3 ms·

The fad must have passed quickly and the trick been lost in the pre-Internet era. By 1990-2000, I don't think players knew about it anymore, and Galaga was far

• bigbacaloa 4y ago
  In 1990 I had a classmate who would bore the hell out of us by demo strating his ability to get ridiculously high scores in galaga. He surely was using the cheat. He was the sort who wouldn't say that he was cheating.
• canucker2016 4y ago
  I think I learned of the trick from the magazine blurb mentioned in TFA. If you didn't happen to read that specific page in that specific magazine in the few days it was on the newsstand, you would've had to find out via word of mouth/watching someone do the trick in person. Most arcades didn't have the space to keep games around forever. Games that didn't bring in the quarters got replaced by newer, shinier, flashier games. By the mid-80s, you'd be lucky to find one Galaga machine in most arcades. So if an older friend mentioned the trick or you happened to read that specific issue of Joystik magazine in the library, you'd have a hard time even finding a Galaga machine to try the trick. By the late 80s, ever more expensive arcade games lost their novelty and home entertainment (game consoles/rentable VHS movies) got good enough so overcoming the inertia of staying in the comfort of your home/sofa was too great. The convenience stores/random stores got rid of their one or two standup arcade machines, then the smaller arcades closed down.