Pleiades

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Pleiades is a 1981 fixed shooter arcade game by Tehkan (now Koei Tecmo). In it, the player ship must defend a city from alien attackers, before taking off and destroying the attacking mothership. Upon returning, a new cycle begins.

While the game was advertised as Pleiades, including on the arcade cabinet itself, the title screen gives the name as Pleiads, possibly due to space limitations.

Tropes used in Pleiades include:
  • Alien Invasion
  • Attract Mode
  • Breather Level: After the mothership is defeated, you have to guide your ship back to base.
  • The Eighties
  • Endless Game
  • Flying Saucer: The mothership appears as a cross between a saucer and a fortress in the arcade version, and as a straight-up saucer in the Atari version.
  • Porting Disaster: The Atari 2600 version trims the stages down from four to three.
  • Protection Mission: The first level type has you protecting a city and air-base, and enemy bullets can damage silos.
  • Serial Numbers Filed Off: The game is highly reminiscent of Phoenix, which launched the previous year, including the looping-multiple-stages-ending-in-boss structure, enemy behaviors, and even the background colors and imagery.
  • Shoot'Em Up
  • Starfish Aliens: The first enemies you encounter are blinking diamonds, with two balls floating above them. Even by arcade standards, and the other enemies you encounter in the game, they are pretty abstract.
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