Trigger Happy
Space Invaders (Tomohiro Nishikado for Taito, 1978) has by now become a genuinely universal cultural touchstone, one you don’t need to have actually played to understand. The road authority Highways England recently released a video campaign called ‘Don’t Be A Space Invader’, to discourage tailgating, in which a blocky avatar, glowing white, of one of the iconic invaders follows a car too closely behind, threatening to cause otherworldly havoc on the motorway.
Have many or any of its legion sequels? It doesn’t matter. We all know what that alien represents: it has become a potent symbol far beyond its original context. But that is not always a good thing.
