1979 · Nintendo R&D1 · Arcade

Space Launcher

Space Launcher is an arcade video game by Nintendo that was surprisingly original (many of the games Nintendo made during the late '70s were clones of popular titles like Pong, Space Invaders and Breakout). The game is similar to Frogger, though is not a clone since it predates it by at least two years. The game takes place in space, and your goal is to maneuver around space objects and dodge oncoming enemy fire from the aliens that are stationed above. There are also treasures at the top, and your goal is to fly up, grab the treasure, and come soaring back down after which you must repeat it until all of the treasures have been scavenged.

Released: 1 November 1979
Platforms: Arcade
Genres: Arcade
Developers: Nintendo R&D1
Publishers: Nintendo
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action Science fiction

About

Nintendo Research & Development No. 1 Department (commonly abbreviated as Nintendo R&D1 and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development Department before splitting in 1978) was a division of Nintendo, and is its oldest development team. Its creation coincided with Nintendo's entry into the video game industry, and the original R&D1 was headed by Gunpei Yokoi. The developer has created several notable Nintendo series such as Donkey Kong, Mario, and Metroid.

R&D1 developed the hugely successful Game Boy line, which was released in 1989. They developed some of the line's most popular games, such as Super Mario Land, and created the character of Wario.

Keywords

frogger clone
high score
space invaders clone
treasure chest

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Development

In 1965, Nintendo, still primarily a hanafuda card manufacturer, hired Gunpei Yokoi, a newly graduated electronics engineer. Yokoi was assigned to the manufacturing division to work on the assembly line machines used to manufacture its cards. In the following year, Hiroshi Yamauchi, president of Nintendo at the time, during a visit to the factory Yokoi was working at, took notice of a toy, an extending arm, that Yokoi had made for his own amusement during his spare time. As Yamauchi was looking to diversify the company's business far beyond its primary card business, Yokoi was ordered to develop the toy into a proper mass-market product for the 1966 holiday rush.

2 million units during its lifetime. Following that, Yokoi was assigned to work on other toys, namely the Ten Billion Barrel puzzle, a miniature remote-controlled vacuum cleaner called the Chiritori, a baseball throwing machine called the Ultra Machine, and a "Love Tester", a novelty device designed to show how much two people loved each other.