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Space Invaders

スペース・インベーダーズ
Space Invaders - Cabinet - Video Game Marquee

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 Taito in 1978.

Taito released 488 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1967. Taito was based in Japan.

Other machines made by Taito during the time period Space Invaders was produced include: Cross Fire, Flying Fortress II, Barricade II, Fisco 400, Cisco 400, Road Champion, Top Bowler, Acrobat, Super Block, and Super Speed Race V

Specs

Name Space Invaders
Developer Taito (Japan)
Released by

Taito - Japan (1978) for release in Asia

IRECSA (Inversiones Recreativas, S.A - Madrid) - Spain (1978) for release in Europe

Leisure and Allied - Australia (1978)

Midway Manufacturing Co. - United States (1978) for release in North America and Europe

Year 1978
Type Videogame
KLOV/MOG # 9662
Class Wide Release
Genre Space
Monitor
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.

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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 15,368 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,708 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 167,369 machines (7,023 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 802 known instances of this machine owned by Space Invaders collectors who are active members. Of these, 738 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

Technical

CPU: 8080

Legacy or Series

  1. Space Invaders
  2. Space Invaders Part II
  3. Space Invaders II
  4. Return Of The Invaders
  5. Super Space Invaders '91
  6. Space Invaders DX
  7. Space Invaders '95

Manuals

Foto-Finder® (Books)

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

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

eBay Listings

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TOP WATCHED LISTINGS FOR: Space Invaders

Ebay Compatible Application

Space Invaders Deluxe Midway Arcade Machine - Nice!

Auction ends in: 3 weeks, 4 days

FixedPrice
$900.00

Tiny Arcade Space Invaders Tabletop Edition Brand New In Box

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ARCADE1Up Space Invaders Counter-cade Table-Top Arcade

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SPACE INVADERS DELUXE arcade MONITOR Color Cover Original

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Arcade1up Space Invaders Tabletop Countercade w/2 Built-Games Used

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Arcade 1up Space Invaders Arcade Game New Sealed

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Bally Midway Space Invaders Deluxe Arcade Wire Harness & Transformer

Auction ends in: 1 month, 10 hours

FixedPrice
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Auction Results

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Auctions Recap

Year Count Median $ Average $
2016 1 805.00 805.00
2017 5 708.00 610.30
2018 2 1,017.75 1,017.75
All Years 8 756.50 736.50

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