To play Galaga, use your space bar as the start/enter button and also to shoot the alien spacecrafts as you play this Galaga game for free. The arrow pad on the bottom right of your keyboard will maneuver your vehicle in your battle. Galaga was released by Namco in 1981 (and also licensed to Midway). It was one of the most popular arcade games and is still sought after now by collectors.

A well-known part of the Galaga game is the ability for the player's ship to be captured by an enemy ship. Boss Galagas (the green enemies atop the attackers) occasionally attempt to capture your ship with a tractor beam. If the ship is captured, it is carried back up to enemy territory. If the captured ship is your last ship, the game is over. The captured player ship acts as an escort to the enemy ship that captured it, and dives down simultaneously with the Galaga. To free the ship, you must destroy the Galaga ship in mid-dive if the Galaga is destroyed in the formation, the ship will attack on its own and return with another boss in the next round. If you free the captured ship, both ships join together side-by-side, moving and shooting as one and this doubles your firepower and makes the game easier. If one of the ships is hit, only that ship is destroyed and play continues with the surviving ship. Because of the obvious benefit of double firepower, a common strategy is to purposely let a boss capture your ship early in the game, then fight to immediately free it.