is a

fixed shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...

arcade game released in 1981 by

Tehkan , was a Japanese video game corporation founded in 1967. It had its headquarters in Kudankita, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Its subsidiary, Tecmo Inc, was located in Torrance, California. Tecmo was formerly known as Tehkan. Tecmo is known for the ''Captain ...

(now Tecmo) and licensed to

Centuri Centuri, formerly known as Allied Leisure, was an American arcade game manufacturer. They were based in Hialeah, Florida, and were one of the top six suppliers of coin-operated arcade video game machinery in the United States during the early 19 ...

. The name is shown on the title screen as ''Pleiads''. The title comes from the mythical Greek

Pleiades The Pleiades (), also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance ...

, the seven daughters of the titan

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...

Gameplay

Pleiades is a multi-stage space

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...

in which enemy ships fly at the player in waves in a similar fashion to games like ''

Galaxian is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, wh ...

'' and ''

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

''. Ships emerge from a mothership at the top of the screen and swoop downwards in a series of patterns which players must anticipate as they shoot the ships and avoid being obliterated by the Martian onslaught. There are four stages in the game. In the first stage the Earth space ship must defend the space station from Martian invaders who have the ability to transform from flying invaders, to walking invaders who build walls across the Earth city; these barriers must be destroyed. At the end of stage one the Earth space ship flies to the top of the screen to prepare to meet stage two. In the second stage the player encounters eight space monsters who must be hit directly on center to be destroyed before moving onto stage three. In this stage invaders emerge from a space ship at the top of the screen and swoop down on the player in sweeping attacks. In the final wave the player has to navigate through parked spaceships to dock on a landing pad as the screen

scrolls A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papy ...

downwards. Extra points can be gained in this stage by collecting flags as the player moves towards the landing corridor.

Legacy

''Pleiades '' is included in the ''Tecmo Hit Parade'' collection for the PlayStation 2 which includes seven classic arcade games from the publisher's past, as well as the eleven game compilation ''Tecmo Classic Arcade'' for the

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...

. ''Pleiades'' appeared in the 1983 horror film ''

Nightmares A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, Retrieved 11 July 2016. is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety or great sadness. The dream may contain situations of d ...

, ''in the vignette "Bishop of Battle." ''Pleiads'' also made a cameo appearance in the 1984 Coen Brothers film ''

Blood Simple ''Blood Simple'' is a 1984 American independent neo-noir crime film written, edited, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, and M. Emmet Walsh. Its plot follows a Texas bartender w ...

''.

Records

Richie Knucklez holds the official Guinness World Record for this game with 279,090 points recorded on June 4, 2011, at the Annual Classic Video Game and Pinball Tournament at

Funspot Funspot Family Entertainment Center (or simply Funspot) is an arcade which features one of the largest collections of late-1970s to mid-1980s games in the world. It is located in the village of Weirs Beach in Laconia, New Hampshire, United Sta ...

Weirs Beach, New Hampshire Weirs Beach is an area within the northern part of the city of Laconia in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. It is located on the southern shore of Lake Winnipesaukee. The cruise ship ''Mount Washington'' terminates there. It is a pop ...

References

{{Reflist 1981 video games Arcade video games Fixed shooters Tecmo games Video games developed in Japan