Galaga (HAL Laboratory)

In 1983 Atari was in talks with Nintendo to distribute the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America. Atari contracted Nintendo to develop ports of four of their most popular titles for the system's North American launch, Millipede, Joust, Defender II, and Galaga. Nintendo, in turn, subcontracted the ports to HAL Laboratory. Atari's distribution deal with Nintendo fell through, and HAL Laboratory shelved the games even though all four were finished. Millipede, Joust, and Defender II were eventually published by HAL in Japan in 1987 followed by a North American release with updated title screens in 1988. Galaga, however, remained unreleased, likely due to the console rights having reverted back to Namco who released their own port of Galaga in Japan in 1986. Namco's version of Galaga would be released in the US by Bandai with the subtitle "Demons of Death." In 2025 the Video Game History Foundation released a partial dump of HAL Laboratory's Galaga prototype. The prototype was missing its CHR rom, so it was recreated from Galaga's arcade release and HAL's Defender II port.