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Space Invaders |
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Manufacturer:
Bally Midway Year: 1978 Class: Wide Release Genre: Space Type: Videogame Monitor:
Number of Simultaneous Players: 1 Maximum number of Players: 2 Gameplay: Alternating Control Panel Layout: Single Player Controls:
Sound: Amplified Mono (one channel) |
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DescriptionThe original space alien vertical shooter. Move your tank back and forth along the bottom of the screen and shoot endless waves of aliens marching towards earth. Shoot the flying saucer for extra points.Know anything more about this game? Cabinet InformationThe Taito version of the game features a large, rectangular cabinet with blue and white sideart, and uses a joystick versus the button set-up on the Midway version. The marquee is also slightly different in terms of colour and prominently displays the "Taitronics" logo. The overall quality of the machine is arguably superior to the Midway version since its cabinet graphics are much more detailed.Cheats, Tricks and BugsPopularized right after the release of the game, the "FURRER" trick allows you to get 300 points per mystery ship every time. It has to do with the way the random number generator works - at the beginning of every board count 22 shots (whether you hit an invader or not). Wait for the mystery ship. Shoot once to hit it to earn 300 pts. Now count 14 shots. Wait again for the mystery ship. Shoot once at it for another 300 pts. count 14 shots and repeat for the rest of the level. once on the new level, start again at 22 and repeat to 14. This trick was invented by Eric Furrer who to this day holds the Stratford Record for non-stop Space Invaders play -- 38 hours and 37 minutes and an accumulation of 1,114,000 points (111 roll overs, averaging three rolls an hour).Mystery Ship Shot Deflection: On the fifth wave of invaders, the second mystery ship will deflect your shot with the rarely heard "deflection shot;" a shot played backwards. Game PlayMove your base left or right to shoot the endless waves of aliens marching towards earth. There are four buildings (shields) that you can hide behind, but eventually they will be destroyed either by enemy missiles or by the enemies themselves. The aliens' descent quickens as you eliminate them. Shoot the flying saucer for extra points. See the "FURRER" trick for information on receiving 300pts every time you hit the saucer.Hacks
MiscellaneousLICENSOR: TaitoPlay a JAVA emulated version of the game by visiting http://web.utanet.at/nkehrer/JInvaders.html Scarcity in collections (VAPS.org)Very Common - There are 221 known instances of this game owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 203 of them are original dedicated machines, 2 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards have been placed in another game cabinet, and 16 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.Of the 42,694 video games (3,154 unique) tracked by the Video Game Preservation Society, this game ranks a 87 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on ownership records. Wanted - There are 7 VAPS members currently looking for this game. Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. Some common games show up as very rare here because collectors don't want them (they are common because arcade operatos might be sitting on tons of them in warehouses), while some fairly scarce games are grabbed by collectors every time they show up. Additionally, some games made in the last 5 years are still making money for operators and are thus not yet affordable to the typical collector. For a clue to value, compare how many people have this game vs. how many people want this game and then click on the eBay links to help determine an accurate price range. TechnicalCPU: 8080TriviaThe game was so amazingly popular in Japan that it caused a coin shortage until the country's Yen supply was quadrupled. Entire arcades were opened in Japan specifically for this game.Many incidents of juvenile crime surrounded the release of this game. A girl was caught stealing $5000 from her parents and gangs of youths were reported to have robbed grocery stores just so they would have money to play the game. Space Invaders, along with Pac-Man and Pong, shares the notorious distinction of being one of the most duplicated, bootleged and/or hacked arcade games.
In Italy in 1979, it was licensed to the manufacturer Sidam where it was released under the name "Invasion." eBay ListingsClick here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for the Space Invaders Videogame machine and items related to it.Click here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for machines and parts made by Bally Midway. Alternatively, check out the IAM/KLOV custom report of the hottest coin-op machines on eBay, powered by Ace.com (updated throughoutthe day).
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