------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *********************************SPACE INVADERS******************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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those confused with the Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders, or just to show that people still play these extremely outdated games in the year 2004.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 gamecollector101@yahoo.com (email), or purpleredchicken (AIM). --------------------- | Table of Contents | --------------------- 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 ------------- | The Story | ------------- 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! ------------------------------- | Interesting Triva Knowledge | ------------------------------- -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. ---------------------- | Setup and controls | ---------------------- 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. ----------- | Scoring | ----------- 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. -------------------------------- | Variations (all 112 of them) | -------------------------------- 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. ---------------- ONE PLAYER GAMES ---------------- BASIC GAMES - Numbers 1-16 - Just all the single player game variations. ------------------------- TWO OPPOSING PLAYER GAMES ------------------------- 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. -------------------------- TWO PARTNERED PLAYER GAMES -------------------------- 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. -------------- THE CHALLENGES -------------- 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. ------------------- THE CHART (Finally) ------------------- 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. ------------------ | Hints and Tips | ------------------ 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. --------------------- | Legal mumbo jumbo | --------------------- 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. ----------- | Goodbye | ----------- 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/