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Space Invaders

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About Space Invaders

In 1978, video game arcades across the world were invaded by a two-dimensional fixed shooter game called "Space Invaders", and ushered in what many video game enthusiasts consider to have been a golden age for video games. Compared to the contemporary video games, "Space Invaders" does not appear to amount to much; yet, in the '80s, and well into the '90s, "Space Invaders" hoovered up kids' pocket money faster than their parents could dish it out. The game amounts to a player controlling a laser cannon, which is fired at aliens descending from the top of the screen. The player can move the cannon back and forth horizontally. The point of the game is to destroy five rows of aliens, sometimes more, depending on the version of the video game. The aliens do not just descend in a straight line. They, too, move across the screen horizontally. The more aliens that are destroyed, the higher the score, and the faster the aliens descend. If the aliens reach the bottom of the screen, the aliens win and the game ends. Sometimes a special ship appears for a few seconds on the screen. The player can earn extra points by destroying this mystery ship. This seemingly endless loop of marauding aliens descending from the top of the screen is what makes "Space Invaders" so addictive. The little pixelated alien has become something of a pop icon, and original, functioning arcade cabinets for "Space Invaders" are highly prized by collectors of vintage video games. In 2005, the original "Space Invaders", "Space Invaders Part II", and "Return of the Invaders" became available on a game compilation for Playstation 2, Xbox, and PC.