The Space Invaders Story

Space Invaders is a 1978 arcade game created by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Within the shooter genre, Space Invaders was the first fixed shooter and set the template for the shoot 'em up genre. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser to earn as many points as possible.
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#spaceinvaders

[@passthebutterrobot2600]

I had no idea that the game speeding up as you killed the aliens was not intended, but was simply caused by faster rendering of fewer items. A lucky accident, I would say. It's hard to imagine it any other way.

[@slickkid2367]

What’s crazier to me is that we were supposed to kill ALL those aliens at THAT speed

[@SmashCatRandom]

@@slickkid2367 No, the opposite. If he'd added compensation it would have been as slow with 1 invader as it was with all 55. The machine only ever updates 1 invader per frame, so it naturally gets faster. Interestingly the "beat" is not directly related to the speed of movement - it does speed up, but only at set numbers of invaders left. There can only ever be 3 invader bombs on screen at once, or 2 if there's also a saucer on screen, and the 3 bombs, (or 2 bombs+saucer) have to take turns updating. So each of them only updates every third frame. The player ship and missiles update every frame at all times though. The machine really was being pushed to its limit!

[@bobdobalina2931]

I liked Space Invaders but my true passion was Asteroids. I was so addicted to it that I bought a cocktail cabinet one and played it for six months straight. I could regularly clock it twice or even three times depending on my stamina. It saved me a fortune. I placed it in a college common room and split the income with the students union. I was raking in about £80 per week from that one machine. In the end I had twenty six machine and eight pool tables scattered about various college common rooms and I used to rotate them on a monthly basis. I rented the pool tables to the student unions rather than split the take because to avoid paying the students would put plastic cups down the pockets to catch the balls. Those were good old days.

[@speedbird737]

I'm playing Asteroids now (and the version after) on my AtGames Arcade Legends stand up machine - just brilliant! oh and space invaders too - did you do what I'm doing by keeping a few asteroids on the screen (not clear the level) and then just waiting for the space ships to appear and then pick them off to bump up the points. I do the same with Battlezone too!

[@MsPaintMr]

Mark my words, either this channel or Big Car will explode someday. Your videos are simply too good to be ignored.

[@LittleCar]

Too kind!

[@cattysplat]

My dad told me when he first saw Space Invaders in 1979, he knew the world would never be the same, it would convince everyone to get interested in computers to see what they could do. The old world was so analogue and painfully grounded in printed reality, but digital computer sounds, visuals and games, it's alien digital world offered a new frontier outside of books, moving picture and theatre. The idea that you could even interact with visuals on a screen immediately that would react to your actions that wasn't just a number was incredibly shocking, such hallowed honor was only for important people who controlled national TV networks, cinemas and publishers.

[@MrWobble666]

I love your Big Car channel. But your spin off Small Car channel is fantastic too. So many interesting little retro features, and so diverse. A great pair of channels that I look forward to seeing on my subscription list. Thank you. ..... I'm firing up MAME now to have a little retro session of Space Invaders. There may have been licenced versions, copies, etc, but nothing beats the original.

[@LittleCar]

I've been playing the Atari version since working on this video, and I'm up to around 6,000 before I get killed. And I spent too many 10p's and quarters on the arcade game when it was launched. I think Space Invaders has been somewhat overlooked compared to games like Pacman.

[@MrWobble666]

@@LittleCar I don't want to think about the amount of 10p's I've put in to arcade machines over my formative years. Space Invaders is so mind bogglingly simple. Left, right, and fire. So simple. Yet it's a great game of risk and reward - shooting the Invaders, the flying saucers for extra points, working out patterns of Invaders to shoot, ducking and diving behind the bases. Pacman took the concept of risk and reward further, but Space Invaders is the Grandaddy of them, and all that came after.

[@KenanTurkiye]

...and how foolish I was to think life was a long venture, it is as if it was yesterday that I was playing Space Invaders with so much joy. Enjoying these videos, both good nostalgia and also a gateway to philosophical thoughts. :) 👍

[@KenanTurkiye]

3:35 yup, played on the table version too.

[@kkrau788]

This was my arcade game of choice in the early '80s. I recall there was some known algorithm that circulated by word-of-mouth among Space Invader fans by which you could maximize your score by hitting the passing space ships at the top on a certain count of firing. It was something like you would fire 20 shots to clear the bottom rows of invaders plus path up to the top. Then you would wait for the space ship to go by and hit it with the 21st shot to get the maximum possible value. I don't remember if that pattern just repeated or if subsequent counts were slightly different, but you could jump your score significantly by counting your shots as you played. This video brings back memories...

[@Oliverdobbins]

I had the Atari 2600 version. I remember one day she stormed into the room and switched it off while my brother and I were playing. We had finally driven her mad with the hours and hours and hours and hours of the sounds of Space Invaders.

[@wizzard5442]

She? Your mother, right?

[@jcharmaine1]

@@wizzard5442 right? Adrian isn't being specific

[@cattysplat]

Same thing happened to me as a kid with my Nintendo. Drove her so mad on the living room TV she bought me my own TV. Luckily it was the early 90s so small TVs were cheap then. I never left my room for much after that.

[@CoryAtRandom]

I put a lot of quarters in that cabinet back in the day 😁

[@shaunw9270]

Space Invaders ! Very interesting 👍

[@bluetarantulaproductions6179]

Space Invaders is one of my favorite arcade games ever created

[@herseem]

Well, I got tired of space invaders pretty quickly, but I like Galaxians and my favourite from that era was Defender - that had multiple elements that took it to a higher level, such as the long-range scanner, that now every first person shooter game has

[@meggalavk3ktt]

thanks nice in grained memories coming back after 40+ years played the game for many hours at the local takeaway and got over 10 000 point many times.... ah the miss spent youth.

[@michael1234252]

Now do a story on Taito's Qix game. I grew up playing Qix on my Gameboy and to this day I still want to play a few rounds on an original 1981 Arcade Cabinet.

[@samirpetrocelli6583]

Simplicity is a key aspect of genius

[@nottjohn9418]

I had a cabinet one at home in the 80s. I remember I sold it for £80.

[@samwinchester7844]

Thank you for the video. Space Invaders and PacMan were my first introduction to computer games in the early 1990s, it was on an MS-DOS computer. I thought it was magic! With basic hardware and operating system, the programmers had to write very efficient code to use only a few KBs of source code and runtime memory usage. This video is a tribute to the early game designers.

[@bi-hansub-zero8978]

Thanx For Interesting Info :)

[@catbreath007]

The arcade I used to go to had their table top machined on a nasty purple nylon carpet, I discovered that if you dragged your feet as you walked from machine to machine you'd build up a good static charge ..... and when you touched the metal framework of the arcade game you got a free credit ! The hack quickly spread and the place was soon full of kids dragging their feet. After a few weeks the owner realised what was going on and then he stood all the machines on plastic sheets 😢

[@Zmoneeey]

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's an awesome story! Kids will always find a way.... amazing how far video game technology has come

[@mrnexus8seven949]

Fab. Love these videos! Esp like retro gaming and diecast toys ... well, past time toys of any type really. Action Man would be very interesting.

[@thomasfrancis5747]

Brilliant video with mindboggline definitive detail as ever. I remember being in Las Vegas in 1979 and spent a grand total of 50 cents on slot machines - 2 games of Space Invaders. Could you consider doing a video on a potted history of microcomputers?

[@jeffcanyafixiy]

How is it I am I just finding your channel, GREAT video, great content, clear, concise. New sub. 👍👍

[@LittleCar]

Thanks and welcome!

[@williamharris8367]

In about 1980, I encountered a Japanese Space Invaders arcade cabinet at a Sears store here in Canada. It only lasted there for a short time. I do not recall the details of the art, but it was mostly shades of purple and labeled with Japanese characters.

[@WaterShowsProd]

Still my favourite video game.

[@gpz550a2]

Very informative! Between this channel and Big Car you seem to have a knack for covering all topics that I'm interested in. Please can you cover something Sinclair Spectrum related? I cut my computing teeth on one back in the day (if you don't count the Vic20 we had at school...). Then there's the Lego... Cheers and keep up the fantastic work! 🙂👍

[@LittleCar]

Ah - two of my specialist subjects! Anything in particular?

[@gpz550a2]

With the Spectrum the games were the big draw for most kids but the tech behind the programming and the limitations that they gave (colour clash on sprites, trying to play snooker was made difficult because it couldn't produce the colour brown, the fecking annoying killer death loop in Jet Set Willy etc). It would be great to understand how some programmers tried to push the limit of what the device could do (Ghostbusters game actually had a brief bit of speech in it). Plus all the interface units you could get (currah speech, Kempston, interface2 etc) to expand the capabilities. Also how did they make it so compact compared with its peers? Then there's BASIC programming! Hours spent typing in lists of code only to find that it didn't work and you had to trawl through the list to see where it went wrong! Ah, those were the days...! I know this is a huge undertaking but maybe it could be split down? Only a suggestion and with your style of delivery I would think a very interesting and informative set of topics.

[@gurumeditation8911]

The shape of that spaceship..

[@jcharmaine1]

Sus

[@speedbird737]

I'm playing this now on my AtGames Arcades Legend machine!

[@MicrobyteAlan]

We used to play this on VAXs after hours in the lab. Thanks

[@theshowman8478]

Ha ha, we used to play this on HP3000 terminals in lunch breaks (and no managers around :-) )

[@rudolphguarnacci197]

Great game. Successor to "Pong"

[@johndoyle4723]

Definitely a game changer.

[@darrensmith6999]

Ahh Simper times. Thank You (:

[@wizzard5442]

They were. SI was my first foray into "computers"....that I can remember

[@speedbird737]

I recall seeing space invaders in Spain in the arcades when it first came out - you couldn't get to watch as there were lots of people crowding around the machine - the sound was fantastic with the deep bassy movement of the invaders. I recall the machine having the plastic strips to create the colour effect. Oh if anyone wants to know how it was very easy to get the Atair 2600 space invaders into double firing mode! Pac man I recall was very popular when it came out and the other I recall was Dragons Lair.

[@shaneeslick]

G'day, Cool video on the creation & longevity of the game, I don't know if you have heard it but there was an Australian Band called Player One & they released a song called Space Invaders, which is about playing the game, it is available to view on KZbin: Player One - Space Invaders (1980)

[@azariayehezkel9064]

Nice

[@gamelian]

Proud i'm a character of Space invaders 🙂

[@oubrioko]

Who else is frustrated that the person playing _Space Invaders_ in this video, clearly doesn't know the pattern? 😵

[@hoodagooboy5981]

I saw they hit their buildings as much as the Invaders did.

[@TotoFrancey]

Man. I was about to make the same comment but you beat me to it. Whoever demonstrated how to play "Space Invaders" in this video totally sucked. I'm not very good at video games but this person makes me look like a professional.

[@KenanTurkiye]

lol

[@zuknot]

The video was stolen. Space Invaders 1978 - Arcade Gameplay - posted 2015.

[@andyh5666]

Going to sound like a contradiction, but a mate has the original Space Invaders pinball machine. Its a great game.

[@elbecko7969]

I remember my sister had space invaders or something very similar in about 1987-89 which was a cassette tape that you inserted into a Lloydtron deck that I think was connected to a keyboard and either a monitor or tv. Anyone know what system that was? It was probably quite old by then and had "fallen off the back of a lorry"

[@378-V8]

Back to the future of gaming! D/A/G

[@mnmgfdhjiuyzxcasdqwere7786]

It's interesting to see how closely together Midway worked with Taito and Namco.

[@davidpeters6536]

If the game speeding up was what made it exciting. I was a good at the first and second gens and could stay on through several "clockings". I even had a following who would come and watch! My girlfriend was good at Galaxian.Yes there was a trick to it but you needed to be good to do it. Does anyone remember the UFO machines of 1970-71 that you sat in?

[@SmashCatRandom]

The "full colour" version wasn't really any different to having coloured gel over a black and white screen, apart from it being able to turn all-red. Otherwise it just had fixed blocks of colour that worked like an overlay. Basically the output hardware would change the colour at set timings to create blocks of colour, like an overlay, or just leave it all red. It couldn't show colours wherever it wanted outside of the fixed blocks :) Must have caused pretty bad screen burn after a few years...

[@BennysBenz]

I use to play this on my TI994A it was called TI invaders 😀

[@oubrioko]

When you got really good at it, you could hit that spaceship so many times a row that it became a tiny dot. "Merrily Aggressive" or "Downright Nasty." Ah, the good ol' days.

[@BrianSmith-vl7xu]

I spent many a coin in the local fastfood shop on this.

[@LittleCar]

Me too!

[@spaceinvader1996]

Still invading in 2020

[@Neil-Aspinall]

Space Invaders always reminds me of my younger days living in Sydney Australia. There was a machine in a laundromat that I used to use and quite often a woman with only one arm used to play it. To make it fair her GF also used to play one armed against her.

[@LittleCar]

How did that work?!? Did they think of playing it together?

[@Neil-Aspinall]

@@LittleCar From memory (it was the very early 80's) they only played separately and were very successful.

[@absinthedude]

The first "video game" I ever played, a hotel in Newquay had the cocktail cabinet in 1979 or 1980. My parents would give me a quid in 10p's and bog off for an hour.

[@stephenbrown4164]

Can u do a space invaders on universal's cosmic monsters 1 and part 2?

[@LittleCar]

I wasn't aware of this game. Here's a good overview of it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWHPfnSPmsaKp80

[@SaturnCanuck]

Not sure if this fits within the parameters of the channel but I liked it

[@LittleCar]

There are no parameters!

[@SaturnCanuck]

@@LittleCar Awesome!

[@SaturnCanuck]

@@LittleCar I would love to see Airfix models and Matchbox models.

[@LittleCar]

@@SaturnCanuck I've already done Matchbox!

[@SaturnCanuck]

@@LittleCar I meant the model kits. Or am I just forgetting. Airfix though

[@jensonx9507]

I searched this up bc my dad always talks about this saying that I should stop playing x box and i asked him u whent to ur m8 house at 5:00 am everyday to play his friends space invaders and the main reason bc I went to my local arcade and played space invaders I thought that space Invaders was really diffrent I thought it was basically dead and nobody played it but I sat the there for a year grinding on that game on my ipod

[@flatfingertuning727]

Space Invaders wasn't the first coin operated video game to feature targets that shot at the player. Computer Space behaved in that fashion six years earlier.

[@sentimentalbloke185]

It's hard to explain to the young folk what a big deal this was when it was released.

[@LittleCar]

So true.

[@wizzard5442]

@@LittleCar Ditto

[@TheWacoKid1963]

Was there also a Space Invaders 2. In Invaders 2 you had to get from the bottom of the screen to the top whilst avoiding objects and rescue people and return them to the bottom of the screen whilst again, avoiding objects, or have I dreamt it all? Ps I'm not thinking of Defender

[@mattjackson9859]

You're thinking of Lunar Rescue!

[@TheWacoKid1963]

@@mattjackson9859 Thanks Matt, You're correct, I've just looked the game up on Wiki

[@toneskill]

scrambler

[@colinwatson4172]

The Atari version was ok. Pitfall and river raid were my faves. Space invaders and pac man had to be played on holiday in the arcade.

[@davidbravo8073]

0:10 it's pronounced "TA-ee-TOE" (/tɑitoʊ/)

[@LighthouseCape]

Just a small thing but the company name is pronounced similar to "tie-toh", not "tae-toh" ;)

[@albyrattrayx4265]

Space invaders uuh weh uuh weh

[@silvermane9370]

Something on the spectrum?

[@Robert-nz2qw]

*vertically

[@MisterTechnologic]

Vertical* laser

[@epicon6]

Not Teito, Taito 😊

[@Phantompodreal]

I hate my life!!!!!!

[@wclifton968gameplaystutorials]

If your really going to rival Ahoy! then you'll need to spend 6 months on making each video... I'm talking about Stuart Brown aka "Ahoy"/"xboxahoy" - kzbin.info

[@beemail6983]

You should do the ira story, the unlikely heros who humbled the british

[@BrianSmith-vl7xu]

sounds like as much fun as the ird.

[@AtheistOrphan]

Bee Mail - But they couldn’t spell ‘heroes’ correctly.