Play Space Panic online

Space Panic wasn't in every arcade on the block, but if your local spot had one, you probably remember it. You're a spaceman stuck in a maze of floors and ladders while aliens hunt you down. No blaster here. All you've got is a shovel.

The trick is to dig a hole, wait for an alien to stumble in, and bash it through the floor before it climbs out. It's tense, it's a little weird, and it's pure 1980, back when every new cabinet made up its own rules.

History

Universal released Space Panic in 1980, a year before Donkey Kong started rolling barrels. That's why it often gets credit as one of the very first platform games: stacked floors connected by ladders, with a hero climbing between them.

It never became a mega-hit, but its trap-the-enemy-in-a-hole idea showed up in other games of the era, and today it's a cult favorite with fans who love digging into the genre's roots.

How to play

Use the joystick to run along the floors and climb the ladders. One button digs a hole next to you, the other fills it back in. When an alien drops into a hole, hammer it to knock it through to the floor below and wipe it out.

Tougher aliens have to fall through several floors in one go, so line your holes up. Keep an eye on the oxygen meter: take too long to clear the stage and you run out of air. And if an alien climbs out before you finish the job, it's right back on your tail.

Fun facts

• It came out in 1980, before Donkey Kong, and often comes up in debates about the first platform game.
• There's no shooting at all. Everything revolves around digging and filling holes.
• Some aliens only go down if they drop through multiple floors at once.

In the arcade

Space Panic was a take-turns game, and that's how it plays on UsuArcade, just online: invite your friend to your cabinet once they're in the lobby and trade turns, each on your own phone or PC. While one plays, the other watches live.

Nothing to install: it runs in your browser, gamepad supported, and every game starts with INSERT COIN, free. Everyone else in the lobby can watch and chat, and scores go up on the arcade's high score board.

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