galaga is fun! i played it on my mame-equipped laptop in the airport recently waiting for a connecting flight, and there were a couple of people looking on with slight jealousy. for some reason that always makes me happy. i didn't have time to do "the trick", though...

as far as the "caterpillar-butterfly thing", i think you might be talking about this:

Starting on Stage 4, a single non-boss enemy splits into three special enemies (referred to in Namco Museum as "Fish"), two of which exit the playfield if not destroyed first. Destroying all three of the split enemies yields extra bonus points.

I vaguely remember that one of the bees would split into a little group of three identical scorpion looking things.

Many hours of life lost on Galaga here as well. I'd have to revisit to check out the morphing thing. I split my time between Omega Race and Galaga. And the beer pitcher.

/unhelpful

I have a Galaga table in my basement. No caterpillars.

sushi - You might be thinking of Galaga '88.

A Dave and Busters (is that a chain?) near me has that. When I went with coworkers for a company happy hour we camped out at the retro corner for hours, with me on that and a coworker on space invaders.

Did that ever come out on PS2 in one of those retro game packs?

Yeah it did--Galaga is a blue-chip retro property. Check out the Namco Museum series. (Also, yes, Dave and Buster's is a chain.)

Oh yes. I lost many a quarter to those cyclical combatants. Many of them on roller skates, even.

I wasted many hours at the arcade with my boyfriend in the mid-80s. He played Galaga while I stood by his side, being the dutiful girlfriend. Eventually I got bored being his cheerleader and wandered off to play Ms. Pacman and Track & Field. I used to know almost everything about Galaga, but my memories have faded with time, however what you're describing doesn't sound familiar.