Space Invaders first appeared in arcades in 1978.
Tomohiro Nishikado designed the game for Taito in Japan. Its player-controlled cannon moves horizontally along the bottom of the screen and fires at descending rows of aliens. Taito released the arcade machine in June 1978.
The invaders speed up as the player destroys more of them, because fewer remaining targets require less processing time. This unintended technical effect became one of the game’s defining features. The cabinet also includes shields that can absorb some shots from both sides.
Space Invaders is often described as the game that helped establish the golden age of arcade video games. It is sometimes confused with Galaxian or Galaga, later fixed-shooter games with different enemy behavior and release histories.