing; only one convoy attack can happen at a time. * A flagship will always create a convoy with the maximum number of escorts available to it, unless the 'swarm' has started. * The flagships 'capture' up to 3 red escorts while they are in formation : Whenever there is a flagship in formation directly above an escort or above it to one side, that escort is captured and cannot attack on its own. This capture effect ends when a 'swarm' begins. * The flagships can escape from the battle only if all three red escorts under their place in the formation have been killed. Flagships that escape will appear on the next attack wave, up to a maximum of 4 flagships at the start of any wave. * When an attacking flagship is killed, all enemies stop firing for a short period of time. If this kill occurs before the 'swarm', there will also be no new attacks from the formation during this period. These benefits never occur for killing a flagship that is in formation. * The flags which count the rounds show a maximum of round 48; rounds 48 and up are shown as round 48. However if round 256 is achieved, the flags start to roll over, but with some graphical glitches; the flags that were showing round 48 begin to get overwritten, one at a time. This results in the big 10-flags being cut in half by the regular flags which start to appear, until all 4 of the 10-flags are replaced by small ones. 16 single flags show during rounds 256+8 and 256+9 (rounds 264 and 265). The glitch ends at round 256+10 (266), which shows a single 10 flag. * After wave 1, it is possible to kill any one enemy, even a flagship, in a brand new formation by shooting at just the right time and place before the formation teleports in at the start of a new round. * The Galaxians that come down in a smooth pattern are the easiest to kill plus their shots are easy to avoid. The hard ones (usually the blue Galaxians) to kill are the ones where the Galaxian 'bounces' from side-to-side dropping shots since those shots cover a very large area. * The corners can be a death trap. When the Galaxians come down firing, their shots do not come straight down but they angle toward the direction that the Galaxian is traveling. In addition, the Galaxians have a tendency to 'charge' into the corners. You get the points if a Galaxian rams your Galaxip but you also lose your Galaxip in the process. * The Flagships are the big points in the game. Try to avoid shooting the red fighters since they act as escorts for the Flagship. Wait until a Flagship comes down with two escorts. If you can't get aligned to take all three out quickly, let them pass. If you do get a good angle on them, you will have to fire quickly to pick off the two escorts first, then the Flagship. If you hit the Flagship first, you get significantly less points. * Do not stop moving. If you do, you will be caught in a crossfire. The Galaxians tend to leave small areas of safety open between their shots. Also, make sure you are constantly hitting their formation to reduce their numbers (again, don't kill off the red ones). * As you progress into the higher waves, the Galaxians tend to move quicker, fly more erratic patterns, and 'gang' up on your Galaxip. Plan accordingly for this. - SERIES -
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