Space Invaders vs Pac-Man - Which Made The Biggest Impact?

[ZEUSDAZ]

Hi everyone and welcome to the August 2017 edition of Which Is Best?
Last month I placed two classic ZX Spectrum games head to head, Atic Atac and Jet Pac and I can announce Atic Atac won this edition winning 24 of the votes compared to 22 votes for Jet Pac, good god this was a close one, came right down to the last 3 votes, up until that moment I had no idea which would win, I was grinning whilst counting them knowing this was going to be extremely tight.
It was interesting to see where your loyalties lied when it came to choosing one of these games over the other and this month it doesn't get easier for you

This month I place 2 but very different famous iconic games ever that sent arcade gaming into the skies and gave birth to so many future video games.
One game caused a shortage of coins in Japan and cost many people their jobs because of the addiction, the other game also appealed to females as it was a game that unlike many games where you chase and kill, this game had you running away 95% of the time, they are Space Invaders and Pac-Man.
Which for you is the game that slingshotted video games into the popular domain in the early days and considered the Grand Daddy of retro arcade gaming?!,...only you can decide that, happy voting!

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[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by ZEUSDAZ

One game caused a shortage of coins in Japan

This is a myth btw, cf http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspo...-invaders.html.

Simple maths with number of sold machines times number of coins needed for an entire day of plays will show that the game was probably seeing an absolutely minuscule fraction of the *billions* of 100 Yen coins circulating in Japan at that time.

[ZEUSDAZ]

Originally Posted by ReadOnlyCat

This is a myth btw, cf http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspo...-invaders.html.

Simple maths with number of sold machines times number of coins needed for an entire day of plays will show that the game was probably seeing an absolutely minuscule fraction of the *billions* of 100 Yen coins circulating in Japan at that time.

Well never mind, it's all about voting between these 2 games in this thread, that's all that matters, not a coin discussion

[McTrinsic]

Well, Pac-Man was Man of the Year back then and is still heavily referenced in media. Like in that bad Adam Sandler movie or in Guardians of the Galaxy II.

At least Pac-Man has left the bigger footprint.

[vulture]

I have to go with Space Invaders as far as impact goes. I mean, while Pacman is undeniably the more famous of the two by far, Space Invaders did initiate the shoot 'em up genre (even if it's not really the first of its kind) and that is in itself much more important imo.

[NorthWay]

Space Invaders without a question.
(Un)Interestingly, I don't like any of them - too simplistic / haven't stood the test of time.
I'm back again when you get to Galaga though.

[ovale]

Space invaders was released in 78.
Pacman in 80. So one may have paved the way to the other.

Pacman is more an icon and still today there are cartoons with it.

Anyway many people bought the Atari 2600 just to play space invaders...

So for me, the father is space invaders.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by NorthWay

I'm back again when you get to Galaga though.

Amen to that, classic

[jotd]

space invaders was here first so big impact, but pac-man is still massively played in 2017, has been ported faithfully to Nintendo DS, iPod, ...), is technically better, so in the long run pac-man wins.

when it comes to shooters, Galaxian & Galaga are more fun and varied. Only my opinion of course

[Tiago]

Space Invaders for the impact.
But i think Pac-Man is a better game.

[nobody]

Pacman is the better game, and about impact probably space Invaders.

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by vulture

I have to go with Space Invaders as far as impact goes. I mean, while Pacman is undeniably the more famous of the two by far, Space Invaders did initiate the shoot 'em up genre (even if it's not really the first of its kind) and that is in itself much more important imo.

Yeah but Pacman initiated friggin' Pacman. I mean if it wasn't Space Invaders then something else would have made shooting bullets at stuff popular, that game mechanic sells itself.

Pacman all the way, that game was, is and will for decades to come be legendary.

Originally Posted by gimbal

Yeah but Pacman initiated friggin' Pacman.

That. It was a character-based game, and it paved the way to Donkey Kong, Mario and so many other memorable games. Most games today, including shooters, are character-based although you can now create your own character.

[Juz400]

Pacman for me,
I went on a school trip to Interlaken in Switzerland in 1982, In the place we stayed they had a pong machine and some other old games in the basement.
In the small bar/cafe in the front they had a Pacman. I will never forget the looks on my freinds faces when we walked in there one day and these two swiss heavy metal dudes were playing it.
The whole bottom of the screen was full of fruit! these guys were masters at the game, we crowded round the machine and watched for over a hour until our teachers kicked us out.
Beautiful country, I saw/heard an avalanche when we were in the mountains one day, a crystal clear lake with fossilised trees you could see at the bottom with St Bernard dog farm nearby, going on cable cars in the mountains.
But the image of these two young guys blasting through Pacman stayed the most! (I was only about 12 I guess )
Well that and maybe the helicopter carrying a cow through the air! Just like all the UFO photos out there in the world, the picture I took of this was awful!

[spiff]

*Edit* Gimball summarized it better : " something else would have made shooting bullets at stuff popular" Anyone who played jenga or marbles would have loved to make a physics based puzzler in the 70s, It just took hardware a couple of years to catch up.

Pac-Man for me - The "impressive" AI, varying levels and whimsy ghosts design, a complete game concept that incorporates art design, music, humor etc

Space invaders, Pong, Galaga and similar feel like the first in their field, trailblazers but still low hanging fruit. It's the same as sports, card or driving games, they map an existing idea instead of game and gameplay as a new and cohesive concept.

[idrougge]

The funny thing about Space Invaders is that it wasn't so "natural" when it came about. It started out as a variation on the Breakout theme — if you remove the ball physics and just make it move straight ahead and never bounce, and make the bricks move from left to right, you basically have Space Invaders. The "Space Invader" theme came about because the programmer had heard about a new film called "Star Wars" — originally, the bricks were tanks or little soldiers.

Space invaders for me. Back in the early 80s there was endless lcd games of space invaders available. You could class it as my first handheld even.

[petran]

I'd say Space Incaders too. But I'd regard Pacland more important than Pacman,since it was the first game with scrolling,influencing Super Mario