Namco's Galaxian, which came out in 1979, is a popular fixed shooter arcade game. You take on the role of the Galaxip starfighter, fighting off waves of aliens to keep Earth safe. Your task is to destroy each alien formation as they descend towards you.

Created by Namco engineer Kazunori Sawano, Galaxian was developed as a response to Taito's Space Invaders, which had become a huge hit in Japan the year before. Sawano aimed to make the game simple and easy to grasp, drawing inspiration from Star Wars for the space combat theme. Originally, the enemies resembled TIE Fighters from the film. Galaxian was groundbreaking for its RGB colour graphics and tile-based hardware system, allowing for animated sprites and scrolling, although the scrolling was limited to the starfield background.

Galaxian was a groundbreaking arcade game by Namco, achieving great success in both Japan and the United States, where it sold over 50,000 units and cementing it as one of the best selling arcade games of all time. It was praised for its gameplay and colourful graphics, becoming one of the best-selling arcade games of its time. Its legacy lives on through sequels like Galaga.

In Galaxian, players control the Galaxip starship to eliminate aliens in each round. Enemies come in formation with escort ships, the Galaxian Flagship and Galboss. They will divebomb towards the player while shooting projectiles. The Galaxip can only shoot one shot at a time until the missile either hits an enemy or the top of the screen. This isn’t a design choice but more due to hardware limitations at the time.

Flagships will swoop down with two red escort ships - hitting all three will give the player bonus points, with even more points given for taking out the flagship. Enemy activity will intensify as the game goes on, along with the amount of shots fired by the enemies. Rounds are shown by small flags at the bottom of the screen. The game's attract mode displayed a brief message, saying "WE ARE THE GALAXIANS. MISSION: DESTROY ALIENS"