One of my first arcade games. I had some fun times with this one. And I got pretty far in it.

there's still an arcade cabinet of this at a local buffet restaurant where i'm at. it's quite addicting i must say

I have a great deal of memories that are associated with Galaga, mostly because it was THE game to play at the local Skating Rink that was in my neighborhood. I spent many a weekend evening hanging out at the Skating Rink, and you were a big shot if you held a high score on Galaga.

I remember one of these games being in the local laundromat. I have this game for my Nintendo DS.

I have this on a compilation game for the Game Boy Advance.

When I was 5 years old, I didn't play video games. I just didn't get them. Pinball was what appealed to me, with its physical playfield and real action. That all changed during a camping trip one summer.

My parents loved to camp. We would go to a different camp site every time. That was one of our standard vacations. The tents and suitcases full of clothes went in a car top carrier. In the back seat, my brother and I would sit with the cooler between us. That gave us a physical separation to keep us from fighting, as well as easy access when we got hungry or thirsty during the drive.

The campsite for this year was unique, as far as I can recall. It was in the woods, but we could walk to the beach. A rental house near the beach was our other standard vacation. Every year we would do one or the other. This year they were combined.

Anyhoo, I was in the ocean, just kind of hanging out with my father, when I saw a dollar, floating along on top of the water. I couldn't believe it. This was magic. I don't think I had much of a concept of money at the time, but I knew what it was on the most basic level. I picked it up and my father told me to be sure and hang on to it.

That night, I wandered over to the campground office. I knew I had seen something there during our check-in; something that needed money to do. I walked in. There was only a ping pong table, an upright video game cabinet, and a split door to the back room where the campground manager spent the day. No pinball. The office was empty. I was alone, so ping pong was out. I turned to the video game...Galaga. I peered at the screen, where a rocket ship moved back and forth, dodging big bugs. I was a little wary, but short of other options, I decided to give it a try. I put my first ever very own dollar into the change machine, and returned to Galaga. I dropped the first quarter in...

I don't remember how my first game went. Of course it must have been very short. But I do remember that I used all four quarters, one after the other. I had to try again and again! That night, in a small wood paneled room in the wilderness, Galaga taught me the vagaries of the joystick. The beauty of noises that simple oscillators can make. The freedom of the video screen, and the rapture of its glow. I suppose it could have been any game of the time. Any game could have been there to open this world for me. But there was only one machine in that room. There was no Burger Time, or Mr. Do, or Pacman. No Space Invaders, no Joust, no Defender. There was only Galaga.

Ha! I love that story. It makes my connection to it seem so much less integral.

Yea I played this game when I use to work in an arcade in my hometown.I rolled the game over.When it gets to 9,999.99 it resets the score to zero.I accomplished this only because of the tweak in the rapid fire button.Galaga was one of my fav games..