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History of Galaga. Here is some background about Galaga from Wikipedia: Galaga is a fixed shooter arcade game and the sequel to Galaxian. It was released by Namco in 1981; the US version was released the same year under license to Midway. Like Galaxian, the player controls a spaceship referred to in-game as a Fighter (which can move only right or left) and shoots at swarms of incoming insect-like aliens that fly in formation above him and occasionally swoop down to bomb him in a kamikaze-like dive. The enemies in the top row will sometimes dive with one or two escorts. Enemies that survive a dive will rejoin the formation from the top. When all enemies are destroyed, the player moves on to the next level. The game is over when the player's last ship is destroyed or captured. Perhaps the most famous element of Galaga is the ability for the player's Fighter to be captured by the enemy. Boss Galagas (the green enemies at the top of the formation) occasionally stop mid-dive and attempt to capture the player's Fighter with a tractor beam. If the Fighter is captured, the boss carries it back up into the formation. If the captured Fighter is the player's last Fighter, the game ends. The captured Fighter acts as an escort to the Boss Galaga that captured it, and dives down simultaneously with the Boss Galaga. To free the Fighter, the player must destroy the Boss Galaga in mid-dive — if the Boss Galaga is destroyed in the formation, the captured Fighter will attack on its own and leave the playfield, returning with another boss Galaga in the next round. If the player successfully frees the captured Fighter, the two Fighters join together side-by-side, moving and shooting as one and effectively doubling the player's firepower. If one of the Fighters is hit, only that Fighter is destroyed and the player continues with the surviving one. Because of the obvious benefit of double firepower, a common Galaga strategy is to purposely let a boss Galaga capture a player ship early in the game, then immediately free it. Contrary to rumor, the double ship cannot be recaptured and released to form a "triple ship". Boss Galagas only attempt to capture when a single player ship is i n play. However, the triple ship is a feature in the sequel game Galaga '88.