Galaga (Namco rev. B)

Arcade 1981 Namco Shooter Gallery
Galaga is a single-screen shoot-em-up in which the player controls a 'Fighter' spaceship and must defend the home planet against the on-coming hordes of alien invaders called "Galagans". The Fighter can only move left and right along the bottom of the screen.

Galagans fly onto the screen in a variety of formations before forming troop lines at the top of the screen. Once all troop lines are formed the Galagans separate and start attacking the player's Fighter in ones, twos and threes. The top-line Boss Galaga need to be shot twice before they are destroyed.

The Boss Galaga has a tractor beam that can capture the player's Fighter. A captured Fighter changes color from white to red and stays with that particular Boss until it's destroyed. The Fighter can be retrieved by destroying the Boss that captured it, but players must be careful not to destroy the captured Fighter itself, or that Fighter is lost. A rescued Fighter changes color back to white and links up with the player's current Fighter, doubling its fire power.

As players progress through each screen, the speed and number of alien attacks increases. Alien formations also become more complex, making the aliens harder to shoot.

Bonus Fighters are awarded periodically throughout the game, as players reach specific point values (dictated by the 'Bonus Life' dip switch setting). Each enemy ship also has an assigned point value (see Scoring below).

The alien troop lines that form at the top of the screen are, from top to bottom: Boss Galaga (in 1 row of 4), Butterflies (red/white bug ships, in 2 rows of 8, directly below the Boss Galaga) and Bees (blue/yellow bug ships, in 2 rows of 10, directly below the Butterflies).

In Stage 1, the enemies do not drop bombs as they fly onto the screen. However, they do so in all proceeding stages.

From Stage 4 onwards, a squadron of special bonus enemies called "transforms" start appearing. They're called transforms because Bees will begin pulsating and move out of formation to change into these bonus enemies. They appear in the form of yellow scorpions in Stages 4, 5, and 6, green "Spy Ships" from "Bosconian" in Stages 8, 9, and 10, and Galaxian Flagships in Stages 12, 13, and 14. After that, the three different transforms are repeated in the same order. Transforms are always worthwhile targets because they are not very aggressive and are worth more than the other enemies. If all three transforms are destroyed, extra bonus points will be awarded.

Galaga also features CHALLENGING STAGES, these consist of 40 Galagans that fly onto the screen in formations but do not drop any bombs. The object is to shoot as many of them as possible before they leave the play area. When an entire formation of 8 Galagans is destroyed, bonus points (of between 1000 and 3000, depending on the stage) are added to the player's score. If all 40 aliens are destroyed, players are awarded a special bonus of 10000 points.

Two new gameplay features Galaga introduced are :
1) Players are given the chance to double their fire power.
2) The game has a rapid fire (automatic firing) option, whereby the player simply holds the FIRE button down and the space fighter continues to fire at the Galagan army in bursts of two missiles each.
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Galaga (Namco rev. B)

Partager Galaga (Namco rev. B)

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Technical

CPU
  • maincpu Z80 (@ 3 Mhz)
  • sub Z80 (@ 3 Mhz)
  • sub2 Z80 (@ 3 Mhz)
  • 51xx:mcu MB8843 (@ 1 Mhz)
  • 54xx:mcu MB8844 (@ 1 Mhz)
Chipset
  • Namco (@ 0 Mhz)
  • DISCRETE
Display
  • Orientation Tate
  • Resolution 255 x 224
  • Frequency 60.606061 Hz
Controlers
  • Number of players 2
  • Number of buttons 1
  • Kind of controler joy (2 ways)

Galaga (Namco rev. B) Screenshots

Galaga (Namco rev. B) - Screen 1
Galaga (Namco rev. B) - Screen 2
Galaga (Namco rev. B) - Screen 3
Galaga (Namco rev. B) - Screen 4
Galaga (Namco rev. B) - Screen 5

Clones of Galaga (Namco rev. B)

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Scoring for Galaga (Namco rev. B)

Bee : 50 points in formation or 100 points in flight.
Butterfly : 80 points in formation or 160 points in flight.
Boss Galaga : 150 points in formation or 400 points in flight.
Boss Galaga : 800 points in flight with 1 wingman.
Boss Galaga : 1600 points in flight with 2 wingmen.
Scorpions : 160 points each, 1000 points for destroying all 3.
Bosconian Spy Ships : 160 points each, 2000 points for destroying all 3.
Galaxian Flagships : 160 points each, 3000 points for destroying all 3.
Captured fighter : 500 points in formation or 1000 points in flight.
Challenging Stage : 100 points per ship destroyed if less than 40.
Challenging Stage : 10000 points for destroying all 40 ships (Perfect).
Challenging Stage : 1000 points on the first two Challenging Stages, 1500 points on the 3rd and 4th, 2000 points on the 5th and 6th, and 3000 points from the 7th onward for destroying a complete formation of 8 ships.

Tips on Galaga (Namco rev. B)

* Enemy Stop Shooting : on the first stage, kill everything but the 2 Bees in the bottom left corner. Then just wait, dodging the enemies' shots, until the enemy no longer drops any shots towards you. After the enemies stop firing, let them pass for 2 more trips and then kill them. For the rest of the game, the enemies will not drop shots. It will take approximately 15 minutes for the enemies to quit shooting at you, so this trick requires a lot of patience. Note : in a 2-player game, only one person has to do the cheat for both players to benefit. But as soon as 1 of the players game is over the enemies begin shooting again.

* (BUG) Take The Control Of The Fighter For Free : during the Galaga demo, the Boss Galaga comes down and tries to tractor-beam up the Fighter. As soon as that tractor-beam starts, the player can take control of the ship in the demo. The player has 2 choices here and this will effect how the game handles this bug : If the player allows himself to be captured, the demo will continue as normal and he has the option of controlling the player Fighter or not. The player can choose whether to save the captured Fighter, try to complete the level, etc. The demo mode will complete after 30 seconds and the high-score screen will appear. If the player takes control of the Fighter and destroys the Boss Galaga with the tractor beam, some of the characters on the screen will freeze while others are still moving and doing what they are suppose to be doing. This will last 15-20 seconds, then the game will go to the high score screen.

* Challenging stages are easier if the high score numbers are used to refine your aim. These tips assume a 6-digit high score :
1) On the first 2 challenging stages, aim your ships so that your left set of bullets falls between the second and third numbers in the high score list.
2) On subsequent challenging stages, aim one set of your bullets between the first and second numbers in the high score list (if the units come from the left) or between the last and next-to-last numbers (if the units come from the right). This will allow you to hit descending enemies at the highest possible point.

* Here is a neat (and useless) Galaga trick : It is possible to end the game with a 200% ratio. The 200% hit-miss ratio trick can only be done with your first shot of the game. When the game starts, don't move, and fire only one shot. If you time it correctly, 2 enemies will be killed at once. Let your remaining Fighters be destroyed, and presto : a better-than-perfect result.

* Easter Egg :
1) Enter service mode.
2) Keep B1 pressed and enter the following sequence : Right(x5), Left(x6), Right(x3), Left(x7). '(c) 1981 NAMCO LTD.' will be added at the bottom of the screen.

Galaga (Namco rev. B) and M.A.M.E.

0.79u1 [Nicola Salmoria]
0.21 [Nicola Salmoria, Martin Scragg]

Artwork available

TEST MODE:
- Set DIP SERVICE MODE = ON, press F3 and use movement & fire to change & hear sound effects.

NOTE:
- The star line and pixel locations of the Galaga starfield pulled directly from a clocked stepping of the 05 starfield. The chip was clocked on a test rig with hblank and vblank simulated, each X & Y location of a star being recorded along with it's color value. Because the starfield begins generating stars at the point in time it's enabled the exact horizontal location of the stars on Galaga depends on the length of time of the POST for the original board. Two control bits determine which of two sets are displayed set 0 or 1 and simultaneously 2 or 3. There are 63 stars in each set, 126 displayed at any one time.

WIP:
- 21st June 2012: Smitdogg - Got a Dig Dug to Galaga conversion. It's the most hacked thing I've ever seen. I can only imagine the cost of a Galaga kit was astronomical at the time to justify going to this much trouble.
- 0.144u3: Angelo Salese fixed sound issues in Galaga.
- 0.144u1: hap fixed graphic artifact when booting in Galaga and clones.
- 0.143u8: Kanikani fixed DIP locations in Galaga.
- 0.133u3: Fixed rom names in some Galaga clones.
- 0.133u1: Brian Troha added DIP locations to Galaga. Added proper conditional bonus (based on number of starting fighters) to Galaga.
- 0.132u3: Tafoid fixed input in clone Gatsbee.
- 0.131u3: Added MB8843 (1536000 Hz) CPU4. Changed MB8844 CPU5 clock speed to 1536000 Hz.
- 0.127u3: Aaron Giles fixed locks up in Galaga (Cheat engine problem).
- 0.126u4: Guru added README for Galaga.
- 0.123u5: Zsolt Vasvari fixed the crash in Galaga caused by the slightly altered video timing.
- 0.119u3: David Haywood added the rom loading for rom 51xx.bin, which are dumped but not yet hooked up.
- 0.118u5: Changed palettesize to 576 colors.
- 24th June 2007: Mr. Do - Added a nice clean replacement for Galaga bezel.
- 0.114u1: Replaced MB88xx CPU4 with MB8844.
- 0.112u2: Replaced 3x DAC sound with Discrete.
- 0.112u1: Replaced implementation of Namco 54xx sound chip with new MB8844 CPU core running the original embedded ROM code. Removed old sound core [Nicola Salmora, Ernesto Corvi, Guru]. Added MB88xx (256000 Hz) CPU4 with 1k rom 54xx.bin. Replaced Namco 54XX sound with 3x DAC sound.
- 0.107u4: Added new cpu2 rom to clone Galaga (Midway set 1 with fast shoot hack).
- 0.107u3: David Widel added clone Galaga (Midway set 1 with fast shoot hack).
- 9th August 2006: Mr. Do - A newer Ultra Hi-Res version of Galaga bezel courtesy of Ad_Enuff was done.
- 4th August 2006: Mr. Do - Added Galaga bezel, Addy throws in yesterday.
- 0.100u3: Pierpaolo Prazzoli added missing vertical movement to clone Gatsbee.
- 0.94u5: James Rowan corrected Galaga starfield.
- 0.94u2: Derrick Renaud added proper watchdog to Galaga.
- 0.90u3: Derrick Renaud added proper filters to the Namco52 sample player of Bosconian, Galaga, Pole Position and Xevious. Adjusted relative effect volumes per schematics.
- 0.90u2: Derrick Renaud updated the Namco 54xx noise sound and added the R/C values to Bosconian, Galaga, Pole Position and Xevious.
- 0.89u5: Jarek Burczynski improved the Namco 54xx Noise Generator (Type A and B emulated, type C algo still unknown). Removed Samples sound and bang.wav sample.
- 0.79u1: Nicola Salmoria added Galaga (Namco rev. B) and clone (Midway set 2). Galaga uses now better dumps of the PROMs, with the unused top 4 bits set to 0. Removed Galaga (bootleg) (galagab2 - mix 'n match of ROMs from other sets), Galaga '84 (galaga84 - copyright/gfx change), Nebulous Bee (nebulbee - copyright/name change) and Galaga (fast shoot) (galagads - 1-byte hack to get fast shoot). Renamed (galaga) to (galagao). Changed Z80 CPU1/2/3 clock speeds to 3072000 Hz and added Namco 54XX (1536000 Hz) sound. Removed sample 'init.wav' and 3rd coin slot.
- 0.70: Changed description of clone 'Catsbee' to 'Gatsbee'. Renamed (catsbee) to (gatsbee).
- 0.68: David Haywood added clone Catsbee (1984 Uchida).
- 25th April 2003: David Haywood added Catsbee to the Galaga driver.
- 14th April 2003: Guru - Catsbee (Uchida 1984) arrived from Taucher.
- 0.63: Satoshi Suzuki fixed missing explosion wave playing on startup in Galaga. Added 'init.wav' to the samples.
- 6th October 2001: William Kucharski fixed the Galaga explosion sample code to play the sample during bootup as well.
- 0.53: Scott Brasington fixed Free Play mode in Galaga.
- 0.35RC1: Zsolt Vasvari added clone Nebulous Bee (hack 1984).
- 9th June 1999: Zsolt Vasvari added a Galaga hack called Nebulous Bee.
- 0.35b13: Valerio Verrando added clone Galaga '84 (hack 1984).
- 14th May 1999: Valerio Verrando added Galaga '84 to the Galaga driver.
- 5th March 1999: Aaron Giles has fixed more drivers to work with rotation handling (galaga, frogger, burger time and their clones).
- 12th February 1999: Juergen Buchmueller has made the ASM Z80 core even better. Speed improvements range from 25% (Galaga) to 45% (Tapper). It's still far from complete, and daisy-chaining doesn't work.
- 0.35b1: Added prom ($220 - unknown).
- 0.34b1: Added sound prom.
- 0.33b7: Added clone Galaga (fast shoot). Added proms ($0, 20, 120 - palette, char lookup and sprite lookup table). Removed Galaga (bootleg). Changed description of clone 'Gallag (bootleg Galaga)' to 'Gallag'. Renamed (galaga) to (galagamw) and (galaganm) to (galaga).
- 0.31: Marco Cassili added clone Galaga (bootleg). ehrhard@csd.de fixed double size sprites in Galaga when screen is flipped.
- 0.29: Martin Scragg fixed blinking in the Galaga starfield. Galaga supports rotation (-ror and -rol) [Nicola Salmoria]. Valerio Verrando fixed high score saving in Galaga. The attract mode of Galaga works correctly (CPU execution is interleaved) [Nicola Salmoria]. Known issues: Sometimes explosion sprites appear on the left of the screen.
- 0.28: In the test screen, use movement & fire to change & hear sound effects.
- 0.27: Nicola Salmoria added clones Galaga (Namco) and Gallag (bootleg Galaga). In Galaga, star scroll speed in levels > 32 should be correct now [Nicola Salmoria]. Changed parent description to 'Galaga (Midway)'.
- 0.26a: Galaga has correct stars speed now.
- 0.25: Refixed the Galaga hiscore bug (it happened when syncing Mirko sources with Nicola's ones).
- 0.23: Mirko Buffoni fixed Galaga hiscore saving, which is now flawlessy supported!
- 0.22: Control: F1 = Skip Level.
- 0.21.5: Nicola fixed a bug in Memory addressing that caused Galaga to trash under DOS.
- 0.21: Nicola Salmoria added Galaga (Namco 1981) and Galaga (bootleg). The bootleg version use a Z80 that emulates custom I/O chips. Very special thanks to Martin Scragg that provided us crucial information on custom I/O chips. Known issues: Explosions are implemented in a tricky way (reset game and you'll see!). Hiscore support not ready yet.
- 25th April 1997: Dumped Galaga (Namco).

LEVELS: 255 (endless)

Other Emulators:
* CottAGE
* FB Alpha
* HiVE
* JEmu2
* Retrocade
* Sparcade
* VAntAGE

Romset: 38 kb / 14 files / 22.2 zip
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