10 Most Important Video Games Ever Made

9. Space Invaders

After the first few months of release Space Invaders became so popular that it had its own specialty arcades with nothing but Space Invaders cabinets in them. By the end of 1978 Taito had installed over 100,000 machines and $600 million in its home country alone. By 1980 these figures had jumped to 300,000 machines sold in its home country Japan in addition to 60,000 machines in the United States, each machine ranged from $2000 - $3000. Not to mention that by 1982 Space Invaders had grossed $2 Billion in quarters (equivalent to $4.6 billion in 2011). This made it the best-selling video game and highest-grossing entertainment product of its time, with comparisons made to the then highest-grossing film Star Wars,which had grossed $486 million in movie tickets.

Space Invaders set precedents and helped pave the way for future titles and for the shooting genre with a more interactive style of game play allowing the enemies to respond to the players controlled cannon's movement, and was the first video game to popularize the concept of achieving a high score being the first to save the player's score, Space Invaders was the first game in which targets could fire back at the player. It was also the first game where players were given multiple lives, had to repel hordes of enemies, could take cover from enemy fire, and use destructible barriers, in addition to being the first game to use a continuous background soundtrack, with four simple diatonic descending bass notes repeating in a loop, which was dynamic and changed pace during stages, like a heartbeat sound that increases pace as enemies approached.