When the film Tron was released in 1982, no-one believed that the video game would go on to make more than the film did.

The previous few years had been some of the biggest in gaming, some of the games that were released are still some of the highest-grossing titles ever. Although Tron was a great game, it didn’t quite live up to the big hits in the previous years.

Tron may not have lived up to the likes of Pac-Man and Space Invaders but that didn’t stop it being a successful game. Tron the video game went on to make more money than the film even did. Tron the film made a total gross of $33 million so the video game managed to make even more than that. Tron was even introduced onto the Xbox 360 arcade in 2008.

Tron may not be one of the best games of the 1980’s but it was definitely a great one.

The post 1982 – Video Game Outshines Its Own Movie first appeared on Get2Gaming.

The start of the new decade saw the release of one of the biggest ever video games, Pac-Man. In a time that was dominated by shooter arcade games, Pac-Man managed to storm onto the scene. Pac-Man managed to create a new genre of video games, maze chase games.

Pac-Man became one of the biggest pop-culture icons on the 1980’s due to its incredible popularity. Pac-Man generated over $2.5 billion by the 1990’s making it not only one of the highest grossing arcade games of all time, but also one of the highest grossing video games ever.

As surprising as it sounds, the idea for Pac-Man came from pizza. When 27 year old Toru Iwatani decided to order a pizza for dinner, it inspired him in several ways. The pizza gave Iwatani the design for Pac-Man as he had already eaten two slices, the rest of the pizza resembled a mouth. It also gave Iwatani the idea for the game, he wanted to create a game that was based on eating. Pac-Man was developed and published by Namco when it was first released in Japan and it was then licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway.

The idea of the game was that the player controls Pac-Man and has to eat all of the pac-dots so that you could move onto the next level. Trying to stop you from eating the pac-dots were four different ghosts that would chase you, when they make contact with you, you would lose a life. Alternatively you could eat the ghosts when you got one of four power-ups which were located in each of the four corners of the maze.

When Pac-Man was first released in Japan it didn’t get the best response due to the insane popularity of Space Invaders but after a poor start it was released in the United States and soon picked up. Pac-Man went on to make over $1 billion in its first year alone. Pac-Man is the second highest grossing video game of all time making a total $12.8 billion since 1980.

The world record us currently held by David Race who managed to get a score of 3,333,360 in a total time of 3 hours, 28 minutes and 49 seconds.

Pac-Man is still to this day, one of the biggest icons in popular culture. Now just imagine if Iwatani decided not to get a pizza for dinner that night…

The post 1980 Pac-Man is Born first appeared on Get2Gaming.

In 1979 we saw the release of Asteroids which joined a list of games that were the major hits of the golden age of arcade games. Asteroids was a shooter game and had a space theme much like Space Invaders, which was released a year before Asteroids.

Although it was similar to Space Invaders, Asteroids was also very different as you had to cover yourself from every angle and there was a lot more movement involved. In the game, the player controls a spaceship that is in an asteroid field with the occasional flying saucer flying past. The player needs to shoot and destroy the asteroids and flying saucers without colliding with them. The more asteroids the player destroyed, the more points the player got.

The competitiveness of the game and always wanting to get your name up on the high-score leader board meant people spent lots of money on the game to keep playing and trying to beat their former high-score and of course beating their friends’ scores.

The total money spent on the game meant that Asteroids is in the top 10 of highest-grossing arcade games of all time. Asteroids had already made a revenue of $800 million by 1991 and selling 100,000 machines in the process.

In 2010, John McAllister broke the Asteroids world record with a flabbergasting high-score of 41,338,740 in a 58-hour livestream. Whether that score is ever beaten remains to be seen.

The post 1979 – Asteroids Debuts first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Space Invaders was released in Japan in 1978 and was one of the first shooter games, very different to shooters as we know them today. When it was first released, Space Invaders was a hugely successful arcade game and is still very well-known to this day.

Space Invaders is a very basic game but at the time it was released it was phenomenal. The player controlled a laser cannon that moves horizontally across the screen and fires at the aliens above. The aliens also move back and forth horizontally but slowly advance to you down at the bottom of the screen whilst shooting at you. You had to destroy the aliens as quickly as possible and try not to get hit by any bullets.

The original look of Space Invaders

If you have never played Space Invaders I suggest that you try it at some point, it is a great indication at what video games were like almost 40 years ago now. A true classic.

Tomohiro Nishkado was the creator of Space Invaders. Some of the original enemy designs for the game that Nishkado wanted to create were tanks, combat planes and battleships but he opted against all of these options when he took inspiration for a space theme after he saw Star Wars.

Space Invaders on an arcade machine

By 1982, 400,000 arcade cabinets had been sold worldwide and made around $3.8 billion in revenue, that was is equivalent to over $13 billion today. The total revenue of Space Invaders makes it the highest-grossing video game of all time. Space Invaders even caused a coin shortage in Japan when it was first launched due to an unbelievable popularity. The little alien image remains one of the most well-known pop culture icons almost 40 years after it first appeared.

There wasn’t just the original arcade game for Space Invaders, there were several sequels to the original phenomenon.

1978 – Space Invaders

1979 – Space Invaders Part II

1980 – Space Invaders II

1985 – Return of the Invaders

1990 – Mininvader

1991 – Super Space Invaders ‘91

1994 – Space Invaders DX

1995 – Space Invaders ‘95

2008 – Space Invaders the Beat Attacker

In 38 years, no other game has managed to kick Space Invaders from being the highest-grossing game ever. Space Invaders, the arcade game so successful that it caused coin shortages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axlx3o0codc

The post 1978 – The Introduction of Space Invaders first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Invading arcades around the world – Space Invaders

Created by Tomohiro and produced by Japanese electronic game manufacturer Taito Corp, 1978 saw Space Invaders hit arcades in Japan before making its way around the world.  Rumour even has it that due to its popularity in Japan, the ever-lasting arcade game led to a coin shortage and promoted an increase in production of the 100-yen coin. In 1980 Atari adapted a version for its Atari 2600 console, helping fuel the popularity of home gaming that we see today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=437Ld_rKM2s

Space Invaders arguably paved the way the successful shooting genre that has produced so many popular games over the years, so simple but so effective.

The post Gaming Through The Years – 1978 first appeared on Get2Gaming.