0.156 [Seth Soffer]
WIP:
- 0.162: Osso added save state support to Alien Invaders.
- 0.156: Seth Soffer added 'Alien Invaders' (Forbes? 198?). Tiny bartop B&W Space Invaders type game with colour overlay. WIP [David Haywood]. Continued work on inputs/mapping for Alien Invaders [Mariusz Wojcieszek]. Added irq mask and irq, hangs attempting to play. Added f/f mechanism for irq, game works (lol?), added information about a very crude protection mechanism [Angelo Salese]. Added preliminary layout based on screenshot [Tafoid]. Pretty sure it's 4:3 vertical when compared with cab pics [hap].
- 18th November 2014: David Haywood - An external contributor 'Seth Soffer' discovered a Space Invaders game running on a tiny bartop cabinet using a 6502 CPU. He provided the following pictures, and a rom dump. There are a few things that stand out here, first of all the 6502 CPU, meaning it's definitely not running Taito Space Invaders code, that used an 8080 CPU. Second of all, the cabinet, it's tiny, as is the display (which is black and white with a colour overlay attached to the screen). The manufacturer of this unit is unknown, we're told the PCB is etched with 'Forbes' so that's our best guess. When it was manufactured is also unknown, externally it manages to look almost like some retro-contemporary item, but chances are it's not much newer than the original Space Invaders. Emulation also highlighted something else that you can maybe tell from the original photos. The screen resolution is very low, 128x128 pixels, something you'd associate more with a handheld device than an arcade machine. I did some of the emulation work, although the game jumped off into the weeds as soon as you generated an interrupt, Mariusz Wojcieszek noted that by simply returning in such a situation the game would run fine, so it's possibly some kind of protection (Kale speculates that it's a PROM). Maybe there is some other purpose to jumping there, like the address bus bits signalling some other hardware, I'm not sure. We could probably do with some clear PCB pictures to see what's there to either confirm or rule out various theories. The sound isn't emulated, again we don't know what generates it at this stage, could be discrete like the original Space Invaders, but without further PCB images I really don't know. Unlike Taito's Minivader (which was actually just a cabinet test board). I think this was intended as a full 'for arcade use' game, the tiny resolution actually makes it more of a Mini-vader than Mini-vader itself tho. The game plays well and is a respectable effort to file with the other odd releases based on Space Invaders using unexpected hardware. I think the only other one with a 6502 is 'Attack UFO' but that again is very different hardware, AFAIK based on similar hardware to the Commodore home systems.
Other Emulators:
* FB Alpha
Recommended Games (Space Invaders):
Space Invaders
Space Invaders Part II
Return of the Invaders
Space Invaders DX
Super Space Invaders '91
Space Invaders '95: The Attack Of Lunar Loonies
Space Invaders Anniversary
Space Invaders / Qix Silver Anniversary Edition
Space Invaders Multigame (M8.03D)
Space Invaders II
Space Stranger
The Invaders
Alpha Fighter / Head On
Invinco
Invinco / Deep Scan
Invinco / Head On 2
Rolling Crash / Moon Base
Space Attack
Space Attack / Head On
Space Fever
Space Fever High Splitter
Space Fighter Mark II
Space Guerrilla
Space King 2
Beam Invader
Fast Invaders
IPM Invader
Rotary Fighter
Shuttle Invader
Attack UFO
Space Intruder
Alien Invaders
Galaxy Games StarPak 3 (Astro Blast)
Alien Invaders (c) 198? Forbes.
A clone of Space Invaders except using own graphic characters. A B&W monitor with multiple color gels are used. Uses discrete computer-like sounds instead of the original discrete sounds from Taito or Bally/Midway.
- TECHNICAL -
There are two cabinet types available: upright and bar. The upright has the monitor mounted vertically while the bar version has the monitor mounted horizontally and must play with the player's ship on the right side, moving up and down to aim & avoid alien fire.
- CONTRIBUTE -
Edit this entry: https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=83472&o=2
