Galaga

Galaga came out in 1981 and is the sequel to Galaxian.  Like Galaxian, Galaga is a space shooter.  Unlike Galaxian, in Galaga each level starts with no aliens.  Several waves of aliens fly in and take up formation at the top of the screen, after which a few aliens at a time will dive and attack the player’s ship.  One particular type of alien, called “Galagas,” occasionally use a tractor beam to try to capture the player’s ship.  If the player’s ship is captured (and the player still has additional ships), the player can attempt to free the captured ship by destroying the Galaga which captured it.  Once the captured ship is freed, it joins the other player ship at the bottom of the screen, and both ships fight the aliens side-by-side.

Galaga was produced by Namco and distributed in North America by Midway.