Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Space Invaders

Description

The 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.

Space Invaders was produced by Midway Manufacturing Co. in 1978.

Midway Manufacturing Co. released 132 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1959. Midway Manufacturing Co. was based in United States.

Other machines made by Midway Manufacturing Co. during the time period Space Invaders was produced include: Boot Hill, Checkmate, Desert Gun, Double Play, Guided Missile, Rotation VIII, Blue Shark, Dog Patch, Extra Inning, and Clowns

Specs

Name	Space Invaders
Developer	Midway Manufacturing Co. (United States)
Year	1978
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	9662
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Space
Monitor	Orientation: Vertical Type: Raster: Standard Resolution Color: Black and White with a Color Overlay
Conversion Class	unique
Game Specific	Space Invaders Pinout
Dipswitch Settings	Space Invaders Dipswitch Settings (user contributed)
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	2
Game Play	Alternating
Control Panel Layout	Single Player
Controls	Joystick: 2-way (left, right) - Left/Right button on the Bally/Midway North American Version Buttons: 1 - Fire
Sound	Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard Cocktail Cabaret/Mini
Instructions	Space Invaders Instructions Image
Bezel	Space Invaders Bezel Image
Control Panel	Space Invaders Control Panel Image

Game Play

Move 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.

Space Invaders KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.72 (23 votes)

Fun Factor: 3.53

Overall Like	3.65
Fun (Social)	2.91
Fun (Solo)	3.57
Collector Desire	3.78

Technical Rating: 3.89

Gameplay	3.83
Graphics	3.61
Originality	4.57
Sound/Music	3.43

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

Popularized 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.

Hacks

Galaxian Invaders - Uses Space Invaders graphics in a Galaxian game.
Oaty Invaders - Lets you play as an oat bowl.

Images

Trivia

The 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."

Cabinet Information

The 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.

Miscellaneous

LICENSOR: Taito

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Space Invaders Census

There are 15,211 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,644 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,563 machines (6,981 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 800 known instances of this machine owned by Space Invaders collectors who are active members. Of these, 736 of them are original dedicated machines. 7 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 53 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 40 active VAPS members with a Space Invaders machines for sale. There are 3 active VAPS members with a Space Invaders circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 30 active VAPS members currently looking for Space Invaders. There are 2 active VAPS members looking for Space Invaders boards sets.

This game ranks a 92 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 50 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Sea, Land, Air, Space and More

1979 / 2 Pages

Taito Taitronics T.V. Series 2

/ 8 Pages

Taito Taitronics T.V. Series 3

/ 8 Pages

More! Screens of Fame and Fortune!

1981

Technical

CPU: 8080

Legacy

Manuals

Space Invaders Upright - Midway - Space Invaders Manual — **Space Invaders Upright - Midway**
(23 pages, 8.9 MB File)

Foto-Finder® (Books)

Arcade 1 Historical Guide to Arcade Machines Vol. 1 Bueschel (ISBN 086667-051-3) Page: 297; Black and white photo
Arcade Treasures Kurtz (ISBN 088740619X) Page: 102; Color photo
Arcade Treasures Kurtz (ISBN 088740619X) Page: 168; Color photo
The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 68; Color photo Price guide: No
Arcade Fever Sellers (ISBN 0762409371) Page: 36; Color photo
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 68; Color photo

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

3D Model (External): Cabaret (5848b19535470eb3533276a8c0b1c862)
3D Model (External): Upright (5a924c79b52554b1e66202687a227eab)

Arcade Map - Play This Game

Our members have reported that Space Invaders is playable at 3 locations:

Name	Location	State	Country	Details	Check-ins
8-Bit Beans	100 Brock St South, Whitby	Ontario	Canada	Unknown	0
Level One Bar + Arcade	130 Hutchinson Ave, Columbus	Ohio	United States	Unknown	0
The Very Best Arcade (The Very Best Weiner Shop)	252 E High St, Pottstown	Pennsylvania	United States	Arcade	1

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