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==Development== ''Space Invaders'' was created by [[Tomohiro Nishikado]], who spent a year designing the game and developing the necessary hardware to produce it.<ref name="GI-177">{{Cite journal|date=January 2008| title= Classic GI: Space Invaders| journal= [[Game Informer]]| author = Staff| publisher= Game Stop|issue= 177| pages= 108–109}}</ref> The game's inspiration is reported to have come from varying sources, including an adaptation of the mechanical game ''Space Monsters'' released by Taito in 1972, and a dream about Japanese school children who are waiting for Santa Claus and are attacked by invading aliens. However, Nishikado has cited [[Atari]]'s arcade game ''[[Breakout]]'' as his inspiration. He aimed to create a shooting game that featured the same sense of achievement from completing stages and destroying targets, but with more complex graphics.<ref name="GI-177"/><ref name="RG-3">{{cite journal| title = Nishikado-San Speaks| journal = [[Retro Gamer]]| publisher = Live Publishing| author = Staff| issue = 3| page = 35}}</ref> Nishikado used a similar layout to that of ''Breakout'', but altered the game mechanics. Rather than bounce a ball to attack static objects, players are given the ability to fire projectiles at their own discretion to attack moving enemies. Early enemy designs included tanks, combat planes, and battleships. Nishikado, however, was not satisfied with the enemy movements; technical limitations made it difficult to simulate flying.<ref name="GI-177"/><ref name="Edge-Taito">{{Cite journal|date=October 2005| title = The Creation of Space Invaders| journal= [[Edge (magazine)|Edge]]| publisher= [[Future plc]]| issue= 154| url = http://www.next-gen.biz/news/creation-space-invaders| accessdate =May 5, 2008| author= Kiphshidze, N; Zubiashvili, T; Chagunava, K| pages= 7–13| issn= 1512-0112| pmid= 18323584}}</ref> Humans would have been easier to simulate, but Nishikado considered shooting them immoral.<ref name="Edge-Taito"/><ref name="1UP-10things">{{cite web| url = http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3168373| title = Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Space Invaders| publisher = [[1UP.com]]| author = Edwards, Benj| accessdate =July 11, 2008 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226064943/http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3168373 | archivedate=2009-02-26}}</ref> After seeing a magazine feature about ''Star Wars'', he thought of using a space theme. Nishikado drew inspiration for the aliens from H. G. Wells' ''The War of the Worlds'' — he had watched the 1953 film adaptation as a child — and created initial bitmap images after the octopus-like aliens. Other alien designs were modelled after squids and crabs. The game was originally titled ''Space Monsters'', inspired by a popular song in Japan at the time, but was changed to ''Space Invaders'' by Nishikado's superiors. ===Hardware=== Because microcomputers in Japan were not powerful enough at the time to perform the complex tasks involved in designing and programming ''Space Invaders'', Nishikado had to design his own custom hardware and development tools for the game. He created the [[arcade system board]] using new [[microprocessor]]s from the United States.<ref name="RG-3"/> The game uses an Intel 8080 central processing unit, and features [[raster graphics]] on a CRT monitor and [[monaural]] sound hosted by a combination of [[Analogue electronics|analogue circuitry]] and a [[Texas Instruments SN76477]] [[sound chip]].<ref name="KLOV-SI">{{cite web| url = http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9662| title = Space Invaders Videogame by Bally Midway (1978)| publisher = [[Killer List of Videogames]]| accessdate =May 12, 2008}}</ref><ref name="1UP-10things"/><ref name="ArtOfGameWorlds">{{cite book| title = The Art of Game Worlds| first = Dave| last = Morris| page = 166| publisher = [[HarperCollins]]| isbn = 0-06-072430-7| year = 2004}}</ref> It also uses the [[Video display controller#List of example VDCs|Fujitsu MB14241]] as a [[Video display controller|video shifter]],<ref name="8080bw"/> to accelerate the [[Sprite (computer graphics)|sprite]] drawing and bitmapping;<ref>{{cite web|title=Arcade Space Invaders|author=Chris Cantrell|website=Computer Archeology|url=http://www.computerarcheology.com/wiki/wiki/Arcade/SpaceInvaders|accessdate=2015-01-12}}</ref> it uses [[Framebuffer|frame buffer]] technology, rather than the [[Tile engine|tile-map]] technology later introduced by the [[Namco Galaxian]] hardware.<ref>{{citation|title=Before the Crash: Early Video Game History|author=Mark J. P. Wolf|publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]]|year=2012|isbn=0814337228|page=173|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=oK3D4i5ldKgC&pg=PA173|accessdate=2015-01-12}}</ref> The [[Arcade system board#Taito|Taito 8080]] hardware designed for ''Space Invaders'' was later used by a number of other arcade games.<ref name=taito8080/><ref name="8080bw"/> Despite the specially developed hardware, Nishikado was unable to program the game as he wanted — the Control Program board was not powerful enough to display the graphics in colour or move the enemies faster — and he considered the development of the hardware the most difficult part of the whole process. While programming the game, Nishikado discovered that the processor was able to render the alien graphics faster the fewer there were of them on screen. Rather than design the game to compensate for the speed increase, he decided to keep it as a challenging gameplay mechanic. ''Space Invaders'' was first released in a [[Video game arcade cabinet#Cocktail or table cabinets|cocktail-table]] format with [[black-and-white]] graphics for the [[Video gaming in Japan|Japanese market]].<ref name="RG-41"/> There were then Japanese cocktail cabinets that used rainbow-colored cellophane strips in a variety of reds, blues, and purples,<ref name="RG-41"/> such as ''T.T. Space Invaders'' in 1978.<ref>{{Arcade History|19515|T.T. Space Invaders}}</ref> It was followed by worldwide releases of an [[Video game arcade cabinet#Upright cabinets|upright cabinet]] format, where the graphics are reflected onto a painted backdrop of a moon against a starry background. The Western upright cabinet release by Midway used strips of orange and green [[cellophane]] over the screen to simulate color graphics, which most of the Japanese upright cabinets lacked.<ref name="RG-41"/> There were later Japanese cocktail cabinets that used full [[Two-dimensional|color display]] hardware.<ref name="RG-41"/> The cabinet artwork features large, humanoid monsters not present in the game. Nishikado attributes this to the artist basing the designs on the original title, ''Space Monsters'', rather than referring to the in-game graphics.
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