Astro Wars brought the colour and racket of the arcade shoot-’em-up to the kitchen table: a chunky tabletop machine whose glowing screen pits a lone earth ship against waves of diving aliens.
Made in Japan by Epoch and sold in Britain under the Grandstand name, it plays much like Namco’s arcade hit Galaxian, with crisp arcade-style sound and automatic scoring. The box urges you to “defend your earth ships against a fierce invasion”.
Interesting facts
One game, three names. In Japan, Epoch sold this game as Super Galaxian; American shoppers knew it as Galaxy II. Grandstand’s British version was almost unchanged apart from the branding – and later units swapped the original red logo for white.
Serious pocket money. Astro Wars launched in Britain at around £30 – over £160 in today’s money. Later 1981 Argos catalogues cut it to about £23, still a hefty sum when Atari’s VCS console had cost £199 at its 1977 launch.
Calculator tech in colour. The screen is a vacuum fluorescent display, technology first used in pocket calculators. Every alien is a fixed glowing shape switched on and off to create movement, so nothing can overlap; coloured filters and a magnifying lens do the rest.