First Space Games

Spacewar! was developed in 1962 by Steve Russell and his friends. Can you imagine it? One of the first known video games appeared more than 60 years ago and it was already multiplaying, so you could fight your friend in space. The confrontation of two spaceships was involving, and the phisics was quite realistic - there was the gravity, for example. No surprise that the game became one of the most influential titles of all time.

Galaxy Game is one of the first coin-operated video games and a proud follower of Spacewar! It was released in 1971 and had several improments over the predecessor. Two ships controlled by players were still fighting but the game could be modified to have faster ships and torpedoes, to remove the star and its gravitational field or reverse the gravity to push away from the star, and to remove the wraparound effect.

With Computer Space (1971) game developers made another little step in the direction of what we call video games today. It was one of the first arcade video games as well as the first commercially available video game. A single player mode appeared and the gameplay changed. You had to make more hits than your opponents to a pair of flying saucers within a set time period.

The development of Space Invaders started the Golden Age of arcade video games. They turned from a thing for programmers and nerds only into a mass hobby. Released in Japan in 1978, the game was later distributed to the United States and became extremely popular.

In this game you need to defeat waves of aliens with a laser cannon to earn as many points as possible. Space Invaders inspired many other games, and The Times named it the Most Influential Video Game Ever.

Asteroids was released by Atari for its game machines. The game where you were to shoot asteroids (duh) and avoid the cross-fire of flying saucers quickly became both popular and influential. Atari earned an estimated $150 million in sales from the game, and arcade operators earned a further $500 million from coin drops.

I bet that even if you are not into the gaming industry, you've heard this name. Galaga, released in 1981, was a legend of game machines along with Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. The game received universal critical acclaim and got multiple sequels. Galaga was also ported to moderm platforms so you don't need to look for a retro machine to play it.

Elite was released in 1984 and became one of the first home computer games to use wire-frame 3D graphics. It was a revolutionary technology that later inspired many titles. Other great features of Elite were an open-ended game model and its moral and legal codes based on The Dark Wheel novella included in the game.

Elite is also named a founder of a space trading genre where you can explore planets, trade, fight and complete missions.

Metroid is a side-scrolling action-adventure game released in 1986 by Nintendo. The story tells about Samus Aran who tries to return stolen parasitic Metroid organisms to avoid the production of the biological weapon. The gameplay is focused on exploration and the search for power-ups. Metroid is one of the first games to feature a female protagonist.