Galaxian/Versions

Apple II
Developed by Atarisoft in 1983.

Atari 2600
Developed by Atari in 1983. One of the few 2600 games to ever come out after the Atari 5200 versions.

Atari 5200 & Atari 400/800/XL/XE
Developed by Atari in 1982.

ColecoVision
Developed by Atarisoft in 1983. Not only is it surprisingly accurate (even more so than any of the Atari conversions,) it features diving Galaxians with "flapping" wings, an enhancement missing from the original arcade game.

Commodore 64
Developed by Atari in 1983.

Strategy for this version is particularly simple and can be described best as "stay to the left". Each wave always begins by moving to the right. While the Galaxians do aim for the player's ship with each swoop, the arc of the swoop is predictable every time based on whether the Galaxian is to the left or right of the player.

Commodore VIC-20
Developed by Atari in 1983.

Game Boy & Super Game Boy
Developed by Namco in 1985. Sold on a single cart along with Galaga. Published by Nintendo of America in the U.S. as number 3 in the Arcade Classics series. Galaxian was later made available in Japan on the Namco Gallery Vol. 2 compilation cartridge. Compatible with the Super Game Boy adapter for the Super Nintendo. Super Game Boy screenshot and border shown here.

MSX
Developed by Namco in 1984. Published by Bug Byte in the United Kingdom. Note that the bottom Galaxians are green instead of blue.

NES
Developed by Namco in 1984. The very first Famicom game that Namco developed. Note that the bottom Galaxians are green instead of blue.

PC
Developed by Atari in 1983.

Apple II
Programmed by Suzuki for the Apple II, and published by Broderbund in 1980. Originally entitled Galaxian, the name was changed to Alien Rain to avoid a lawsuit. An enchanced version called Alien Typhoon, released the following year, features more aliens, but also more slow down. Generally considered better than Atarisoft's official Galaxian port.

Atari 2600
Although the Atari 2600 conversion of Galaxian was fairly accurate, in 2010, Atari 2600 hacker Kevinmos3 and Nukey Shay teamed up to enhance the original conversion of the game and make it more faithful to the arcade version. They added a complete attract mode that mimics the behavior of the arcade very well. They removed the border which appears around the screen, and edited the ship and enemy sprites so that they resemble the arcade graphics more closely. The hack is entitled Galaxian Expanded.

Atari 800
Programmed by Anthony Weber in 1981 for the Atari 400/800 computer. Generally considered better than Atari's official Galaxian release. Features less annoying sound effects.

Bally Astrocade
Developed for the Bally Astrocade by programmers at Bally Midway. Although Midway had the distribution rights to Galaxian in the arcade, they did not have the home rights to the title. They produced this version and renamed it, although it still appears as Galaxian on the menu screen when the system is turned on.

Commodore VIC-20
While Atari had the rights to release Galaxian for computers in the United States, HAL Laboratories had the rights in Japan. They created this version of the game which was more accurate than the Atarisoft version. Commodore changed the name to Star Battle to avoid legal problems.