TITLE
Galaga
AUTHOR
Michael Kimball
PUBLICATION
Electric Literature
YEAR
2014
ARTICLE TYPE
Book Excerpt
FROM THE ARTICLE
Stage 1Galaga (1981) was Alec Baldwin’s favorite arcade game and it might have saved his life. Apparently, in the 1980s Mr. Baldwin would play the game as a way to come down from his long nights of drinking and doing coke. In the morning, he would show up at a warehouse arcade in Los Angeles and wait for the owner of the place to open up for the day. He would play arcade games while other people were eating breakfast and going to work. According to Mr. Baldwin, playing video games “was the only way I could go ‘beta’ and go into that state I needed to be, where I could calm down and take my mind off everything.” The rush of playing video games became a substitute for the rush of drugs and alcohol. Playing Galaga and other arcade games for a couple of hours allowed him to wind down enough that he could go home and go to sleep.
Stage 2
Galaga is a coin-op arcade video game and a sequel to Galaxian (1979), itself an unofficial update of Space Invaders (1978). Galaga is a shooter, a fixed shooter, a spacy, a space shooter, a bug shooter, or a single-screen schmup (a.k.a. shoot-em-up). Galaga is also sometimes called a bug war, an exterminator, and a kind of insecticide.
Stage 3
Galaga was released in December of 1981 when I was 14 years old, but it probably didn’t reach Aladdin’s Castle arcade in the Lansing Mall until early 1982 when I was 15 years old. It was a difficult time in my life and going to the arcade any chance I got was a good excuse to get out of an abusive household. Galaga was my longest quarter and I could almost always set the daily high score in any arcade. Playing that video game gave me a way to space out and let me forget about the rest of my life. Galaga was my game and it might have saved my life too.
GAMES MENTIONED
Galaga
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Alec Baldwin
EXCERPTED FROM
Boss Fight Books – Galaga