How to Play Galaga

Learn how to stop the aliens from shooting at you.

Kill all of the aliens except the two blue aliens on the far left side. They will start out one above the other.

The aliens will cycle through the same motions for 5 to 30 minutes. Watch Out! Occasionally, shots will come from the right side of the screen. Be ready to react.

Take notice of the way the blue aliens move. There is enough space to move through during the loop. Practice this technique. As the game becomes harder, this technique will allow you to escape what would otherwise be a certain death.

Practice shooting at the aliens, by pressing the start button instead of "Fire". This practice will allow you to get your timing down.

When the aliens stop shooting, wait for seven cycles to make sure the game is "set". The aliens will not shoot any more during the game.

Once you are certain the game is "set", you can shoot the two remaining aliens.

Join two ships together.

Allow one of your ships to be captured. The rotating scene, when the game is not being played, will demonstrate this. Learn to recognize a capturing run. Unlike other attacks, capturing runs are very direct. The Galaga will always fly directly to the spot when making a capturing run. Galagas turn blue after being hit once. If a Galaga is making a capturing run, shoot it once (if it is not already blue).

Shoot the Galaga that has captured your ship as it is making its run toward you. Do not shoot it while it is sitting at the top of the screen! If you do kill the Galaga early, your ship will attack you once, and you will have to wait until the next stage to regain it!

Do not shoot your ship! If you do, it will be destroyed!

Once you have freed your ship, it will automatically rejoin your ship.

Minimize the attack at the beginning of the stage

Attack slightly off center, to the right immediately after the "Stage" message appears. If you shoot at the right time, you will hit two of the blue aliens before they move to the left. Shoot the red aliens on the right hand side. You want to destroy as many aliens as possible at the beginning of the stage.

Learn when to "BUG OUT". This is very subtle timing. After the first couple of stages, some of the bugs will make diving attacks at you while entering. You will need to move out at the right time. If you leave too soon, they will attack you at your new location. If you leave too late, the creatures will crash into you.

Learn the way the aliens enter

The basic entrance pattern on each stage (except challenging stages) goes like this: Double top attack; Red and blue aliens come from the top. Every stage starts with a double top attack. The attacks below change, depending on the stage. Fortunately, the changes are not random. See the next step. The first stage after each challenging stage is always (except stage 4) a Double Side attack stage. Otherwise, they will enter as described below. Galagas and red aliens enter from the bottom left. Red aliens enter from the bottom right. Blue aliens enter from the top left. Blue aliens enter again from the top right.

Learn the order the different stage entrance options appear. The aliens always enter in five waves. Except for "Stage IV", the entrance options go like this, after every "Challenging Stage": Double Side attack: The aliens will come in from both sides throughout the entrance phase. Doubled-UP attack: The aliens come in side-by-side. This is the most difficult set to kill. You have to destroy one layer to get to the other. You can get away with sloppy play in most stages. Always bring yourself to full attention during the Doubled-UP attack stage. Single-File attack: Twice as long, but one after another. You should be able to hit almost all of the aliens during the entrance.

While you are shooting entering aliens, try to clear out one side of the screen of aliens. This will give you a small semi-"safe" area. The direction the blue aliens will rotate will be determined by their side.

Eliminate as many aliens as possible during the entrance phase!

Maximum scores are awarded during the entrance phase, except bonuses are not given for Galaga escorts.

Later in the game (after the second challenging stage), the aliens will speed up rapidly after going out the bottom of the screen! Handling this is easy, if most of the aliens are gone. It is very difficult when the screen is crowded.

If you have a choice of red aliens or blue aliens to eliminate, choose the red. While new players sometimes cannot cope with the loop performed by the blue aliens, the red aliens move suddenly left and right; red aliens are much harder to kill.

Except during the early phases of the game, do not try to collect the 1,600 points available for shooting the Galaga with two escorts. Free men come in intervals of 60,000 - 100,000 points (depending on the machine). Even on the early stages, you will rarely have a chance at more than one double-escort Galaga. It would take 50 stages to make sufficient points to regain the value of one free man.

Leave one blue alien. After the first challenging stage, one of the blue aliens will morph into a creature with three parts. Shooting all three parts of the creature gives a 1000+ point bonus. If the stage has been almost completely cleared, collecting it will be a cinch. Allow the creature to fully form, if you shoot it while its morphing, the bonus will be lost.