by Colin Anderson

Created on: February 13, 2011   Last Updated: February 14, 2011

Namco, now Namco Bandai, were one of the early pioneers of the video game industry. They produced many of the most successful early arcade games, and their games were at the cutting edge of technology and design. In recent years Namco's popularity has declined somewhat, as they rely mostly on new products based on their big names from the 1980s and 1990s.

One of the first big arcade hits for Namco was “

Galaxian”, released in 1979. Based on the extremely popular “Space Invaders” game of the late 1970s, Galaxian built on this popular formula by adding more varied game play (The aliens would sometimes launch swooping attacks on the player) and improved graphics. Galaxian was the first arcade game to use an RGB colour screen, earlier games used transparent overlays stuck to a monochrome monitor to give an impression of colour. Galaxian's success led to it being ported to most of the popular home computers and consoles of the 1980s, it was a popular game on the Atari 2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System for example. A successor, Galaga was released in 1984 and built on the popularity and success of the original. Perhaps the best testament of Galaxian's success is that the game is still being played competitively thirty years after being released.

Namco followed up the success of Galaxian the following year with the legendary game “Pac-Man”. Pac-Man seems such a simple game by today's standards, guide a character around a maze collecting items whilst avoiding chasing enemies, but the fact is this was the first game of this type. The popularity of this game was incredible, and it's format was quickly imitated by many competitors. Despite the imitations however Pac-Man still sold over 350,000 machines and has been ported to almost every games device ever made! Pac-Man recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, and new versions were released by Namco for the current generation of consoles to mark this event.

Fans of racing games will all have played “Ridge Racer”, or one of its sequels at some point. The original Ridge Racer was released in 1993, and was a fun, over the top, racing game with a focus on speed and “drifting” to get around corners. The series has grown and developed since the first game, and Ridge Racer ports and sequels have found their way on to most popular home consoles, and hand held systems. The upcoming Nintendo 3DS features a 3D Ridge Racer game as one of the first titles on the system, and this continues a tradition of Ridge Racer games being released alongside new systems.

A later Namco game that has been a success is “Time Crisis”. This game is interesting as it makes use of a “light-gun” and foot-pedal. The player uses the gun to shoot at on-screen enemies, and can take cover from return fire by pressing the pedal. This game proved a real hit in the arcades, and spawned a couple of decent sequels. Time Crisis was also ported to the original PlayStation console where it was sold alongside a dedicated light-gun peripheral. Time Crisis is considered one of the best “rail shooter” games of its time.

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