Trying to figure out the name of this 80's shooter game.

Kehbal

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  • It consists of
    • Joystick + fire button: Classic arcade control.
    • Player ship moves left to right: Fixed shooter format.
    • Bugs load from the top like a conveyor belt, move horizontally, then drop into vertical lanes. After a while they drop from these lanes.
    • Dropped enemies cause horizontal explosions that can destroy the player.
    • A UFO enemy appears from the center or edges and is lethal if it lands.
      Might have been made for the atari 8-bit at one time?
 
Another vote for Astro Invader here. And a plug for it.
It's such a fun game with hidden scoring advantages (if you shoot a landing UFO on a multiple of 4 shots, you get bonus points).

I've had several people glance at it and say "oh it's like space invaders".... ummmm... galaga is more like space invaders.
such a hidden gem that most people, even collectors, don't know about.
 
Bingo. Appears in Tom Petty's "You Got Lucky" video.

Not only do I love Astro Invader, but "You Got Lucky" is my favorite Tom Petty song!

I remember thinking when I was a kid that it looked so cool to knock over an arcade game!.... not so much today, though. Lol.

Also... something I didn't know until just now, according to the flyer, Astro Invader was Stern's first arcade game!
 
As soon as you said lanes, I knew it was Astro Invader also.

Sidenote, I have an OG astro invader Cab (one of the only Sterns to have dedicated sideart instead of generic red STERN)
It is painted black, but I removed some of the paint and the original artwork is under there and looks to be in good shape.

Just got a bunch of cabs out of the ways so its accessible again and would love to find a new home for it, I was going to fully strip and restore the sides and then it got buried in the stash, so now it needs a new home.
 
As soon as you said lanes, I knew it was Astro Invader also.

Sidenote, I have an OG astro invader Cab (one of the only Sterns to have dedicated sideart instead of generic red STERN)
It is painted black, but I removed some of the paint and the original artwork is under there and looks to be in good shape.

Just got a bunch of cabs out of the ways so its accessible again and would love to find a new home for it, I was going to fully strip and restore the sides and then it got buried in the stash, so now it needs a new home.
Most people put on PPE before doing restorations.

I'm not sure you fully stripping will be comfortable if the paint stripper gets in the wrong place.
 
Another vote for Astro Invader here. And a plug for it.
It's such a fun game with hidden scoring advantages (if you shoot a landing UFO on a multiple of 4 shots, you get bonus points).

I've had several people glance at it and say "oh it's like space invaders".... ummmm... galaga is more like space invaders.
such a hidden gem that most people, even collectors, don't know about.
It's a complete pet peeve of mine "oh it's a Pac-Man ripoff!" Or "It's a Space Invaders rip-off." Well, you know what Battlefield 6 is?? It's a Wolfenstein 3D rip-off. In fact, all FPS shooters from the last 30 years rip off Wolfenstein. 2 can play at that game.
 
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