Galaxian

Information

Genre

Shoot'em Up! - Space Invaders

Language

Machine Language

Controls

Joystick

Year

1982

Publisher

Atari

Country

USA

License

Commercial

Medium

Cartridge

Rarity

3

Serial

CXL4024

Votes / Statistics

Rating: 8.1/10 · Votes: 298 · Downloads: 16,245 · Hits: 49,641

Screenshots (2)

Cover Art (6)

Instructions (8)

Comments (11)

• scott stilphen — 2 Jan 2024

  Hands down one of the worst arcade conversions. Programmer Joe Tung completely failed with the sounds, and the erratic movement of the attacking galaxians ruins what made the arcade game so great.

• Gildahl — 9 Jun 2022

  This was merely adequate, missing the smooth feeling of the arcade version. On the other hand, the Atarisoft Colecovision version just knocked it out of the park in comparison.

• IntoTheVerticalBlank — 28 Oct 2020

  Looks great, but sounds and plays much worse than the 2600 and Colecovision versions. Play Galactic Chase.

• Tom — 20 Oct 2018

  I'm going to throw this out there and say this is BETTER than the arcade version! I recently played the arcade version and found it extremely annoying how slowly your spacecraft moves around the screen. The home computer version has much more responsive controls and is just more fun and engaging. I'm still playing this game thirty something years on... One of my favourite games for the Atari.

• Level42 — 16 Aug 2018

  Totally agree with tkarner, this is rated WAY too high. Arcade conversions are generally very good on the A8, but this is just one of those exceptions. If you know the fluent play of the arcade game, you know that this is WAY off. I tried it again yesterday and I was done with it within 30 seconds. Someone should program a GOOD conversion now...

• tkarner — 31 Oct 2017

  Not sure why this version of Galaxian is rated so highly. It looks a lot like the arcade version but the game play is way off. The aliens just fly too erratically. Galactic Chase plays much truer to the original.

• rave.N — 2 Apr 2016

  correction Galactic Chase does fit in under 8KB, I had been looking at its OEM cassette image which was more than 8K with tape FMS added to it.

• rave.N — 25 Jul 2015

  I never did much Arcade Galaxian (big Galaga fan) but I was under the impression that "Galactic Chase" by Stedek is truer to the original. This Atari version is highly quirky but packs an impressive amount of animation and gameplay into 8 KiloByte. Seriously this is such an achievement I think the sound effects are so pathetically bad so they could maintain an 8KB cartridge for if the sound were any better I bet the cart size would be 16K. Galactic Chase takes up a lot more than 8KB. I think Atari prior to 1983 deliberately made Arcade conversions with changed albeit uniquely entertaining gameplay. They wouldn't "upstage" games bringing in quarter$ with ones that could be copied. Space Invaders 1980, nothing like the arcade but still fun. Centipede, and Asteroids? What a couple of let downs. Go see "Megalegs" and "Asteroids Emulator" here on Atarimania, can't believe "A.E." it didn't get made until 2012!

• Punkydudester — 12 Dec 2014

  One of my first games and still one of my favorites. Level 9 was so hard, each enemy just rain-stormed you with bullets.

• Daniel Thomas MacInnes — 16 Oct 2012

  I loved this game and played it endlessly on the Atari 800 back in 1982. Fast and challenging, looks very close to the arcade, and lots of fun with a Wico joystick.

• Jonny EOL — 27 Jan 2008

  Ah - the first computer game I ever played! This turned out to be a relatively authetic conversion of the arcade hit - trying to get those 'combination' kills for big points was always a challenge. These days, I take the difficulty up to 9 and see if I can last more than one wave!