Game of the Week: Galaga for Atari 7800

In the early 1980s, Galaga was one of the most popular arcade video shooting games in which the player controlled a spaceship that shot attacking aliens out of the sky. There were a lot of games like this at the time,Space Invaders having kicked off the trend in the late 1970s, but Galaga stood out because of its bright colors, decent sounds and excellent gameplay.

Because of Galaga's popularity, of course there had to be versions of it made for all the hit home video game systems of the time. Of course there had been a version of Galaga for the Atari 2600, but the 2600 wasn't known for great graphics. Atari might have tried for another Galaga with the Atari 5200 gaming system, but the 5200 didn't catch on with consumers, thus Galaga for that game was never released, probably never even attempted.

But then, soon after the crash of the video game market, Atari tried to jump back into success with its Atari 7800 system which had great graphics and even allowed for play of Atari 2600 games.

Unfortunately, by 1986 when the big push with the 7800 was tried, Nintendo was already taking over the home video game market with its NES (Nintendo Entertainment System).

Still, despite its short-lived lifespan on the shelves of stores, the Atari 7800 home video game system had some awesome games.

One such game was the home port of Galaga.

Admittedly, the graphics weren't exactly perfect with the arcade version of Galaga, but they were darn close. The colors were vibrant, the sounds were good, and most importantly, the gameplay was excellent. To truly experience the Atari 7800 version of Galaga at is finest, the toughest setting for the game needed to be utilized.

For serious collector's of retro video games, an Atari 7800 is a joy to have, and no true collector of the 7800 should not have their own copy of Galaga for that system.