It's interesting. I think I feel the same about Galaxian (clearly obsoleted by Galaga and less interesting), but I still like Space Invaders, which by contrast should look even more antiquated... what do you think about the game?

I'd argue that Space Invaders is a somewhat different genre of games than Galaxian and Galaga. Space Invaders is essentially a very early tower defense kind of game, with the defensive stuff to protect you from shots and how the enemies getting to the bottom of the screen is a loss. I definitely play Galaga and Galaxian more than Space Invaders, but it's hard to fault Space Invaders much. It is literally the start of the genre and just looking at what they needed to do to get Space Invaders working is impressive.

I have Space Invaders the same score as Galaxian and I'd say they are a very similar case of being outclassed by later games but not BAD, especially for the time period they were made.

I think that's probably why I think I have a soft spot for Space Invaders - that it's a different kind of game to what Galaxian attempted and Galaga went on to refine. I've never really focused on the defense aspect of it as much, but I can see how it affects the gameplay, and for another thing, I love the risk-versus-reward aspect of the random UFOs that spawn at the top of the screen.

I wouldn't go out of my way to play either it or Galaxian (even Galaga I don't revisit often), but Space Invaders is definitely one of those games I gravitate to whenever I'm at an arcade. Thank you for your thoughts!

Glad I was able to provide you with some interesting thoughts to chew on, even in an old game like this!