Introduction

Space Invaders is most likely one of the most widely known classic game, second only perhaps to Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, maybe Pong. It is involved in a futuristic setting where aliens are attacking Earth (or Alpha Centauri or whatever) and you must defend the planet. Originally designed by Toshihiro Nishikado, it was originally manufactured by Taito and licensed for production in the U.S. by the Midway Manufacturing division of Bally. Released in 1978, it ranks as one of the most influential video games ever created. Though simplistic by today's standards, it (along with other contemporary games such as Pac-Man) was one of the forerunners of modern video gaming.

Game Info

Space Invaders was an adaptation of the popular shooting gallery games that were a mainstay of carnivals. In this electronic version of the game, the player controlled the motions of a movable laser cannon that moved back and forth across the bottom of the video screen. Rows and rows of video aliens marched back and forth across the screen, slowly advancing down from the top to the bottom of the screen. If any of the aliens successfully landed on the bottom of the screen, the game would end. The player's laser cannon had an unlimited supply of ammunition to shoot at the aliens and destroy them before they hit the bottom of the screen. Meanwhile, the aliens would shoot back at the player, raining a hail of deadly rays and bombs that the player would have to dodge lest his cannon be destroyed. The player's cannon could be destroyed three times (the player had three lives), and the game would end after the player's last life was lost. Occasionally a bonus spaceship would fly across the top of the screen which the player could shoot for extra points.

Video games had existed prior to Space Invaders, and the game Pong by Atari was already a few years old when this game was released. But Space Invaders captured the attention and imagination of the public in a manner paralleled by few games before or since. Its science fiction based action and futuristic setting appealed to a public in the midst of Star Wars mania. The game's design included a touch of horror, as it gave players the illusion that they were in a desperate battle to save the world from alien invaders... a battle that they would eventually lose, as endless waves of electronic aliens would sweep down until they were overwhelmed. The simple background soundtrack to the game, which gave the impression of a beating heart, increased the tension and kept players coming back for more.

Arcade

One key feature of Space Invaders was the fact that as more and more of the aliens were shot, the remaining aliens would move faster and faster. The change in speed was minor at the beginning of a wave, but dramatic near the end. This action was originally an unintentional result of the way the game was written - as the program had to move fewer and fewer aliens it ran faster and faster, but was kept after finding favour with the development team.

Space Invaders used an Intel 8080 as its processor, running below 1Mhz and a 1 bit per pixel framebuffer mapped from the main CPU address space. All sound effects were implemented individually with discrete electronics.

The actual output of the game was displayed mirror-image on a black and white monitor which sat recessed in the game's cabinet. The image was projected (automatically) to a plastic panel which the player saw. Behind the reflective panel was a lunar landscape which gave the game an impressive background setting. Since the actual video game console itself had a monochrome video image, Taito added color by coating the reflective screen with colored bands.

Walkthrough

You start off in a small ship, with three barriers between you and the aliens that you can and should occasionally take refuge in. Be warned, however, that these barriers are not invulnerable, and will eventually be shot to pieces by either the aliens or you (yes, you can destroy them too). What is usually a good strategy is to rather than hold the fire button, get into position, then hit the fire button rapidly, and move to a barrier, giving yourself covering fire. You can only have one shot on the screen at once, so make sure that there are enemies in your line of fire.

Popular Reaction

The enormous blockbuster success of Space Invaders made the entertainment industry sit up and take notice. Within the first year of its release, the game had generated revenue ranging in the hundreds of millions of dollars—with the majority coming from teenagers and school children, who pumped millions of quarters into the game at a frenzied pace. Video game mania among the youths in the United States was so pervasive that for a time, some children and teenagers were panhandling and begging strangers for quarters so that they could continue playing the game.

This phenomenon led to the first outcries against video games by groups of concerned adults, who felt that the content of video games was a corrupting influence on children. In the case of Space Invaders, the issue was not usually the highly abstract and stylized violence, but with the fact that the game could not be "won" in any familiar sense. As framed by the critics, the player is powerless to do more than to delay an inevitable defeat. They suggested that the game taught an unwholesome life lesson, inculcated defeatism, and possibly was intended to put the United States at a disadvantage in its economic rivalry with Japan by undermining the competitive spirit of American youth.

Space Invaders became very popular in part due to its new style of gameplay. Up until its release, video games were timed to a clock, and once a player's time was up (plus possible bonus time), the game ended. With Space Invaders, the game ended only when the player had exhausted the three allotted "lives": a person could therefore play for as long as their skill level allowed.

Later Releases

The home version of Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 was a huge success. Not only did it capture the look and feel of the original arcade version, but it also offered 112 different versions of the game. Variations included invisible invaders, invisible missiles and other subtle alterations. It was the first video arcade adaptation for the Atari 2600 system. The console had been released in 1977, but sales of the 2600 skyrocketed during the 1980 holiday shopping season, as millions of families bought the Atari system just so that they could play Space Invaders. This marked the beginning of home video adaptations of popular arcade games (some of which were less than successful).

Space Invaders spawned a large number of imitators, as other video game manufacturers sought to cash in on its successful formula, and released many arcade games featuring variations of the same theme: attacking aliens from outer space.

Taito released several sequels to Space Invaders in the arcades over the years — Space Invaders Part II ("Deluxe Space Invaders") (1979), Return of the Invaders (1985), Majestic Twelve: The Space Invaders Part IV ("Super Space Invaders '91") (1990), Space Invaders DX (1994), and Akkanvader ("Space Invaders '95: The Attack Of The Lunar Loonies") (1995).

The release of Pac-Man in 1980 broke the mold of "alien invader" games, and it opened the way for more creativity and originality in the video gaming industry. But the legacy of Space Invaders lives on, and action-based science fiction games continue to pay homage to the original shoot-em-up video game.

Enemies based on Space Invaders also appeared in Bubble Bobble games. To top it off, Bubble Symphony featured both a giant Space Invader guarded by aliens who move just like in Space Invaders as a boss and cameo appearances by the player controlled spaceship as a companion for the main characters.

Super Space Invaders was a Space Invaders clone for a range of systems including the Amiga, Master System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System featuring greatly upgraded graphics and sound, along with additions to the gameplay such as power-ups and advanced forms of aliens. Despite this, it was given average reviews at best, and sold very poorly.

Space Raiders (Space Invaders: Invasion Day in Europe) was released in 2001 and is a 3D version of space invaders. Rather than a laser at the bottom shooting up, the player is a human shooting forward at aliens in the street: a prime example of how much games have changed over the years.

Street Art

An example of Space Invaders street art.

Space Invaders has also inspired a form of street art, championed in particular by an artist named "Invader". Using ceramic tiles, Invader and other street artists cement together mosaic images of traditional Space Invader aliens, bonus spaceships, and variations on those themes, sometimes including characters from the Pac-Man series of video games. The mosaics, many being small yet others as large as murals, are cemented onto building walls, lamp post bases, and other structures. The form has spread throughout the world since the 1990s, especially among major European cities, and continues to be replicated.

Authors

Original Author: SamE
Principal Author:
Chief Contributor of Images:

Contributors

(In Alphabetical Order - please sign using four '~')

AgeofAtari
AmishThrasher 04:21, 22 September 2005 (UTC)
Poiuyt Man

Wikipedia

The following Wikipedia articles were used as a basis for material used in this book:

Space Invaders

Space Invaders/Printable version

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