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
Name | Space Invaders |
---|---|
Developer | Midway Manufacturing Co. (United States) |
Year | 1978 |
Type | Videogame |
KLOV/MOG # | 9662 |
Class | Wide Release |
Genre | Space |
Monitor |
|
Conversion Class | unique |
Game Specific | Space Invaders Pinout |
Dipswitch Settings | |
# Simultaneous Players | 1 |
# Maximum Players | 2 |
Game Play | Alternating |
Control Panel Layout | Single Player |
Controls |
|
Sound | Amplified Mono (one channel) |
Cabinet Styles |
|
Instructions | Space Invaders Instructions Image |
Bezel | Space Invaders Bezel Image |
Control Panel | Space Invaders Control Panel Image |
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.
Overall Like |
3.65 |
---|---|
Fun (Social) | 2.91 |
Fun (Solo) | 3.57 |
Collector Desire | 3.78 |
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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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.
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."
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.
LICENSOR: Taito
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]
CPU: 8080
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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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 |