Can you get extra lives (ships) in Galaga?

Is there a way to get extra lives/ships in Galaga? I'm using this emulation:

Also I'd like to know it it's possible to get a triple-ship. i.e. .|^|^|^|. You can get the double ship by getting abducted by an alien then shooting down the alien, does the same apply to get triple?

2 Answers

Well, in the original, you earn lives by Hi-Score. So the same should apply for that.

We shouldn't assume any port or re-creation of Galaga is faithful to the original but it is interesting to see how the original game handled this, at least as a starting point.

1. Namco Galaga 1981 Coin-operated Arcade machine

Galaga was created by Namco but in the USA it was licenced by Miday, they manufactured the cabinets sold in the USA and produced a "Parts and Operating Manual" for Galaga:

On Page 2-5 it shows the operator's switch-settable options for extra lives:

So depending on how the operator set-up their machine, you would get an extra ship at 20,000 points another at 60,000 points and at each multiple of 60,000 points.

However the operator could set the machine so that you never get a bonus ship.

2. Namco Arcade Game Series: Galaga - available on Steam for PC.

This is an officially licenced port of Namco's Galaga.

In this game, as of 2020, there is a game-menu you can reach by pressing Esc, you can select Settings then Game Settings:

This offers exactly the same options as the original coin-operated arcade machine but defaults to the second set of options for extra lives (maybe this was also the default out of the factory for the original machine)