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Galaxian, Galaga, and Gaplus


Cobra Kai

Galaxian, Galaga, or Gaplus?  

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  1. 1. Which do you prefer?


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This is such a cool trilogy of classic games isn't it? Do you prefer a certain one? I actually like Galaxian. I just love the music and the sound effects. I actually think it's more difficult than Galaga, which is the game I suspect will get the most votes in this poll. With Galaxian, I find the enemies to have very erratic movements as they tumble down the screen, they swirl around and around, I find it all very challenging.

 

That's not to say that Galaga is an easy game, it has some evolutionary elements that lend to it's legendary favorite status among alot of people, but I find the enemy patterns more predictable. I can't play this game indefinitely or anything, but it seems easier.

 

Gaplus, I really haven't played this very much. I don't know what the point of the game was, I mean you had more freedom of movement than with Galaga, your ship could move around the screen more like in Centipede, you weren't locked into the bottom of the screen. Other than that, it seems very similar to Galaga, even the sound effects were similar. Someone could point out what I'm missing here with Gaplus.

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I never played or remember ever seeing Gaplus (aka Galaga 3, despite there not being a #2, weird) in the arcade, but today doesn't really do anything for me. Don't care for how the graphics are drawn, their animations, or patterns either.

 

Galaga '88 or Galaga '90 on the TG-16, now that game rocks. Easily my favorite in the series.

 

Galaga did not impact me as much as it did most (was into more advanced shooters like Gorf and Vanguard by that time), but I do like the game well enough. Just that I'd rather play Galaga '88 if presented with the choice.

 

Rarely ever play Galaxian and haven't really since the early 80's. Always viewed it as little more than a Space Invaders upgrade of sorts. To break up the monotony, I like the double fighter dynamic (triple in Galaga '88) and bonus stages. In contrast, Galaxian was the game I could seemingly play "forever" and would get bored with it. That may not be the case today, so maybe I'll give it another try and see if my feelings have changed. :)

 

-edit-

 

It would have been the original (easier) Galaxian I played as a kid for sure. Not sure I ever played the more difficult ROM.

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Definitely Galaga for me. I remember watching really good Gaplus players back in the day.. and even seeing the game in depth that way, it never really jibed with me. I think the weak sound effects of the game hurt it.

 

People like Galaga 88 and I did as well. But to me the problem with the game is it ends. And once you see all the paths and finished the game through each of them, you're done.

 

I actually like Galaxian. I just love the music and the sound effects. I actually think it's more difficult than Galaga, Set 2

Here's the thing about Galaxian today. The "Namco Set 1" (Galaxian.zip) which is often used by default is a more difficult version of the game where the attacks escalate quickly. That's not the Galaxian I remember when it first came out.

 

The one I'm thinking about is found in Mame as "Namco Set 2" (galaxiana.zip).. and THAT'S the Galaxian I grew up with.. where only one enemy attacks in the beginning, and it takes a while for the Yellow flagship + red escorts to attack. So a lot of people end up thinking Galaxian is a hard game because maybe they play the default set (e.g. like the one in the Arcade1up cabinet).. and in that one it takes only a few moments in the first round where the enemies are buzzing quickly and divebombing you like crazy. :lol:

 

But yeah it's kind of like Pengo in that if you choose a particular romset version, you're going to have a hard time because it's way harder.

Edited by NE146
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Oh, this is not EVEN a contest. Galaxian was a good foundation for what would come afterward, but who wants to live in the basement when the first floor is so much more comfy? Galaga is an absolute classic, with gorgeous flight patterns for the enemies and just enough new additions to keep the action fresh without overburdening the player. Gaplus doesn't know when to say when, and piles on so much crap that it's impossible to keep track of it all. The game is too hard (get hit during a reverse parsec and you get to do the whole thing over again! Joy!), and the new hook (hit a queen and it's Supermarket Sweep for all the enemies you can catch with your own tractor beam) is a fun idea that falls apart under its own weight. You do not need a half dozen escorts. It makes you a huge target and it limits your movement. No, vertical movement does not make up for that limitation.

 

There should have been someone hovering over the shoulders of the developers of Gaplus, shouting "THERE IS TOO MUCH SHIT IN THIS GAME." There was a lot of stuff in Galaga '88 as well, but it's a more cohesive, coherent package. Warping to new dimensions makes sense after a little practice. Scrolling stages with a boss at the end is a logical evolution of the gameplay, making it feel more like the shooters released later. Watching enemies pop into a fireworks explosion is fun and eye-catching, in the tradition of Galaga's spiraling formations. On the other hand, all the poorly thought out ideas in Gaplus feel like the first time you went to Cold Stone Creamery and picked five different toppings, because they all looked good behind the sneeze guard. Good luck finding the damn ice cream in the mess you made.

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I got tired of Galaxian quickly at the arcade. I liked Gorf and Phoenix more as early coinop shooters, and then next I greatly preferred Galaga. Galaga is still great fun to me.

 

Unfortunately the 2600 and 5200 and A8 never got Galaga at home, so I did tough it out trying to enjoy the home versions of Galaxian. But I never really did enjoy them.

 

I never even heard of Gaplus into I got the Namco collections on Ps1. Then I recalled kids claiming they saw somebody get 3 ships at the bottom on Galaga, and I thought they were lying BITD. But maybe they had played Gaplus and none of us realized there were 2 similar but different games.

 

Thanks to the arcade perfect Namco Classics disc, I returned to Galaxian and found more strategy and fun than the watered down home ports.

 

Oh, and I pronounced them Ga-LAX-ian and Ga-LAG-a. But I've heard many say GAL-a-ga.

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and the new hook (hit a queen and it's Supermarket Sweep for all the enemies you can catch with your own tractor beam) is a fun idea that falls apart under its own weight. You do not need a half dozen escorts. It makes you a huge target and it limits your movement. No, vertical movement does not make up for that limitation.

 

 

The tractor beam isn't the only power up in the game. I disagree that the tractor beam power up makes you a huge target since only the bugs get killed when they get hit. I like all three games quite a bit and I have been playing a bit of Galaga and Galaxian recently. FC port of Galaxian seems to be solid and I also like the version in Namco Museum DS. I'm mixed about the Tiny Arcade version since you can't move and shoot at the same time.

 

From Wikipedia:

 

 

The "Boss Galaga" from Galaga returns as the King Gaplus - a single enemy who sits at the top of the alien formation. He typically carries an item which can be obtained if he is destroyed while attacking. One type of item is a series of ship upgrades called "Blaster Heads", which are as follows: the red Phalanx captures enemies with a tractor beam where each one provides another shot; the blue Hyper gives wider and faster shots, an upgraded version of the "double" ship from Galaga; the green Cyclone captures enemies in a tractor beam that can then be shot for bonus points; the purple Elephant is temporary and slows all enemies down, but not their shots; the grey Sidewinder allows the player to direct his or her shots left and right as they move; finally, the rare yellow Stardust is temporary and turns all enemy shots into harmless stars. All of these powerups may be stacked on top of one another - greatly increasing the player's maximum firepower. If the King does not have one of these powerups, he may instead carry one of three parts for the player's ship. When obtained, these parts will get placed in the bottom-right corner of the screen; an extra life is awarded after all three are collected.
Edited by BrianC
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Galaga is my desert island game!

 

I also like Galaxian a lot, too. It is like a halfway point between Space Invaders and Galaga. And Galaga never came out for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, or Coleco, so Galaxian is the next best thing there! (The Coleco version is amazing, actually; it looks like a Famicom game.)

 

I have only very limited experience with Gaplus. It is a fine enough game but does not grab me like Galaxian or Galaga do.

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Galaxian is one of the first arcade games I could play decently. I never got into Galaga until it was featured in WarGames, when I realized it was popular. Galaga is probably the sweet spot.

 

Amiga peeps seem to love an homage game called Galaga Deluxe. The author unfortunately passed away a few years ago, but was working on homages called Warblade. It's like an infinite Galaga with bosses and stuff, I can see why it would spark peoples' imagination in a certain time.

 

 

The licensed Galaga Wars is more my speed nowadays. It's full of little transactions so most of you won't try it, but the sense of progression is satisfying. Even though (or maybe especially) I suck at all these games.

 

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Galaxian. It was the first cocktail I saw. It had the easy roms at first then the op changed them and we quit playing it. The same op changed the roms on Pac Man.

That reminds me... our local Pizza Hut growing up had a cocktail Galaxian and an upright Donkey Kong. We didn't eat out back then like people habitually do today, but the time or two we visited the Hut, my brother and I would play Galaxian if DK wasn't being hogged. :)

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Well, Gaplus was also marketed as Galaga 3...

 

Yep.. different names aside these are really all Galaxian, Galaxian 2, and Galaxian 3. But since Galaga proved to be the most popular they went with that name to see if they could drum up the slumping business for Gaplus. :lol:

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Galaxian is one of the first arcade games I could play decently. I never got into Galaga until it was featured in WarGames, when I realized it was popular. Galaga is probably the sweet spot.

 

Amiga peeps seem to love an homage game called Galaga Deluxe. The author unfortunately passed away a few years ago, but was working on homages called Warblade. It's like an infinite Galaga with bosses and stuff, I can see why it would spark peoples' imagination in a certain time.

He was working on Warblade II. Warblade was out years earlier. It's the best Galaga-like game I've played - but it's damn frustrating because it seems to punish skill and reward you if you play like shit.

 

I wish I could hack the game to make it more fair.

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It's been so long since I've played a fair (normal difficulty) game on Galaxian that I really can't stand the game. It never was very interesting to me other than it was like Space Invaders, lost the shields, and didn't come charging down line by line but had break aways which was nice but didn't wow me. Galaga though took what the other two did and found a way to make that style not only fun again, but addictingly fun between the attack patterns, change ups in the entrances, and the nice challenge stages. Galaga obviously gets my vote.

 

Gaplus I only played in the mid 90s on the pre-MAME early MAME build days, that stuff that Jess said basically on why it sucks from my memory is pretty much spot on. I played it some, but I never could honestly say I liked it or it was much good either. Around that time I did get y Duo I had in the day and had Galaga 88/90 on that and that one while stage based and with an ending, took what Galaga and annoying Gaplus did and found this happy medium which made for a very fun game, hard once you hit those bosses, but fun. When I got a Core Grafx2 a year ago I was happy the old owner packed that game with 2 others into the box with it as that was a fun rush of old memories.

 

 

And for what it's worth flojo is right about that iOS game. It begs for coin a bit, but it's not required and the game plays quite well. If you approach it arcade style, run until you're done, and take the 1 free life you get before it uses in game currency, it's totally worth it. If you play it as a normal shooter with progression, stages and saved advancement it'll piss you off with the cash begging. Give it a shot if you can pretend it's an arcade game oddly set to 2 lives and no spare quarters in your pocket.

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I'm going with Galaga as well! One of my favorite games ever.

 

It was "my game" back in the day at the arcade I used to go to every other Friday night. Even though it was the early 90's and fighting games took over most of the floor, they still had an old Galaga machine stuffed in the back. I would walk in and set the high score every time!

Later on, my old run-down band practice space had a beat-to-hell Galaga cocktail cabinet with a busted coin door set up in the place. We would all play in between practicing, and write our high scores right on the wall next to the machine. When the building got bought out and was set to be knocked down, everyone (including the owner) abandoned the building, leaving that poor Galaga machine. I wasn't going to let that happen, so I tossed it in the back of my truck and brought it home. It's still sitting in my basement, awaiting restoration. It doesn't power up anymore, so that needs to be addressed. Funny part is that it's actually a Galaxian cab that someone stuffed a Galaga board into; still has the Galaxian chicken head knob controls! I think the old Galaxian hardware is still in there, too.

 

On the other two games... Galaxian is great in its own right, but the added features of Galaga, like the dual ships and the Challenge Stages edge it out. Gaplus/Galaxian 3 is a game I never really got into, but I should revisit it. And while we are at it, Galaga '88/'90 is great as well!

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I never even heard of Gaplus until this thread. I guess the arcades in my area just decided to stick with Galaga instead of "upgrading".

 

I suggest everyone who likes Galaga to try out Warblade. Don't go by the videos on YouTube. You can turn off unnecessary shit like music, borders, backgrounds and flashing explosions. It's very addictive. (...no, I don't make commission on sales ;))

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Only one of these made it into The Avengers . Wouldnt have been the same if Tony Stark blurted out that man is playing Gaplus.

 

His pronunciation is bound to send the Internet into a tizzy, too. FWIW how he says it is how I've always said it.

 

edit: RIP Galaga guy.

Edited by derFunkenstein
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