Monday Game: Space Invaders (Atari 2600 & 800)

Screw the arcade. For me, there was only one Space Invaders, and it was on the Atari 2600. That's the cartridge famous for its mind-boggling 112 different variations, and that's not even counting that each player can switch between two difficulty levels within the game.

Remember that Wikipedia article I cited last week about killer apps? According to that, the release of Space Invaders quadrupled sales of the Atari 2600. And three years later, it was still enough in the public consciousness that it made an appearance in the original V miniseries, being played by a Visitor in a bit of a pop-culture pun.

I won't annotate the video of my play this week (at least, not more than I have in the video itself) except to say that this is probably my best-ever gave of Invisible Invaders.



And here's Space Invaders for the Atari 800 (and their other 8-bit computers). I didn't have this cartridge back in the day. I picked it up on eBay a couple years ago, but I haven't played it much. So it kind of surprised me, playing it for the video, how quick and smooth the movement of the little base is. I guess I was expecting the somewhat more restrained (or maybe that's constrained) pace of the 2600 version.