A Brief History of Video Games: The Arcade Years: Part 4

The next big thing was Space Invaders. This was not an innocuous white square bouncing around an empty black space. These were aliens intent on destroying Earth. If they succeeded, there would be no more pizza, no more Youth Soccer, and not even the possibility of seeing a naked woman. Granted, at that age we had no idea what one did with a naked woman, we just really wanted to see one. It was, in short, personal.

Space Invaders ran on an Intel 8080 at a whopping 2 Mhz. I have no idea what those numbers mean, but it sounds really, really small. Regardless, I played the game relentlessly. I dreamt of Space Invaders. I dreamt of being awarded a medal for defeating the alien armada. I was 10, what can I say.

Up Next: Big Rocks in the Sky.