What company created Space Invaders?

A game becomes legendary when people still remember it decades later, but it becomes mythical when people start inventing stories about it. Space Invaders got so popular in Japan that an urban legend claimed it caused a nationwide shortage of 100-yen coins. The story isn't true, but game publisher Taito installed over 100,000 machines by the end of 1978, and when that wasn't enough, they had to import cabinets from their American distributor back to Japan just to keep up with demand. Designer Tomohiro Nishikado built the entire game by himself, but stayed anonymous for years because of a pesky thing called a contract. Taito originally put its marketing push behind a game called Blue Shark (a game that is neither legendary nor mythical).