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*********************************SPACE INVADERS********************************
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This FAQ was written entirely (unless otherwise noted) by Jason Druckenmiller
(antiflag on Gamefaqs) because I have been a member of Gamefaqs for over a
year, and realized I have done absoulutly nothing for this site. So I write
this FAQ as a guide for those confused with the Atari 2600 version of Space
Invaders, or just to show that people still play these extremely outdated games
in the year 2004. Also if anyone needs to contact me, do so at
[email protected] (email), or purpleredchicken (AIM).
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| Table of Contents |
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1) The Story
2) Interesting Triva Knowledge
3) Setup and controls
4) Scoring
5) Varations (all 112 of them)
6) Hints and Tips
7) Legal mumbo jumbo
8) Goodbye
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| The Story |
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Well, its not really the story, more like what the object of the games is.
Basically, you control a cannon that is stopping the enemies from space, the
"space invaders." You need to destroy all these "space invaders" before they
either kill you with their own laser blasts, or reach the bottom of the screen,
which represents Earth. And guess what, once you kill all the "space invaders"
a whole new batch of them come but now they start even lower on the screen.
The sad part is, you will never be the actual hero because you will never stop
the monsters, and are just really a military pawn sent to die. Well, with all
that said, LETS PLAY!
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| Interesting Triva Knowledge |
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-Space Invaders was the very first coin-op arcade game to ever be released on
home console.
-Because of the Space Invaders arcade machine there was a coin shortage in
Japan, until the ammount of Yen made was increased.
-Space Invaders over the years of its existence has had many sequals, and an
extreme ammount of knock-off hacks of the game.
-One specific knock-off game was commisioned by Coca-cola. The game played
the same as Space Invaders except instead of shooting the "space invaders" you
would be shooting the letters P-E-P-S-I-and a "space invader" at the end. The
game is very rare seeing as only 125 copies of the game were made, and they
were given to the employees of Coca-cola. The game itself was burned onto ROM
chips instead of EPROM's. Playing of the game is almost entirely pointless
because there is a 3 minute time limit, and you have infinite lives. When time
runs out you get a nice message at the top saying "COKE WINS"
If anyone has anything they would like me to put here please contact me.
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| Setup and controls |
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First I'll explain what all the little switches on your atari do.
***Since I only own a 6 switch woodgrain Atari, I'm not sure if there are any
differences in some other Atari 2600 models. If there are any please email me
and you will recieve full credit.***
POWER - If you dont know what on and off do, then you probably cant even read
this FAQ, but just incase: ON turns the Atari ON, and OFF turns the Atari OFF.
TV TYPE - If in the year 2004 you still own a black and white TV then switch it
to that setting. Although I'm not sure if it makes a difference, its better to
be safe. Or if you just feel like playing a game in black and white by all
means switch it.
LEFT DIFFICULTY - Controls the size of cannon for player 1 only
Position a: The cannon is normal size
Position b: The cannon is half as bigger, making it harder to hit then normal.
RIGHT DIFFICULTY - Controls the size of cannon for player 2 only
Position a: The cannon is normal size
Position b: The cannon is half as bigger, making it harder to hit then normal.
GAME SELECT - Cycles through all 112 game variations, see "FASTER GAME CYCLE"
to learn how to cycle them all faster.
GAME RESET - Starts the game variation you are on, or resets the current game
during play.
**FASTER GAME CYCLE**
I'm sure if you want to play game 112 you wont wnat to press Game Select 112
times do you? So thankfully a little trick was put in to cycle them at a much
faster rate. Instead of just pressing Game Select, press and HOLD BOTH Game
Select, and Game Reset for faster cycling. When you are nearing your number,
let go of the Game Reset button and just use Game Select. You dont want to
miss your number and have to cycle through all over.
**CONTROLS**
For Space Invaders you will use the Joystick controller. You can only move
left and right in this game to avoid the lasers, and aim your own laser. The
red button shoots your laser. Remember though, only one or your lasers can be
on the screen at a time. So aim carefully so you dont have a stray bullet and
you have to wait a while to shoot again.
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| Scoring |
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Each row of "space invaders" are worth different ammounts of points. See below
for each rows point value.
Row 6 (Farthest from your cannon) - 30 points
Row 5 - 25 points
Row 4 - 20 points
Row 3 - 15 points
Row 2 - 10 points
Row 1 (Closest to your cannon) - 05 points
So if my calculations are correct, being 6 "space invaders" in each row, then a
total of 630 points can be earned each round from "space invaders" alone.
But wait, thats not all the points you can get. You can also get points from
shooting that little purple ship that flies across the top of your screen. The
point values for that ship varies with each variation, read the descriptions in
the next section to see how much the ship is worth.
Just if you care, the max ammount of points that can be shown on your screen
are 9999. Hey its an Atari give it a break. Unlike some Atari games your
points dont just roll over to zero, they just stay at 9999 forever.
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| Variations (all 112 of them) |
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I will start by explaining what each variation does, then I will show you a
chart so you can figure out which number you will want.
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ONE PLAYER GAMES
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BASIC GAMES - Numbers 1-16 - Just all the single player game variations.
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TWO OPPOSING PLAYER GAMES
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ALTERNATING TURNS - Numbers 17-32 - Left player starts with own "space
invaders." Once he is hit once, the right player will start playing with a
brand new set of "space invaders," and fully restored sheild. Flying
spaceships are worth 200 points.
COMPETING AT THE SAME TIME - Numbers 33-48 - Both players play at the same time
competing for the highest score. The flying spaceship is worth 100 points, and
whenever your opponent gets hit, you recieve 200 points. The game is over when
both players get hit 3 times, OR the "space invaders" reach the Earth.
COMPETING AT THE SAME TIME TAKING ALTERNATE SHOTS - Numbers 49-64 - Basically
the same exact thing as above only now the left person only can take ONE shot,
then after he shoots, the right person can take ONE shot. It goes back and
forth the whole game. Be warned though if you wait to long your cannon will
fire automatically.
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TWO PARTNERED PLAYER GAMES
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ONE MOVES LEFT, ONE MOVES RIGHT - Numbers 65-80 - The left person can only move
the cannon to the left. The right person can only move the cannon to the
right. Both players can fire, and you are trying for a common high score. The
flying spaceship is worth 200
ALTERNATING CONTROL - Numbers 81-96 - First the left player has full control
over the cannon. After the left player fires one shot control is fully
switched to the right player. It alternates back and forth the whole game.
Scoring is same as above.
ONE SHOOTS, ONE MOVES - Numbers 97-112 - The same as the above 2, except the
left player can ONLY move the cannon, and the right player can ONLY fire the
cannon.
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THE CHALLENGES
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MOVING SHIELDS - Shown with an (M) in chart - During gameplay the shields will
move back and forth. This makes it harder to hide from fire, and also harder
to hit the enemies because the shields may move into your way.
ZIGZAGGING ENEMY LASERS - Shown with a (Z) in chart - The enemy laser shots
will zigzag down the screen towards you, making it a lot harder to predict
where they will land, and where you are safe.
FAST ENEMY LASERS - Shown with an (F) in chart - The enemy lasers will soar
down the screen much faster then in normal play giving you less time to dodge
them.
INVISIBLE "SPACE INVADERS" - Shown with an (I) in chart - All of the "space
invaders" are completely invisible. You can only see their laser beams.
Although whenever you hit any "space invader" you will get a quick glance at
the position of all of them.
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THE CHART (Finally)
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Legend:
MODES:
1 Player Basic - 1B
2 Opposing Players-Alternating Turns - 2OP-AT
2 Opposing Players-Same Time - 2OP-ST
2 Opposing Players-Alternating shots - 2OP-AS
2 Partnered Players-1 Left, 1 Right - 2PP-LR
2 Partnered Players-Alternating Control - 2PP-AC
2 Partnered Players-1 Moves, 1 Fires - 2PP-MF
VARIATIONS
Moving Shield - M
Zigzagging Laser - Z
Fast laser - F
Invisble "space invaders" - I
HOW TO USE THE CHART:
Its really quite simple, at least in my eyes it is. I suggest if you dont have
the manual print at least this section out for easy access. All you need to do
is if you know what mode you want, lets say 2 opposing players at the same
time. Your also want to have Zigzagging Lasers. So, what you do is find the
section that has all the 2 Opposing Players-Same Time games, look for 2OP-ST
(which is numbers 33-48), then look through that section and find the one with
only a Z under the Variations column. You'll find that number 35 fits what
type of game you want to play, and then go off and play space invaders. Easy?
I hope so.
Game # Variations Mode | Game # Variations Players
1 None 1B | 57 I 2OP-AS
2 M 1B | 58 MI 2OP-AS
3 Z 1B | 59 ZI 2OP-AS
4 MZ 1B | 60 MZI 2OP-AS
5 F 1B | 61 FI 2OP-AS
6 MF 1B | 62 MFI 2OP-AS
7 ZF 1B | 63 ZFI 2OP-AS
8 MZF 1B | 64 MZFI 2OP-AS
9 I 1B | 65 None 2PP-LR
10 MI 1B | 66 M 2PP-LR
11 ZI 1B | 67 Z 2PP-LR
12 MZI 1B | 68 MZ 2PP-LR
13 FI 1B | 69 F 2PP-LR
14 MFI 1B | 70 MF 2PP-LR
15 ZFI 1B | 71 ZF 2PP-LR
16 MZFI 1B | 72 MZF 2PP-LR
17 None 2OP-AT | 73 I 2PP-LR
18 M 2OP-AT | 74 MI 2PP-LR
19 Z 2OP-AT | 75 ZI 2PP-LR
20 MZ 2OP-AT | 76 MZI 2PP-LR
21 F 2OP-AT | 77 FI 2PP-LR
22 MF 2OP-AT | 78 MFI 2PP-LR
23 ZF 2OP-AT | 79 ZFI 2PP-LR
24 MZF 2OP-AT | 80 MZFI 2PP-LR
25 I 2OP-AT | 81 None 2PP-AC
26 MI 2OP-AT | 82 M 2PP-AC
27 ZI 2OP-AT | 83 Z 2PP-AC
28 MZI 2OP-AT | 84 MZ 2PP-AC
29 FI 2OP-AT | 85 F 2PP-AC
30 MFI 2OP-AT | 86 MF 2PP-AC
31 ZFI 2OP-AT | 87 ZF 2PP-AC
32 MZFI 2OP-AT | 88 MZF 2PP-AC
33 None 2OP-ST | 89 I 2PP-AC
34 M 2OP-ST | 90 MI 2PP-AC
35 Z 2OP-ST | 91 ZI 2PP-AC
36 MZ 2OP-ST | 92 MZI 2PP-AC
37 F 2OP-ST | 93 FI 2PP-AC
38 MF 2OP-ST | 94 MFI 2PP-AC
39 ZF 2OP-ST | 95 ZFI 2PP-AC
40 MZF 2OP-ST | 96 MZFI 2PP-AC
41 I 2OP-ST | 97 None 2PP-MF
42 MI 2OP-ST | 98 M 2PP-MF
43 ZI 2OP-ST | 99 Z 2PP-MF
44 MZI 2OP-ST | 100 MZ 2PP-MF
45 FI 2OP-ST | 101 F 2PP-MF
46 MFI 2OP-ST | 102 MF 2PP-MF
47 ZFI 2OP-ST | 103 ZF 2PP-MF
48 MZFI 2OP-ST | 104 MZF 2PP-MF
49 None 2OP-AS | 105 I 2PP-MF
50 M 2OP-AS | 106 MI 2PP-MF
51 Z 2OP-AS | 107 ZI 2PP-MF
52 MZ 2OP-AS | 108 MZI 2PP-MF
53 F 2OP-AS | 109 FI 2PP-MF
54 MF 2OP-AS | 110 MFI 2PP-MF
55 ZF 2OP-AS | 111 ZFI 2PP-MF
56 MZF 2OP-AS | 112 MZFI 2PP-MF
So there it is the great chart. If people cant understand that, then please
message me somehow, this was the best way I could think of showing it. If you
have suggestions for an easier way then by all means contact me, and you will
have credit for your idea.
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| Hints and Tips |
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DOUBLE SHOTS - While turning on your atari 2600, hold down the RESET button.
Doing so will allow you to fire 2 shots to be on the screen instead of only one
~info gotten from Atariage.com
Again If you have any other tips please contact me.
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| Legal mumbo jumbo |
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This FAQ here is Copyright 2004 to Jason Druckenmiller (antiflag on gamefaqs).
I will allow no unauthorized use of this FAQ anywhere but here at gamefaqs.
If you want to post it on your website, or post it anywhere, you must have
complete permission by me. You may use it for personal, private use only. If
anyone sees this FAQ on any other site then Gamefaqs please let me know
immediatly. If any part of these rules are not followed, then legal actions
will most definatly ensue if not taken care of otherwise.
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| Goodbye |
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Good bye to anyone who reads this FAQ. Any suggestions, comments or anything
you can contact me. My info is in the very first paragraph.
I'd just like to thank CJayC, and cnet for keeping Gamefaqs running. You all
rock.
My final words: ROCK ON
\m/(..)\m/
