114 · Galaga: Demons of Death

• Captain: ...kshhh..DAY! MAYDAY! MAY...come in base... kshhh...
• Base: Commander I'm picking up a faint transmission.
• Captain: ...repeat MAYD..kshh...under attach [sic] ...kshh...Hideous creatures
• Base: Captain your signal is weak. Please retransmit...over
• Captain: We've defeated thousands...kshh...sub-alpha missiles malfunction...stealth shields down...kshh...my men...desperate...kshh...horrible...kshh...
• Base: Captain get a hold of yourself! It's only a video game! Do you copy? CAPTAIN?
• Captain: . . . kshhhhhhhhhhhh . . .
• Galaga--It's only a video game
• Introductions
• Overview
  • Galaga first came to the Arcades in 1981
  • Then to the FAMICOM in 1985
  • Now we finally get it in North America...but in a genius twist of marketing, they add a subtitle so you don’t think it’s just the flimsy old arcade version
  • For those not in the know, Galaga is very much a Space Invaders style game, but includes enemy attack patterns that would later be utilized in the SHMUP genre.
• Gameplay
  • Shooting
  • Enemies
    • Boss Galaga - Tractor Beams
      • Should additional lives remain, the player has an opportunity to shoot down the Boss Galaga holding the captured ship. Shooting it down as it dives towards the player will result in the captured ship being rescued, and it will join the player's ship, transforming it into a "dual-fighter"
    • The entire idea of Galaga was that enemies could move in different patterns.
  • Waves
  • Bonus Stages
    • Inspired from Pac-Man
  • Opening Music - sound like Star Wars?
• Spinoffs
  • Galaga is the sequel to GALAXIAN which came out way back in 1979 and was Namco’s first hit
  • Sega-Galaga, the first home conversion of Galaga, was published by Sega for the SG-1000 in 1983. AND ITS GOOD
  • Gaplus is the sequel to Galaga and came to Arcades in 1984 now letting the player move vertically
  • Galaga '88
    • Very much like the original GALAGA
  • Galaxian3: Project Dragoon
    • On-Rail shooter (has a FPS look) for Playstation/Arcade
    • This game was insane. I can’t believe it exists.
    • Two laserdiscs playing at once to simulate the backgrounds/foreground
  • Attack of the Zolgear
    • Sequel and very similar to Galaxian3
  • Galaga: Destination Earth
    • PSX, 2.5D Horiz/Vert and 3D. Reminds me of Space Invaders for PSX which also had a Solar System theme
• EGL
  • At this time it was fine to preserve Arcade games like this to the NES, but they appear so primitive next to our Essential Games that they couldn’t possibly deserve a spot. Add this to the fact that this has already been preserved on consoles as early as 1983...what we really needed, was a MODE B that turned Galaga into a SHMUP with recognizable Galaga-traits.

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 May Day, May Day, May, come in base. Commander, I'm picking up a faint transmission. Repeat, made, under attack, hideous creatures. Captain, your signal is weak. Please retransmit, over. We've defeated thousands, sub-alpha missiles, malfunction, stealth seals down, my men, desperate, horrible. Captain, get a hold of yourself. It's only a video game. Do you copy? Captain! Captain, your name is Nostalgia. Galaga, it's only a video game.

00:47 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. And if you didn't pick it up from the beginning there, we are talking about Galaga, a game that definitely doesn't have stealth shields or any sort of defense mechanisms.

01:11 Did you guys notice that? You know what? I thought maybe I just forgot that there was a button for the stealth shields, but yeah. Yeah. I thought they were just so stealthy that you wouldn't have seen them. Ooh, yeah. Or noticed them. And for anyone who's concerned, we're doing this completely remotely, so it will sound a lot different than our usual episodes, but we're taking the necessary precautions here, making sure that we keep the show alive, right guys? Don't get that Rona. Absolutely.

01:38 All right, so let's just talk about Galaga for a minute because this is one that I'm sure both of you had heard of before, correct? Oh yeah. Yes. Played a bunch. So Galaga first came to the arcades way back in 1981, and we've seen this a few times now where arcade games from like the early 80s get ported to the NES, and this one's no different. The only thing that's weird here is that this game already came to the Famicom way back in 1985, so it's not even that the port took long to make or anything,

02:09 it's just that it was sitting on shelves waiting for its opportune North America moment. And that's just so strange to me because this is such an iconic game that you'd think that it would be within the first year or two. Right, you would have thought that this would have came in like that first third party wave that happened in 86. Yeah. Because Namco was kind of already releasing games on the NES at that point, or at least publishing them. So it seems weird to leave out Galaga, but maybe they know something that I don't.

02:42 Yeah, and if you're doing what we're doing for some reason and actually going through in order on the NES, it's a little jarring to jump into this game, which just for better or worse feels like it's from a totally different time period. Yeah, very much. It's you don't really see that too much nowadays. It seems that most games that come out either that they either abide by the new design principles that have been established over the years or they're they're hearkening back to old ones on purpose. You don't really just see like, oh, here's a six year old game. It's getting released for the first time on home consoles.

03:18 What I would say is kind of the equivalent is is the the way that now we always see like Final Fantasy 10 HD remaster now for PS4 where it's like, OK, they didn't change anything particularly about the game. They just made it look nicer and released it again. So it's like a lot of people are playing that game for the first time on new systems, but it's an old thing, you know, I hear you. Yeah. And they also did something strange here, which is and I don't know if this is a genius marketing move or whatever, but they added that subtitle demons of death to the Galaga name, which is yes. That's so ridiculous.

03:55 But at the same time, it's not a bad move because you would think that you're getting like a sequel to Galaga when you're actually just getting the same exact version as the arcade game just with a new subtitle. I think that this still exists in a way I can't think of any specific examples off the top of my head. But when ports happen, whether they're ports between systems or ports between console generations, they usually give it a subtitle for no reason, at least with like Japanese releases, I feel. Yeah. And I think it's also important since we're since we're talking about Galaga so much already that we need to mention what Galaga really is in case you're not informed.

04:38 And the best way I could think of it is if you've ever played Space Invaders, it's like that, except for the enemies actually like move and have attack patterns that you would see in like shmup games later on.

04:53 So I actually, it's interesting you say that you say in shmup games later on. I was going to ask you, would this be considered a shmup? I wouldn't consider it a shmup. So what sets this, I didn't think so either, but I don't really know. I can't really put my finger on the actual like parameters that set this aside from a shmup. I don't know if there's any actual parameters. I think, well, the one big one is that you don't have full control. Motion. You can only move left or right.

05:21 But I think that's sort of a goofy reason to keep it out of a genre. Like it's sort of like how genres turn into these sort of like just gatekeeping situations where it's like, oh, that's not that. But like, wait, it's got all of these features that make it this genre. But no, that's not that. I think it is like at its basis form a shmup.

05:49 I would say that it's not a shmup because and this is going to sound like gatekeeping. So just keep me honest here. But I think that it's not because there's no navigation of a level. Right. You're always just fixed down at the bottom of the screen and there's no obstacles to dodge. Let alone, you know, the enemies can only come at you. You can't choose to work your way around the enemies.

06:12 There's also no power ups. I mean, I know that there's one that we'll get into. But for the most part, there's no like upgradable, customizable ship here. And there's no like there's no thematic thing that takes you from like the big boss at the end of a stage or even at the end of a game. Sure. And that's sort of that would make me think this is more of like a proto shmup or like all the things that you just described that this game doesn't have were were evolutions within the genre and not something that places it apart from it. But I don't know. It's it's totally subjective.

06:51 But I agree with what you're saying there. Actually, that makes a lot of sense. And I do think when I was playing this that I could see a lot of ways that games like Gradius would learn from the success of Galaga. Yeah. All right. So let's talk about the actual gameplay here for a minute. And that could really be whatever you guys want it to be because the gameplay is so repetitive here. I would love to even get like initial impressions of the gameplay loop from you guys. Were you liking it at first? Was it too difficult? Did it take some getting used to? Sean, why don't you start? So Galaga, it's really hard to separate like.

07:32 It's hard to think of a game that is so iconic in the early days of video games and break it down like when it's this simple. Like I, I would say that upon playing it for this podcast, I became more critical of it. I think that it is it becomes difficult to a fault in the later levels. Maybe that's a holdover from its attempt to be a quarter eater back in the day.

08:09 But I don't know if, are you asking like, what is the gameplay or how did I feel about the gameplay? How did you feel about the gameplay loop? Just, you know, from the get go, like you don't have to talk about like your overall stance on the game. I guess I meant like upon initial boot, knowing everything you know about the NES now, was this just too disappointing to enjoy? Or were you, were you able to have fun? I mean, I had fun in the fact that it is a very, it's a good emulation of the arcade game. It's a little disappointing now because we've seen so many leaps within the more current games and what they've been able to do with the hardware.

08:51 But, you know, games like this have its place. I think that whether it's a shmup or not, having, it being so similar at its core and having played all these other shmups, which I generally don't care for.

09:05 And then playing this, where I know we've talked about before the fact that there are people that just want to, that do enjoy just like honing their skill and just doing something that's like, how many of these can I do without any like bells or whistles?

09:18 I'm not one of those people. So for me to play this, taking like a shmup and stripping even like power-ups and things away from it, I was pretty bored with it, to be honest. And I'm a person who doesn't have any nostalgia for this game. Not nostalgia, not nostalgia for this game. And I've heard of it, but I've never played it. And I just, it was kind of, for me, it was just like, yeah, I get it. I've played things like this.

09:46 Which is a little sad to me, too, because I do like going back to old games and old styles and seeing what's interesting about it. But this is just hitting that sweet spot of like what I don't generally care for. So it wasn't really doing it for me. I actually liked, I think the basicness of it was working in its favor at least early on for me. Because, you know, now that we've seen so many different shmups, I didn't think of this as a shmup at all. I thought of it like an arcade game.

10:12 And to figure out like the difference, there's only four different types of enemies as far as I can remember. And they all have the same pattern for each of the type of enemy. So you got, you almost like, you got into this state of flow in the game where you knew like, oh, those are the enemies with wings. And they're coming, the, whatever, they look like, they look like bees almost.

10:35 And they come down first. And they do this thing where they swoop around behind you. And at first, I was always getting killed by them because I wasn't watching them until they left the screen. But then you kind of learn through it. And so I think that even if I never got like past like stage 10 of this game, it was still fun to kind of keep playing those early levels again and seeing how my high score would go.

10:57 Oh, so now you are looking at your high score, huh? I thought you would say that. So my defense there is that it's similar to playing the same levels in Balloon Fight over and over again, in that it's just fun in the sense of going over and doing the same thing but trying to improve. Whereas like in a game like Castlevania, I wouldn't say it's fun to just keep playing the first level. That's not that you would want to keep going. I understand. I just wanted to yank your chain, Mike. I understand.

11:31 And so there's a couple of like – there's a couple of small details in this game though, right? Besides the fact that the enemies have different patterns depending on what type of enemy they are, there's also those boss Galagas, I think they're called. And they're the ones that go all the way to the top of the screen. And they have these tractor beams that come down and they can take away your ship. And that actually does cost you a life. But instead, as a result, if you free that ship that was taken away, you can now have two ships fighting side by side.

12:06 And in some ways, that is like the very first shmup power-up. Yeah. So when I was playing this game for the podcast, I completely forgot that this was an actual gameplay mechanic. And I just find it interesting because this is the only example that I can think of of a power-up being granted to you by failing first and then getting something back, like redeeming yourself later.

12:41 Because, yeah, I hadn't played that way on the arcade or in the past times that I've played this game. But it ended up being super helpful to sacrifice the queen and then sort of get it back as extra firepower later. Yeah, it was cool. It actually had this like – I don't want to say realism about it, but there's an interesting like cause and effect to it that you never see with other power-ups that are just scattered out throughout. It's like, no, you lost that ship.

13:10 You're a new ship. But now you can – if you save it, you can attach yourself to it and have extra firepower. Yeah, and programming-wise, it's actually not even that hard to figure out how they would do something like that. But like at that time, it just seems like something so complicated. You're like, wait, the life that I lost can now be brought back but as a power-up to my ship.

13:30 And it's a really useful power-up, right? I'm sure once you guys figured out that you could recover it, you always started your game by getting caught. Yeah, and I don't see it so much as like a challenge in programming, something like that. It's more just the idea of coming up with that part of the game. Like I wouldn't think that they would go – I mean like not to pat them too much on the back, but this being 1981, that's pretty interesting.

14:03 No, absolutely. And that's what I was saying. What I meant by programming was that to the player, it would seem like this impossible feat to like rescue your previous ship, like gain a life back in a way. But realistically, they weren't doing anything that intense. I've got to imagine in the arcade, this kind of became like one of those little legendary things where you see someone who's really good at the game have these two ships and kind of like, oh my god, how did you get that?

14:31 Like that kind of thing where it's like, oh, there's these crazy secrets in these games before like that was so almost taken for granted. And there's also a cool thing that's added to here that's a precision aspect of the game where it tells you – I believe it tells you after your game is over – the percentage that you hit the enemies versus missed. So it tells you your total shots fired and your total number of hits. And then you can get a hit slash miss ratio. Yeah, I was always pretty bad. It kind of knocks you down a notch because you think you did pretty well. And then you're like, oh, I only had like 56%.

15:12 56 sounds pretty good. I mean, did you have a lower score? Yeah, I was doing pretty poor. I actually at first thought that there was just a problem with the precision of this game and like that my – you know, like the shoot that you do, like the bullet that you shoot is such a small little needle that I was like, oh, I'm just – like I need a bigger beam or something like that. But no, I guess I just suck at this game because I was averaging like – highest I ever got was maybe like 45. But a lot of times I would see like 36. Wow. I mean – Maybe I was just shooting a lot too though. If you do get – I mean, not only in your accuracy, do you get a hit to your ego at the end,

15:56 but you're also punished for spamming because it does that thing where it only allows like one bullet to be on the screen at a time. So if you miss, it's going to be a while.

16:08 Yeah, and the turbo controller works the same way too. So if you use the turbo controller, you can only shoot like two shots in rapid succession and then you have to wait.

16:18 Yeah, I thought that that felt a little weird to me that it wasn't even necessarily just two shots for me. It would be like sometimes there would be three in a row and then there would be one and then there would be four and then there would be two. It just felt like there was no – I'm hitting A the same speed every time and it was just – I felt like there was no consistency as to like when the gaps were in my firepower. I don't know if you guys felt the same way because I'm watching some videos of it now and it doesn't seem to be the same case.

16:43 I don't know. I mean, when I was shooting – we'll get into the special stage, the challenge stage, but those stages are an example of like basically lining up the enemies for you so that you can get them all in rapid succession. And because they're all right in front of you because they're all like in a single file line right into your path of fire, you can shoot very rapidly. But if you miss, that's when you're getting those gaps in fire. Yeah, that's probably right.

17:17 Yeah, so let's talk about that challenge stage because I actually found that to be like a fun version of the game that I almost wish was like a mode B kind of thing that you could just do on your own, like go through like no danger of getting blown up by any of the enemies or hurt, but just kind of like a target practice, learn the patterns kind of thing. Did you guys have as much fun with this as I did? Yeah, it always felt like a reprieve because again, like you said, you can't die in these. And it's very satisfying if you can get a full line of enemies that are going loop-de-loops before they can get away.

17:57 Yeah, I personally, I kind of feel like I enjoyed this a little more than the regular stages, only because there's like an interesting level of like trying to time and strategize like where it almost feels a little bit like a phone, like a mobile game that you'd see now where it's like line up all these things at the right time and you'll get a bunch of points at once or whatever, you know.

18:17 I can see that. Yeah, so it just gave me like a little more to think about, but still wasn't like in love with it or anything. And what's funny is, is that you have, you have... It sounded really like I'm just like, you really don't want to pay a compliment to this game. No, this game is good for the time it came out, but... They mentioned, and by they I mean Namco mentioned that when they were developing this game, they were taking a look at all successful arcade games at that point. And Pac-Man had just come out the year before, but they really liked the little interludes that happened between the levels, you know. They're like the first cut scenes of video games, if you'll call them that.

18:59 But with Galaga, what's interesting is they took that idea of like, oh, an in-between thing, but just made an in-between level. Like, that wasn't done yet. The idea of like a break from the gameplay loop to do something different.

19:13 And I think you can definitely see it in games like Balloon Fight Again, where they added in that extra thing where you just had to pop all the balloons like a challenge stage. You can see the Galaga effect happening there. And I guess you can just, you can extrapolate that forward and give any like mini game for hacking or mini game for lock picking. Just that's the Galaga effect. Yeah. I mean, you could even say that anything you do between breakfast, lunch, and dinner is really just a result of Galaga having this challenge mode in it.

19:49 Yeah. Or like there's Kingdom Hearts 1 and then there's Kingdom Hearts 2, but in between there was Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. Kingdom Hearts 1 and then there's Kingdom Hearts 2, but in between there's Kingdom Hearts 2 and that's like, which is Galaga challenge mode. Yeah. Did you guys ever exploit the corners of this game? The far right and far left? Yeah. I thought that I was just getting lucky. Is that actually a place where you're invincible?

20:13 It's pretty much a place where you're invincible until the enemies stop lining up. So, theoretically, like, once everyone has assembled on the screen, then you're kind of at a chance where they might be able to fly down and attack you. Huh. But for the most part, the right and left corner, even when they're doing that, is safe. I mean, I definitely took advantage of it, but I guess I thought that I was giving myself a little too much credit when I didn't get killed there. So, I guess that was just exploiting it accidentally.

20:51 I didn't even notice that, but I certainly would have exploited it had I known. Yeah. It almost doesn't feel like an exploit either. Like, it could be something that they thought about too as like a moment to just kind of assess the situation and figure out what level layout you want to take on tackling the enemies. They really have to have thought of that because if you can only move on one axis and maybe 5% to 10% of that axis is safe, that axis is safe, then if they didn't think of that, then that's actually like they should be yelled at. Right, right. Would you like to drive to the office and yell at them? I will. After the next Smash player comes out.

21:35 I love that. What else? What else do I have here? Oh, and did you notice sometimes that the enemies did this thing where they all like took a collective like breath and spread out a little? Like they didn't come down. They would just spread out between each other and then come back together slowly? Yeah, they're reforming their ranks. Like if you were in the Galaga military, you would know. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Or if I was in the ships, I guess, that were fighting the Galaga army, I would have known too. Or playing the game, I would have known. Well, it's just a video game. Had I played this game. Joe, you were going to say? No, I just said it's just a video game is what we got to keep remembering. There is no Galaga military.

22:22 They tell us right on the box. Right. Not to go all the way to the back of the box, but it's a little strange that they decided to do like a big epic opening of like Mayday, Mayday, all this stuff's happening. And the commander's freaking out and the base is freaking out. And then at the end, they're like, yeah, but it's only a video game. Like, don't take it too seriously. I think you're misrepresenting the tone they're going for. I think it's supposed to reassure you. Like, Galaga, it's only a video game. Like, you know, it's supposed to be. I know that this is really scary. So just take heed.

23:03 You're not in actual danger. With most of our back of the boxes, they have this whole thing where they say, you know, like only you can stop commander blah, blah, blah, you know, or like it's up to you. The fate of the world is in your hands. Like, I feel like to end on it's only a video game just felt like, all right, well, I'll just put the box back down and pick up another game. I think the better version would be like, Galaga, just tell yourself it's only a video game. I don't know. Like, they do that with movies. No, I do like that. Yeah, just tell yourself it's only a video game.

23:43 I think it inadvertently came off as like, yeah, there's nothing that special about this game. But I feel like what probably happened was like, it was just like a writer trying to do some like break the fourth wall humor on the back of the box. And for sure, that's kind of what it reads to me is like, oh, look, it's funny. We know we're a video game. But it's just so funny that it's like such like a bland, like, it's only another video game. Like nothing special about this.

24:09 And Sean, you pointed this out, but the same thing that's on the back of the box with that transcription between the captain and the base is also on the front of the box. Yeah, I mean, I'm usually a big fan of the graphic design of the 80s. But like this, this box is actually a crime. It's a crime against the principles of graphic design. And you just don't, you don't have just a block of text as a background element. Like, I don't know, but it's there. You're right. And one last thing I had, and this is, this is just me not knowing anything about anything.

24:48 But that opening music when you start up the game, right? When you rather when you start the game play. So after you work your way to the menu, doesn't that sound a little bit like Star Wars? I can't remember it right now. It has this little like...

25:06 Is that what Star Wars sounds like to you? I know, I know what you're talking about. I'm thinking of like, yeah, I do think that Star Wars sounds like that at one particular section of the opening game. No, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, it's that second one. Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. I can't do it, but I know exactly where you are.

25:28 Thank you. You know, I don't know. I couldn't even like fool myself into looking up the actual like song on YouTube and like seeing if there was the actual part. But I don't care if it sounds like Star Wars or even if they just straight up ripped it from Star Wars. But it just seems... A little birdie told me that it's actually the Nutcracker Suite. I mean, that's true. That makes sense. So if you want to say that Star Wars and the Nutcracker Suite from that ballet, I guess, are the same, then you can go ahead and say that.

26:06 It's... Wait, I've got it. I was going to sing it, but I can't. Now I lost it. I've actually just heard that that was an unfounded statement and very wrong. Could be. Yeah. Well, I would also argue that on top of it being the Nutcracker Suite, that, you know, Star Wars stole from so many things already that it wouldn't be surprising if they also stole from the Nutcracker Suite. Yeah, because Star Wars is pretty much just the story of Pocahontas, right?

26:37 Dances with wolves. Ah, yes. You're right. All right. Are we still on Galaga Talk? What is... Okay, yeah. Let's do that. I've just been sitting here trying to think of that point in the Star Wars song so I can hum it, but I can't get there.

27:05 I have a little bit of... It's a little bit of a cheat. I would like to put it in my pause sound section, but it's not really about the pause sound. It's just about the fact that when you pause it, everything pauses relative to... Everything pauses relative to you, but everyone is still scrolling.

27:25 Yeah, it's like they don't link the pause to the background star field, and it's just like you've all just frozen in place, but you're still going faster than light or something. Right. Which makes me think... Well, it doesn't really make sense, but it made me think about the fact that you can't move forward or backward in this game at all, which started to make me think maybe you were going full speed or at whatever speed and your engines died, but you're in space, so you're just constantly going at this speed. And you're at the... For some reason, your left and right engines are boosters. Yeah, like a body in motion must stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Right. But for whatever reason, you can go left and right.

28:11 I have a straight thought. Please. There... Every time you beat a level, it wouldn't just say level one, level two, level three. You actually sort of like got medals that were displayed on the subscreen to the right, and I thought that was cute. Like, it sort of gives you a not literally tangible, but virtually tangible idea of how well you're doing. And it's sort of like leveling up in, like, Call of Duty or something. Like, you get that new...

28:48 You get that new emblem that says what, like, how good you are. So I thought that was cute, you know? Yeah, it's kind of cool. It's better than just having, like, a progress bar or a number or something. Yeah. You got these little, like, badges of honor that, like, you get to look at and say, look, I collected all these, and I did this well.

29:06 Yeah. And the fact that the badges also change over time, too, that you don't just get the same badge, and then you just count them like a tally mark. Yeah. It actually has, like, really cool emblems that, like, once you get to stage 10, you get, like, a king's crown on one of yours, and then you can keep adding to that, too. So I don't know if there's anything for, like, past the 10, like, if you would get something cool for 50 or 100. I'm not sure. But it's a neat touch in general, definitely.

29:39 Especially... Yeah, go ahead. I was just going to say, I think that trophy support or achievements in Xbox and PlayStation actually came out of this game. Yeah. Were there achievements and trophies for Kingdom of Hearts? Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories? Yeah. A doubt that I'm aware of. Oh. Maybe, yeah. Well, actually, maybe when they re-released them on PS4. Yeah, probably. So it's all, yeah. Really, honestly, this is just...

30:05 Everything involving Kingdom Hearts links back to Galaga. Yeah, this game also made President Jimmy Carter decide to give out the first Medal of Honor as well. He said, like, that's such a good idea from Galaga. Right. Let's... It also... Let's also take those people... It inspired him to start his peanut farm. Sure. When did the arcade game come out? 81. Okay. Just checking.

30:29 Yeah, that's Jimmy Carter, right? Yeah, totally. That's Ronald Jimmy Carter Reagan. Ronald Jimmy Carter Reagan. Love it. Galaga is the sequel to a game that was already out in the arcades. How crazy is that? Okay? We're talking about Galaga being the, like, beginning of all these epic ideas. But Galaga actually had a game called Galaxian. Which came out before it. It came out way back in 1979. Interesting. It's really not that different either from Galaga. I thought you were going to say, it's really not that interesting.

31:11 No, it's interesting, actually, because you can see that Galaga is definitely, like, everything about Galaxian is like, okay, cool, this is fine, but I wish it had this, this, and this. And then Galaga does those things.

31:27 So, there's a game that is more basic than Galaga. Okay. Yes. And what's hard to believe about that? I mean, if we're looking at the timeline of things, like Galaxian, Space Invaders, Galaga, it seems like all three of those games complement each other well in that order. Because Galaxian was just this idea of, like, enemy space ships that you have to destroy.

31:55 And then, you know, Space Invaders takes that same concept, but instead makes it, like, Missile Command-esque, you know? Yeah. And then Galaga's like, okay, well, Space Invaders was cool, but what if they actually came and attacked? Yeah, I totally grant that. I was just being a goofball. Got it. Okay. Now, here's another thing, though. This is not the first time that Galaga came to home consoles.

32:26 Galaga came to the Sega SG-1000 in 1983, and it was called Sega Galaga, and that's the first home conversion. And I did get a chance to play it, and I've got to just throw it out there. It's basically the same exact game as this NES game. Like, it plays just as fine. There's nothing missing. You can still do the tractor beam thing. Like, it has everything that this NES version has. So, they called it, like, the actual name on the box is Sega Galaga. Sega Galaga with a dash between Sega and Galaga. Yeah, it just seems, it feels very clunky, but that's cool. Do you know why I think they did it, though? Because they put it on the SG-1000. So, they figured, oh, SG, that stands for Sega Galaga. All right, Joe, you can laugh whenever you want.

33:22 I'm laughing on the inside. Okay, cool. Now, that's it for, like, the past of sequels and spinoffs. Now, we'll look only ahead at Galaga, because Galaga gets a little weird from here. And I'm not going to cover everything, but I do want to cover some unique entries. Does it turn into a JRPG? It never does. Oh, okay. It actually goes in a better place. Open world. I'm excited. No. So, the first one that we have to talk about is, in 1984, the sequel to Galaga, Gapless. Okay? G-A-P-L-U-S. Came out to the arcades, and now, finally, you can move your ship up and down as well. Incredible. Is that, like, on the box? Otherwise, it's the same game. That's, like, a feature?

34:09 It never came to home consoles, as far as I know. Okay. So, Mike, now that you can move up and down, would you call that a shmup? No. Okay. Just checking. Yeah, you're not, you're still not navigating through levels. You're not getting power-ups. You know, I still say this is just an arcade shooter. Okay. Just checking. Yeah. And also, worth noting, you can't go all the way up. On the screen vertically. There are a lot of shmups where you can't do that, so I'm just saying. Right, that's true. Did 1942 let you go the whole way? I can't, I can't recall. Yeah, I can't, I don't remember either. I don't think so, but, but don't quote me. All right. And then after Gapless, we get Galaga 88. Okay. Came out in 1988.

35:02 Very much like Galaga, except for, and I've played this one too. I would say that if anybody's a fan of Galaga, this just seems like the best version of the Galaga line. Because it takes, it has power-ups. It has these all different types of enemies, like more than we usually have. And then they also have these bigger, fatter enemies that when you shoot them, fireworks come out. Like onto the screen and flash and they do this whole thing.

35:33 And I'm like, wow, that is just visually breathtaking. Wow. So, so Mike, I have to ask, now that another one of your, another part of your rubric has been filled out, would you call this game a shmup? You know, this was the closest that it would have came for a while to being a shmup. But I still think it is just a fixed arcade shooter because you only deal with the enemies on, on hand for that specific stage. And then you just go to another wave of that. Okay. Then imagine taking a very long break for a while from Galaga.

36:14 And finally, Galaxian 3, Project Dragoon comes out. That's insane. I love it. This game, I made a note, I made a note here on my playthrough of this because this was available for PlayStation only in Europe. So I imagine it's quite expensive to play this game, but it's an on-rails shooter that has like a first-person shooter look for the most part.

36:40 But what's crazy about this is that it used, in the arcade, two different laser discs to simulate the background and foreground all at once. Wow. So you had all that going on. But then also, here's the craziest part. It was a special setup at the arcade for six players to play the same at once, to be like six different fighters. And you could shoot anything on this massive screen.

37:08 So it was almost like a ride in an amusement park. Think of it like that. It was all, it was all, you know, like it had complete voice acting. You couldn't control where you were going. And you basically just sat in a chair and moved your, you know, your cannon wherever you wanted to point it at. And then you could shoot laser beams at the enemy Galaga. So when did this come out?

37:34 This came out around 96. Okay. Was it successful? Oh, it officially came out. Oh my God. Nevermind. So that I'm thinking of the PlayStation port, but the actual game came out in 1990.

37:51 Because that's super ambitious. That's super ambitious for an arcade game. Are you like looking at this stuff like almost first person wise? Or are you? Yeah, you're looking at everything first person. And it had like a, it was a very special setup. Here, I'll post it in our group chat right now. So this way you guys can see it. If you look at that, that link I sent, I'll link this in the show notes too. It looks like you're at the mall and then you have, you know, like six chairs waiting for anybody to sit down at. That's so, oh, okay. I see the, I see the schematics here.

38:28 Right, right. It's pretty cool though, right? Like I love that idea of, you know, it doesn't really feel like a video game so much. But you do have like an overall health bar for your entire team. So you just have to make sure that like everyone's working all the time to shoot down all the enemies. But it seems like a really cool story that just takes place in this Galaga world where all the enemies are bugs. Yeah, I really like this. Like if you go into the Wikipedia page and, you know, hopefully people listening to this in the future can still see this. Because they have a super blurry cell phone image that would lead you to believe that this cabinet is some like secret Area 51 thing that they could only get a really quick look at.

39:17 But it looks interesting. Yeah, I would sit in one of those. Yes, I think, Sean, you're not wrong in saying that it was super ambitious. And unfortunately, it's not the same thing on the PlayStation. Because you're not in a 360 degree room that like has other people playing with you on it.

39:40 I thought they would have just sold that as like a peripheral. Like you buy the room that you play in. Yeah, they didn't think to do that. But I seriously would say that just watch a video of somebody playing this game because it was actually insane to play this. And I cannot believe that it exists on the PlayStation.

40:01 It's a one of a kind. And after Galaxian 3, Project Dragoon, Attack of the Zolgir came out, which has no Galaga in the title. But it's just worth noting that it was like the sequel and used a lot of the same like it used the same devices and setups as Galaxian 3. So that's probably why they just did it to cut costs and say like, oh, we can repurpose those machines to keep going. You should only need to make all that hardware once. Right, right. Not like, oh, what do we do next? Oh, let's get 12 people.

40:35 And the last thing I have on this list before it just gets into basically like remastered versions of Galaga is Galaga Destination Earth, which is on the PlayStation. And it's this weird mix of 2.5D horizontal stages, 2.5D vertical stages, and then goes full on 3D.

40:59 Like first person look Star Fox, imagine like something like that, where it goes on rails for a minute. And the idea is that you have to go from each planet in our solar system to stop them from getting to Earth. Wow. And does each level have like a different, does it have a different background and all that? Yeah, everything is a different background. Everything is very, you know, it's like very poor polygons. They're not like, nothing looks great in this game. Yeah. But everything in the stage for the particular planet, whether you're going horizontal, vertical, or 3D, it all happens seamlessly. So you kind of just like, in the same level, you switch between those three different types of gameplay.

41:51 Interesting. Yeah. I thought this one was cool, but it's too janky for me. You guys know how I feel about early PlayStation N64 games. We know. But this did remind me of a Space Invaders, since we were talking about that as well. There was a Space Invaders made for the PlayStation as well, which had a solar system theme going on of like the Space Invaders are actually coming to Earth. And you start on Pluto, which is no longer a planet.

42:19 And you have to work your way to the Earth to like stop them. And that game was really good for a Space Invaders game and even had bosses and stuff. So if you're a fan of Space Invaders and you're listening to this Galaga episode, you owe it to yourself to play that Space Invaders game on the PlayStation 1. Well, I don't think anyone has anything else to say, so we'll move on to the Essential Games list.

42:45 Sean, how are you feeling? What's your thought on Galaga and the Essential Games list? I'm sorry, Galaga Demons of Death. And the Essential Games list? Mix them together and what do you get?

42:59 You get a really sour tasting beef stroganoff. Because I'm going to just say that this isn't an Essential game. It is an iconic game. But I think that that belongs on the arcade classics Essential Games list. As an NES game, it's fine if you have it in your library. It's cool. But it is not the soul of the NES. So no. Okay, that's one no. How about you, Joe? I'm sorry, one beef stroganoff. Oh, one sour beef stroganoff.

43:40 I'm going to say that I get why this was exciting at the time and was cool at the time. And there are a lot of games that I could say that about and say that there's still something to go back and see. In this one, I just don't think there's that much to go back for in this one. There's too many other games you can play that have just vast improvements.

44:03 Not that this game does anything particularly wrong. It's just to me, there's not enough to it. So I'm also going to say no. All right. For my take, I think in 1986, it was fine to preserve arcade games like this so they could be on the NES and you could experience them at home. But they appear to be so primitive next to our Essential Games list that it couldn't possibly deserve a spot on that. I think when you add that to the fact that it's already been preserved on consoles as early as 1983 on the Sega SG-1000. And that was like a perfectly fine port.

44:43 What we really needed here was a Mode B or something that turned Galaga either into a shmup with recognizable Galaga-esque themes. Or something like that challenge mode we discussed earlier. I think it just needed something else other than just being a straight arcade port of a game from 1981. Or like a party mode. What would a party mode be like, Sean? Please. I just, you know, like the idea of a party mode seems really cool to me. So that's what I'm going to suggest.

45:16 Yeah, you know what there should have actually been? There should have been, Mode B should have been Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Exactly. If they would have just put that in the game, it would have been fine. Mode B should have been Kingdom of Hearts, Temple of Doom. Yeah. Or just Free Play. Yeah, for sure. Did you just leak that Indiana Jones is coming to Kingdom Hearts? It is Disney. I do work at that company now.

45:45 Sorry. Okay. Very good. I think both of you have lost your minds. And that is all the time that we have for this episode of Nostalgia. You guys can join us next time. I don't even know what we'll be playing. What's next, guys? Does anyone know? I don't know. Pac-Man? No, I don't remember what it's called, but it's like a secret agent. You want to be Pac-Man every week. I just want it to be Pac-Man, please. What is it called? It's like a secret agent game. And it actually looks, from the video I watched it, but I haven't played it yet, looks like there's a lot to it. No, no. It also starts with a G, I want to say.

46:21 Oh, Galigo. Yeah, Galigo. Galigo 13. Yeah, something like Galigo 13. Yeah. I'm interested in playing it. It looks like there's a lot going on in this game, for better or worse. And that game was made by Vic Takai. That's the name of the developer, not the person. I thought it was the person.

46:38 Yeah. Vic Takai. Okay. Join us for that. That's what we've got. Yay. This has been Galaga Demons of Death, a.k.a. Galaga, a.k.a. Galaxian. Two. So, yeah, two. There was, you know what's interesting, actually?

46:57 Galaxian 3 was the name of that Theater 6 game for arcades and PlayStation, the crazy one we were talking about earlier. But there's no Galaxian 2. Wow. That's intense. They just skipped it. Is Galaga Galaxian 2? I think it is. All right. Well, you guys, I would love to hear any thoughts from any of our listeners. So, be sure to write us in or DM us on Twitter. Wash your hands. Or wash your hands. Yeah. Find me wherever in the world.

47:29 I guess you can't. But whatever you're doing right now, I'm sure you're doing a great job of doing it. So, just keep doing that. That's all I can really ask for. Keep making us proud. Yep. All right. This has been Michael Esposito. You can find me on Twitter, at Esposito Film. And I'll talk to you soon. Bye.