Galaxian was one of the major "holes" in my classic gaming experience. It came out a couple years before my time, and back then games had pretty much a 6 months-to-a-year lifecycle after which they'd start disappearing from locations, so by the time I was old enough to become enamored with arcade games, Galaxian had already come and gone. I was a Pac Man/Donkey Kong/Frogger brat. Wherever there'd once been a Galaxian, there was now a Galaga. So it passed me by.
George Strain recommended it to me a few months ago when I was frustrated with Galaga, and George generally knows his shit, so this week I decided to catch up with it (35 years late).
Those of you who watched my grim play last night can see that I am as raw as it gets at this game, but I have to admit, I already have a very favorable opinion of it. I'm not ready to say that I like it more than Galaga, but I'm definitely ready to say that I respect it more than Galaga. I'd put it like this: a lot of the time when you die in Galaga, it's because they missed. When you die in Galaxian, it's because YOU missed. I like that. This game makes me rage a lot less than Galaga. For me, that's usually a sign that the game is well-designed and not a cheap, cheating bastard.
In any case, there was a thread or some such mentioned in the chat last night that sounds like something I would want to read. I believe it was Ross who mentioned it. Do any of you know what that link is? I'd like to get a little more nuts-and-bolts theory into my head before spending too much time figuring things out that I don't need to figure out.
