TITLE
The Most Important Videogame Ever Exists Outside of the History It Helped Create
AUTHOR
Marc Nomandin
PUBLICATION
Paste Magazine
YEAR
2023
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
If Space Invaders isn’t the most important videogame ever, then it’s at least in the discussion. While Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. might have powered the early popularity of the NES and rescued home game consoles from an industry-wide crash and near demise, Space Invaders was at the center of that transition from arcade to the living room in the first place, thanks to its dominance of arcades and entertainment media at large. And it had ended its own videogame crash by putting a stop to the proliferation of Pong clones and kicking off what’s referred to as “the golden age of arcade games.” Maybe you don’t even get Super Mario Bros. without Space Invaders, and not just because Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of that game, claimed his introduction to Space Invaders gave him an interest in videogames and a desire to make his own.[…]
Many vital videogames in the industry’s history are so obviously fun, so clearly influential even decades after their release, that you can understand why they became popular in the first place, and that they could be popular releases today, too, if they didn’t already exist. That’s not the case with Space Invaders, however. This isn’t a knock on the Taito classic from 1978, which celebrates 45 years of protecting Earth from a slowly descending alien invasion this summer, either. It’s just that understanding the context that made Space Invaders the highest-grossing videogame ever in its day, what made it so influential and important not just within its genre, but to games as a whole, is difficult. The things you can say about it, and the time period in which it was released, are even more alien to those who weren’t there for it than the creatures you’re firing shots at in-game. One of the most vital videogames in the industry’s history essentially sits outside of the history it helped create.
GAMES MENTIONED
Space Invaders