Space Invaders
The weirdest looking version yet
By Matthias JaapMarch 10, 2005
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Space Invaders
(c) Atari |
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No title screen? Arrggh!
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The 5200 version is very colorful.
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When Taito released the arcade machine
Space Invaders, it became a huge hit in Japan and caused a shortage
of certain Yen coins. Taito quickly developed a successor and although
none of them were as popular as the original, they even released an
updated game version to celebrate the game's birthday. The most famous
home conversion of Space Invaders is the one Atari did for the
VCS 2600 and although the conversion wasn't exactly the best one, it
also sold very well and established the term "system seller." Therefore
it seemed like a bright idea to release Space Invaders again -
this time for the 5200.
Besides the standard Atari introduction screen there is no real title
screen: just the game title, a scrolling copyright message and the
playfield. After starting the game the invaders slowly appear from the
left side. You can immediately attack the aliens which fire back, of
course. The only save places on the screen are the three shields on the
screen. You can seek protection there but the laser fire from the aliens
slowly destroy these shields. Spending too much time under a shield is
certainly a bad idea because once the enemies reach the right side, they
move one line down. There is also a bit strategy in the game: if you
destroy a whole column of enemies they will need a bit more time to
reach the right side. The game is getting faster every time you destroy
an alien. The last alien is quite fast and hard to hit.
Graphically, the game looks very weird. Atari certainly didn't try to
bring the game closer to the original. The alien sprites are painted in
one of six colors. Each has about three animation phases and their
appearance changes after a few rounds. But the 5200 could certainly do
much better. Sound in the game consists of various noises which could
also be reproduced on the Atari 2600 with a little effort. A nice idea
is that the sound volume increases every time the aliens move one line
down.
Space Invaders is best controlled with a trackball but even
without one you won't have any problems moving your ship from left to
right and back. There are also some game variations available which are
nice but the 2600 version had lots more. You can switch between a one
and two player game (one after another), three or five lives and overall
game speed. Nothing exciting but enough to offer experienced gamer a
harder game.
Atari's conversion of Space Invaders is not a bad game but even
in 1982 and with the addition of colours it certainly showed its age.
Strangely, Atari always had a tendency to convert old arcade games for
their new system and Space Invaders is no exception. Although you
can see their efforts to improve the game, the graphics aren't on par
with the 5200's better games. The gameplay also tends to get boring
quickly.
Maybe Space Invaders is a game that can't be improved much – even
much more improved clones of the game (like Better dead than alien
on the ST) were usually getting bad reviews. Sadly, the 5200 version
didn't receive any graphic hacks. There are dozens of VCS 2600 hacks
available and some are quite creative.
Game Data |
Scores
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| Title |
Space Invaders |
Graphics |
40% |
| Publisher |
Atari |
Sound/Music |
25% |
| Genre |
Action |
Gameplay |
55% |
| System |
5200 |
Control |
80% |
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Overall |
53% |
)