Wow, found this on location in Bakersfield, CA

No starry background or color strips either...top part of the screen should be reddish-orange. Looks like it's in decent shape.
 
Yes it is an iconic game. The sound is the most memorable part for me.

My brief ownership of a Space Invaders game consisted of picking it up for free, having a monitor sync problem, not knowing how to fix it and selling the game for a tidy $100 profit.
 
That's cool. My favorite game of all time...

And the most ICONIC video game ever made.

http://brentradio.com/SpaceInvaders.htm

Discuss amongst yourselves...

:D

I love a lot of other classics too, but for me, it absolutely started with the original SI (I was seven and it was 1978), at a restaurant called County Line Inn, in Montgomery, NJ (that SI was a nice one...had a transitional multicolor overlay, wasn't just the standard reddish-orange on top and the green on bottom). Then an ice cream/burger joint about a mile from my house got one right around the same time, so I got to play a lot of SI as a child. Took me a long time to finally clear a board, but I was thrilled when I finally managed it. Then about a year later, at a diner in Lawrenceville NJ, I played SI Deluxe for the first time. Blew my 9-year-old mind. Also made my father furious when I inhaled my fried chicken dinner (barely chewing) so I could go play more SI Deluxe ASAP. Pretty much cemented my father's hate for video games. He also created a new rule: one dollar each for me and my bro, as far as arcade games went in restaurants. Once we spent it all...that was it. GAME OVER, quite literally. I remember thinking after playing a couple of games of SI Deluxe, "Man, I want one of those someday!" Never thought it would actually happen, roughly 35 years after those first plays.

Speaking of SI Deluxe, how do you feel about that one?

To me, it was a perfect early example of what a sequel should be...similar gameplay, but with all of the right tweaks and improvements to make things just a bit different, and more importantly, more challenging. The Mystery and Flashing ship dropping reinforcements; the splitter invaders; the invader formations that changed as you cleared screens; the 500/800/1000 bonuses awarded for making a 10-point invader in the lower two rows the last kill of a given screen (great risk/reward addition)...it's these changes that made me opt to buy a SI Deluxe machine over a SI. Also loved the moonbase and supernova background.

That being said, SI Deluxe can definitely have more of a grinding feel to it...the formations from Level 2 on in Deluxe (Level 4 on in SI Part II) have a lot of 30-point invaders (and splitter "offspring" invaders), which leads to a lot of blocked shots...sometimes 3 or 4 in a row. It can get a little irritating. That's why I'm glad I have fine versions of the original SI on my Arcade SD and Xbox (Taito Legends). Sometimes I want a "simpler" game of SI, where I'm just trying to clear boards without the extra fluff you get in SI Deluxe.

But nothing can beat that bassy four-note thump that you can only get with a proper SI, SI Part II, or SI Deluxe cabinet. Even in 2017, it still rocks.
 
why is this thread worthy? Honest question. Are there no more SI on location?
 
I think you mean "low"...

:)

But yeah, there aren't a lot of Space Invader machines still left out there running (other than in collectors possession). I know there is a bar in Idaho that has one... I was mine. I miss it. I wish I never sold it. :(
 
I think the Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders was better.

That was really the game that got people to buy the console in huge numbers.

I played SI in the arcade. Like others, my parents thought video games were a waste of money and never gave me money to play them. As I recall I never got past 3 or 4 waves on the arcade game.
 
I think the Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders was better.

That was really the game that got people to buy the console in huge numbers.

I played SI in the arcade. Like others, my parents thought video games were a waste of money and never gave me money to play them. As I recall I never got past 3 or 4 waves on the arcade game.

Back then, all you could really hope for was kinda-sorta for a home conversion of a current arcade title...you just hoped that the basic game mechanics were still there, despite the fact that you knew the visuals were going to take a big hit.

I could never pick 2600 SI over the original arcade version...but one thing that Atari used to do quite nicely (especially early on) was try to make up for the gap in home and arcade tech with a LOT of game variations. The "normal" version of 2600 SI (visible invaders, slow straight missiles, stationary barriers, and the Difficulty B setting for the player's laser base) was very easily conquered...but once you started messing around with invisible invaders, fast and/or curving missiles, moving barriers, and the Difficulty A setting for the player's laser base (making it twice as wide)...you could make 2600 SI EXTREMELY difficult. A lot of creative two player options as well (Player 1 controls the laser base, then Player 2, or Player 1 moves while Player 2 fires, or both players each have their own base on the screen at the same time, etc).

For what on the surface seemed like a very primitive version of SI, Atari did a hell of a job creating a home version that still has some appeal to this day...at the very least, it will always be memorable as the first true "killer app" for the home market. It was the reason I wanted a 2600 so badly as a 10-year-old in 1980...and why I was the happiest kid in the neighborhood on 12/25/1980, when that was my #1 Xmas present. That was my equivalent of Ralphie's Red Rider BB gun for sure.
 
Thanks for sharing.
I fell for someone's lie of it's "My grail" and I lost mine it.
But
I finally acquired another space invaders. It is a lot more beaten up than the last one but I am no stranger to beaten and broken games laughs.
I was not worry about the guts of the cab since I do have the inside guts of a space invaders :) . I wonder if the seller realized that I bought the guts from him a few Year before i bought the cab.

I just need to find a reasonable price on a control panel that isn't beaten up to heck. I hate those soft control panels on a space invaders.
 
that would have motivated me to drop a quarter.

I still remember my first exposure to Space Invaders. It was a cocktail machine in a dark Pizza Hut parlour.
man, it mesmerized me especially with the bass thumps.


One of the Atari flashbacks, maybe 5?, issued a retro version of arcade space invaders, it is really fun.
 
that would have motivated me to drop a quarter.

I still remember my first exposure to Space Invaders. It was a cocktail machine in a dark Pizza Hut parlour.
man, it mesmerized me especially with the bass thumps.


One of the Atari flashbacks, maybe 5?, issued a retro version of arcade space invaders, it is really fun.

Just saw a couple of youtube videos of the Atari Flashback "arcade" SI (it's clearly using the SI color version as its inspiration). It's not terribly accurate...way too many aspects are off.
 
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