Space Invaders

Space Invaders

Developer(s)	Taito
Publisher(s)	Midway Arcade Bally Astrocade Taito Sega Saturn Atari Atari 2600 Atari 5200 Nintendo Game Boy NEC PC-Engine Activision PlayStation Nintendo 64 PC Game Boy Color Game Boy Advance Template:Infobox/designer
Release date	Arcade: 1978 Atari 2600: 1979 (NA) Bally Astrocade: 1981 (NA) PC-Engine: March 2, 1990 (JP)
Genre	Fixed Shooter Shoot 'em up
Mode(s)	Single player
Age rating(s)	N/A Arcade Atari 2600 Bally Astrocade Atari 5200 Game Boy PC-Engine Super Famicom ESRB: E Super Nintendo PlayStation Nintendo 64 PC Game Boy Color Game Boy Advance CERO: Free Sega Saturn
Platform(s)	Arcade Atari 2600 Bally Astrocade Atari 5200 Game Boy PC-Engine Super Famicom Super Nintendo Sega Saturn Playstation Nintendo 64 PC Game Boy Color Game Boy Advance Template:Infobox/media Template:Infobox/input
Credits \| Soundtrack \| Codes \| Walkthrough

Space Invaders is a classic arcade game that made a huge impact on the game industry.

The game also marked one of the earliest and biggest successes of Japanese developers in the industry.

Gameplay

Space Invaders pits your space ship, three lives, and four destroyable shields against an onslaught of aliens from above that only get faster. You maneuver from left to right, shooting enemies, while taking cover underneath your shields. The shields can be destroyed by the enemy shots, or by you yourself. While shooting through your own shields gives you more openings to hit the aliens, it also puts your ship at risk.

The enemies gradually come down until they reach the bottom. The more you kill, the faster they move. Eventually, when there is only one left, it will move at high speeds as it increases speed, drops down, and reverses direction.

Occasionally, a mothership crosses the top of the screen, awarding the player points for hitting it. Although the point values are thought to be random, players of the arcade game have found out how to make the mothership award the maximum amount of points (300 points).

The game is somewhat unique in that it is basically unbeatable.

Space Invaders Deluxe

A sequel game called Space Invaders Deluxe (also Space Invaders Part II) was released in the arcades by Taito and Midway in 1980. While similar in gameplay to the original, it deviates from it in some small ways. First of all, there is the addition of a flashing UFO that crosses the top of the screen that is worth 500 points if you hit it when it's visible. Secondly, from the second wave on, some of the middle-row invaders will split into two smaller invaders. And thirdly, the mothership will appear in later levels to drop reinforcments into the advancing formation. It also includes an intermission scene between waves where one of the invaders flees to the top of the screen, calling out SOS! SOS! SOS!

Scoring

Alien in bottom two rows ("skull") -- 10 points
Alien in middle two rows ("toaster") -- 20 points
Alien in top row ("conehead") -- 30 points
Mystery ship -- 50 to 300 points, depending on how many shots have been fired between appearances
Flashing mystery ship in Space Invaders Deluxe -- 200 points

Atari 2600 Version

The Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders is one of the most successful arcade-to-home ports ever made and released for the system. While simplified in some aspects (there are only 36 invaders to deal with, you have only 3 shields to hide behind, and the mother ship is always 200 points), it is made up for in the multitude of game player variations, such as:

Moving Shields: the player's shields move back and forth.
Zigzagging Bombs: the invaders' bombs drop in a zigzagging pattern.
Fast Bombs: the invaders' bombs drop faster.
Invisible Invaders: the invaders only show up briefly when you hit one of them.
One Player: your standard one-player game.
Two Players Alternating: your standard two-player game, when each player takes turns.
Two Players Competing: both players play at the same time, shooting at the same group of invaders. Here the game ends when either both players lose three laser bases among them or the invaders land.
Two Players Competing, Alternating Shots: same as Two Players Competing, except that each player takes turns firing. If a player takes too long to fire, his laser base automatically fires a shot.
One Player Moves Left, Other Player Moves Right: the left player can only move the laser base to the left, the right player can only move it to the right. Either player can fire.
Players Alternate Control: the left player moves the laser base until he fires a shot, then the right players has control until he fires a shot, and so on.
One Player Moves, Other Player Fires: the left player moves the cannon, the right player fires.

By using the difficulty switches, the player(s) can select to choose a small laser base (B setting) or a wide laser base (A setting).

Notes

An arcade-accurate homebrew port of both the original arcade game and its sequel Space Invaders Deluxe has been developed and released for the ColecoVision as Space Invaders Collection.

The Gameboy version which was released by Nintendo as a "Super Gameboy compatible" game has an unlockable Super NES version of the game that can be activated when it is played on a Super NES using the Super Gameboy.