Space Invaders — stories left

It was the biggest hit in the history of Japanese arcades. An estimated 100,000 genuine units from Taito, 100,000 from licensed makers, and 300,000 unlicensed copies were shipped. In less than 1 and a half years of the boom, 500,000 units in total were in circulation across Japan.

Sales are said to have reached about 300,000 units, and Taito's own production could not keep up.

The name is said to have been standardised after 1979-6, when Japan's first game strategy guide, Invader Kouryakuho: Kore de Anata mo 10000-ten Player (Herald Publishing), went on sale.

Takings reached 20,000 to 30,000 yen in 1 days, so the 460,000 yen cost of a cabinet could be recovered at once, and orders flooded in to Taito.

There is an urban legend that a new Taito employee's bonus at the time was 1,000,000 yen, but rewards for game developers had not been established then, and the developer Nishikado says he received only about 100,000 yen as a president's award on the podium.

The company later released the "TV JACK Supervision 8000" with the dedicated game "Missile Vader" bundled, but this time the price was set high at 59800 yen and sales were poor.

The special edition also includes 2 arcade games that Tomohiro Nishikado worked on but that are not directly related to this title: Space Cyclone and Lunar Rescue.

As the 1st title in Arcade Archives, Space Invaders was released on 2025-12-25, and Space Invaders Part 2 on 2026-1-1, on each platform.

In the Gamest Mook The Best Game (1991) the arcade version placed 40th in a Gamest reader poll covering every arcade game.

The enemies are in 14 columns, the UFO moves back and forth across the top of the screen at all times and is destroyed in 5 shots (the score rises 10 → 20 → 30 → 40 for every 1 hits, with 50 points when it is destroyed, or 200 points if destroyed on the 5th shot). This differs most of all from the Taito version.

In an interview in 2019, Nishikado said that Taito alone made 10 titles on reused Invaders boards.

As of 1979-5 it had sold 120,000 copies.

Within the company, Blue Shark was pushed hard in sales, while Space Invaders was at first placed only in Taito's own arcades, and was expected to do no more than earn back what had been spent on it.

Takings reached 20,000 to 30,000 yen in 1 days, so the 460,000 yen cost of a cabinet could be recovered at once, and orders flooded in to Taito.

Of these, Bandai announced an Invaders game for the "TV JACK Add-on 5000" at the toy trade fair in 1979-6, but it was shelved for various reasons.

The overseas version, released in 94, 4 years after the Japanese one, supports the Super Game Boy. On startup the player can choose between a "SUPER GAME BOY" mode, given its own colours and picture frame, and an "ARCADE" mode, which is the Super Famicom version with the versus element removed; that version had not been released overseas at the time.

The name is said to have been standardised after 1979-6, when Japan's first game strategy guide, Invader Kouryakuho: Kore de Anata mo 10000-ten Player (Herald Publishing), went on sale.

Because production could not keep up, it became the first game in Japan to be licensed to other makers.

It is said that at the height of the boom the price rose to several million yen and the machines still sold.

Cheap single-cone speakers were used at first, but the sound pressure of the movement effect destroyed them, so every maintenance worker was put to work replacing them with wide-groove double-cone speakers in units already shipped.

Within the company, Blue Shark was pushed hard in sales, while Space Invaders was at first placed only in Taito's own arcades, and was expected to do no more than earn back what had been spent on it.

Taito had already developed a board to match Galaxian, but a large number of Invaders boards remained and could not reasonably be scrapped, so senior management in the sales division ordered that only the ROM on the Invaders board be swapped to make a different game.

It was the biggest hit in the history of Japanese arcades. An estimated 100,000 genuine units from Taito, 100,000 from licensed makers, and 300,000 unlicensed copies were shipped. In less than 1 and a half years of the boom, 500,000 units in total were in circulation across Japan.

At the time of development, Block Kuzushi, which brought Atari's Breakout to Japan, was popular in arcades and coffee shops.

The developer Nishikado has said that he was "shocked" when he learned of the tactic known as the "Nagoya shot".

Younger staff, mainly in the development division, thought well of it, and Nishikado refused to change it. Nishikado gave this account in Shin Denshi Rikkoku 4 and Mirai Sozodo.

As an effect of the boom, a proposal that television games should also be regulated, as pachinko was under the amusement facilities tax, was submitted to the National Amusement Business Cooperative on 1979-2-16 by a director for the 3 Hokuriku prefectures.

Because Cosmic Monsters, described elsewhere, led to a lawsuit with Taito, a licence was granted to Taito as part of the settlement.

The early version was not well received within the company, and bugs remained, including one that made it impossible to clear a stage partway through, so about 2 months were spent on fixes before the planned release date. The balance adjustments made then greatly improved the game.

The overseas version, released in 94, 4 years after the Japanese one, supports the Super Game Boy. On startup the player can choose between a "SUPER GAME BOY" mode, given its own colours and picture frame, and an "ARCADE" mode, which is the Super Famicom version with the versus element removed; that version had not been released overseas at the time.