Space Invaders is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado,
and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito
in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by
the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest
shooting games and features two-dimensional graphics. The aim is to
defeat waves of aliens with a laser cannon and earn as many points as
possible. In designing the game, Nishikado drew inspiration from
popular media: Breakout, The War of the Worlds, and Star Wars. To
complete it, he had to design custom hardware and development tools.
Though simple by today's standards, it was one of the forerunners of
modern video gaming and helped expand the video game industry from a
novelty to a global industry. When first released, Space Invaders was
very successful and popular. Following its release, the game caused a
temporary shortage of 100-yen coins in Japan, and by 2007 had earned
Taito US$500 million in revenue. Guinness World Records ranks it the
top arcade game. The game has been the inspiration for other video
games, re-released on numerous platforms, and led to several sequels.
The 1980 Atari 2600 version quadrupled the system's sales and became
the first "killer app" for video game consoles. Space Invaders has been
referenced and parodied in multiple television shows, and been a part
of several video game and cultural exhibitions. The pixelated enemy
alien has become a media icon representing video games as a whole.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Invaders>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1479 BC:
Thutmose III became the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of
Egypt according to the official chronology, although during the first
22 years of the reign he was co-regent with his aunt, Hatshepsut.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_III>
1877:
Unable to resolve a series of disputes over the Balkans in the
aftermath of the 1876 Bulgarian April Uprising, Russia declared war on
the Ottoman Empire, starting the Russo-Turkish War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War_%281877%E2%80%931878%29>
1915:
The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire began with the arrest and
deportation of hundreds of prominent Armenians in Constantinople.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide>
1916:
Irish republicans led by teacher and political activist Patrick Pearse
began the Easter Rising, a rebellion against British rule in Ireland,
and proclaimed the Irish Republic an independent state.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proclamation_of_the_Irish_Republic>
1993:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a truck bomb in
London's financial district in Bishopsgate, killing one person,
injuring 44 others and causing £1 billion in damages.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Bishopsgate_bombing>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
gargoyle (n):
1. A carved grotesque figure on a spout which conveys water away from
the gutters.
2. A decorative carved grotesque figure on a building.
3. A fictional
winged creature.
4. (slang, pejorative) An ugly woman
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gargoyle>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he
does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to
defend himself from it.
--Vincent de Paul
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vincent_de_Paul>
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