Space Invaders Deluxe 8k

[Nukey Shay]

Actually, I looked at the code sample assemblies for AtariVox speech. I couldn't figure it out

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[uosipa llamxew]

Here is a small windows program that lets you construct small sentences to hear how they might sound on the VecVoice hardware (the "Wordmaker" folder needs to be in the root of C: to work). The program displays bits of hex as you go. I have no idea how different the Vecvox is from the Atarivox, but I'm hoping that this might give some insight to how it is working.

[MaximRecoil]

That has got to be the best version of Space Invaders I have ever played. It plays very similar to the original 1980 Atari one using the two shots in the air at a time - power on while holding reset trick (which was excellent in its own right) with much improved graphics and sounds. I actually do not like the arcade versions or Space Invaders or Space Invaders Deluxe because of too many annoying things diluting the fun, such as the one shot in the air at a time thing, the way your fire is cancelled out by enemy fire it they cross paths, and the high number of shots required to fire through your own barriers. It is frustrating and slow paced.

 

For me, 99.9% of the time, If there is an arcade version and a console port, the arcade version is superior in graphics, sound and entertainment value. Space Invaders is one of those rare exceptions in that I have always preferred the Atari 2600 version and this one of yours is an improvement on that. Excellent job.

 

So this is an 8K game? Can it be put on a regular Atari cartridge and played in a regular Atari 2600?

[Nukey Shay]

The binary can be burned to an eprom chip and played from a real cartridge...as well as being playable through all 2600 emulators and hardware loading devices (though the Supercharger can only use the 4k version that lacks the graphics updates mentioned in this thread...that version is available here).

BTW the right difficulty switch toggles the double-shots...you can set it on A for a more challenging game :wink:

[MaximRecoil]

The binary can be burned to an eprom chip and played from a real cartridge...as well as being playable through all 2600 emulators and hardware loading devices

Yeah, I was playing it in an emulator and it worked great. Is there anyone who offers the service of putting games on cartridges and possibly, can make custom labels? I wish this site could still do that. There are a lot of great hacks on here that I would like to have on cartridge and I don't have an eeprom burner.

BTW the right difficulty switch toggles the double-shots...you can set it on A for a more challenging game

Excellent. I was thinking that might be the case but I'm not sure how to access the difficulty switches in MESS .89 so I couldn't check it out when I was playing it last night.

[Nukey Shay]

Another test version:

This one allows palette switching, using the color/B&W switch (yes, it should work on the 7800 as well). But a few glitches remain...

 

- Pressing select or reset will momentarily flip palettes...this glitch will clear once the switch is let go.

 

- When the shields disappear, the ground area will be bumped down 1 scanline. This does not affect the total number displayed (remains at a constant 262).

 

- The "players remaining" digit will appear in light tan instead of red in PAL mode.

 

- During intermissions, "S.O.S." will appear as "O!S!S!". This problem appeared before, but I can't recall what I did to correct it

sideluxe.zip

[Nukey Shay]

Intermission text corrected

sideluxe.zip

[Nukey Shay]

Bugfixes:

The ground no longer shifts around when the shields disappear.

Also, the 200 points being collected by the opposite player (in co-op games) has been fixed...this was being saved to the player blown up!

 

Renamed it to keep it seperate from the final 4k version in the database

8k_sideluxe.zip

[Nukey Shay]

Another small addition:

The game can be paused during the intermission by pressing either trigger. Press one again to resume.

8k_sideluxe.zip

[Nukey Shay]

Final version candidate?

8k_sideluxe.zip

[Robert M]

Final version candidate?

 

That's very good! If I may make one small complaint about a feature inherited from the original. I never liked that it starts you on the extreme left edge of movement permitted to the base. On the later levels if that one alien fires immediately it can be impossible to dodge the shot. Could you consider shifting the starting position of the base off the edge?

 

Thanks!

[Nukey Shay]

That can't happen in a normal game...you always have the opportunity of running right out there in game 1 (one player) or game 17 (2 players). Even if that lowest invader in the 2nd column fires, it's missile will miss you off to your left as you scoot right under him. Since you are positioned between 2 columns, you could even stay still and the missile will miss you off to your right (tho it's better to just run under to take advantage of the free shot). But I agree with you that in other game options the game becomes one of luck when the invaders are that low.

One possibility would be to make both invader missiles active beyond the markers right at the start of each wave (so that you have a breather before they are allowed to fire again)...but that might make the game too easy...allowing you to clear the bottom row right at the start with no opposition at all.

[Nukey Shay]

RE:

"But I agree with you that in other game options the game becomes one of luck when the invaders are that low."

 

Speaking about the left player anyway. When playing the yellow base in 2-player games, all the invaders are off to your left. So a compromise would be just to play with the yellow base

[Lord Helmet]

Someone have a label idea for this one?

[Nukey Shay]

Altered the hit sounds...in addition, a short tune will play when the rainbow bonus appears (it's actually the colorbar data saved as musical notes!).

Opinons?

8k_sideluxe.zip

[Nukey Shay]

Could you consider shifting the starting position of the base off the edge?

Compromise:

I made the missiles shorter...which should make the other game options a bit less lethal

8k_sideluxe.zip

[Nukey Shay]

Altered the rainbow bonus sound.

 

Been a year now...time to move on

8k_sideluxe.zip

[Nukey Shay]

A few more tweaks:

 

Found out what I was doing wrong with the intermission texts...so the "engine trouble" caption works now. So I went ahead and added the animation for the 2nd intermission.

 

The game now features true shot counting...ticking off by one each time you fire. Although I could have used arcade values, it was quite a number of shots to fire between saucers...too many for "UFO hunting". So I kept that at 16 total shots.

Recap: The counter begins at 1 in a new game, and rolls over after 15 more shots. While this counter is at zero, the flashing saucer will appear instead of the regular one. Like the arcade game, shots fired while a UFO is on the screen count as well...but a UFO already on the screen will remain unchanged. Unlike the arcade game, the counter is NOT reset on each board (so you'll need to keep track of them yourself).

 

I had a few bits of ram left, so I fixed the color/b&w PAL toggle to include the 7800 autodetect routine

8k_Space_Invaders_Deluxe.zip

[Nukey Shay]

Still filling up the unused space.

 

A few more cosmetic changes:

 

I added 2-frame animation to the intermissions and fixed up the new one a bit.

 

When the player is hit, all sprites turn red (similar to Part II's deal).

 

The game keeps track of high scores when playing single-player or co-operative games. The value on the right will switch to a red color to signify this. But there's a catch The high score is obviously cleared when you power down or select a different variation, but currently only the first 16 co-operative games work with it (variations 64-80)...that still needs to be ironed out. And in addition, your score is rendered invalid to replace the high score if the invaders reach the ground (the routine is sitting under the instruction that removes lives one at a time). I suppose that one could be considered a "feature"...a penalty for allowing them to get there

8k_Space_Invaders_Deluxe.zip

[Nukey Shay]

High score feature corrected.

 

In addition:

 

The game now keeps track if you shot the first column...so the rainbow bonus is true to the arcade game (leftmost column has 2 bonus invaders...the lowest @ 1000 and the next one up @ 500...while all of the other columns only have the 500 point bonus when you get the lowest one last).

 

There's 2 shot counters in a 2-player competition game. Both with a value of 1 at the start of a game (and you still need to keep track yourself level-to-level).

 

The pulsing invader has been added to one of the center lines. Invaders don't split, but I might as well get it in there

 

The motherships are always active (Atari's version stops sending them out if the number remaining is less than .

 

The markers also indicate the number of lives remaining. A bit fudged when player 2 is up (the lives are removed when player 2 loses a life). Don't have a solution for this one yet

 

The title display has been altered a bit. You can skip it by moving a stick. If you move the player 2 stick down intermissions will be disabled

 

The original SI bug is corrected that shows player 2 having 1 life left at the end of a game.

8K_Space_Invaders_Deluxe.zip

[uosipa llamxew]

Just a quick note/correction... Atariage's silly emoticons got in the way:

 

Atari's version stops sending them out if the number remaining is less than 8.

[Pacfan97]

Awesome! I really like the graphics!

 

[MaximRecoil]

Someone have a label idea for this one?

 

How about this?

 

 

I've also attached a vectorized version of the image.

sid_main_and_top_label_exp.pdf

Edited April 30, 2010 by MaximRecoil

[awace]

Cool I found a link I was looking for today here it is it explains DELUXE walk thoughs and info you wanted.

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=12743

 

 

Cheats, Tricks and Bugs

On any wave, if the last alien you kill is from the bottom two rows you will get a special 'fireworks' display and a 500 point bonus. If the bottom leftmost invader is the last killed, the bonus is 1,000 points.

 

The number of points you get for the solid flying saucer (50 - 300) depends on how many shots you have fired in the wave. The 23rd shot and every 15th thereafter is worth 300 points if it hits the saucer.

 

When there are eight or fewer invaders left, the flying saucers no longer appear.

 

During the attract mode demo, repeatedly press the left, right, fire, 1 player start and 2 player start buttons simultaneously as fast as you can. After a few seconds the message "TAITO CORP." will appear beneath the high score.

I got my sit down machine to do the TAITO CORP once a long time ago .. anyway I hope this info helps

also more

As the game progresses, provided there is 'room' for more invaders on the top row, the flying saucers will drop more invaders that will 'land' in the top row, (as noted below in the gameplay description). If you are able to shoot an invader as it drops from the flying saucer, (but before it 'lands' in the top row), the invader will not disappear as it usually would after being shot, instead it will 'fall', sideways, but very much intact, to the bottom of the playfield. Points scored for this anomaly are unconfirmed. The invader remains at the bottom of the playfield, and will chip away like the shields, by invader fire. It will remain there until the invader fire chips it away completely or until the wave is completed. Also unconfirmed is if you can let the falling invader hit your laser base. What is known is that once the invader has fallen, your laser base can pass right through the invader, it no longer threatens the base or hampers it in any way.

Game Play

The basic mechanics of play for the Space Invaders genre is simple: move your laser base left or right along the bottom of the screen and shoot the endless waves of aliens descending towards you. Their relentless march quickens as fewer and fewer aliens (each worth 30, 20 or 10 points, depending which type it is) remain. In this game, the best defense is a good offense -- your only other protection being four stationary shields which slowly get blown away by both you and the invaders. Besides aliens, you can also target the occasional flying saucer which traverses the top of the screen.

 

For Space Invaders Deluxe, a few twists were added to this time-honored classic to make it more interesting and difficult. There are two different flying saucers. For example, one is steadily visible and worth a 'random' number of points between 50 and 300, the other blinks in and out and can only be hit when visible for 200 points. From the second wave on, various other features appear such as invaders that split into two when you shoot them and flying saucers that drop alien reinforcements.

Miscellaneous

 

Manufacturer: Midway Manufacturing Co.

Year: 1980 - 1980

Class: Wide Release

Genre: Space

Type: Videogame

 

Monitor:

 

* Orientation: Vertical

* Type: Raster: Standard Resolution

* CRT: Black and White with a Color Overlay

 

Conversion Class: Midway 8080

Number of Simultaneous Players: 1

Maximum number of Players: 2

Gameplay: Alternating

Control Panel Layout: Single Player

 

Sound: Amplified Mono (one channel)

anyway there is not mutch more info to give about SPace invaders EXEPT that I found a easter egg in it self in that on the original arcade pcb both deluxe and regular boards MIDWAYS at least If you short pin a2 pin 5 to ground instead of shorting center tap to gnd on slam switch it TILTS saving high score and credits... I have done this to my cabinet witch you can see in the picture... Its a non deluxe cabinet but has the deluxe pcb board set I was going to convert it back to non deluxe space invaders but making 9316 rom set to work in a TMS2716 configuration would require soldering custom double piggy back sockets and be to mutch of a pain in the but so ill leave it deluxe.PART II..

E ANYWAY it looks great nukey what ever you choose to do to space invaders is going to be better than Atari had in 1979 for the 2600..

Edited July 19, 2010 by awace

[NE146]

Cool I found a link I was looking for today here it is it explains DELUXE walk thoughs and info you wanted.

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=12743

 

There's actually a little bit of erroneous info on that page when it says:

This game is the American version of Taito's Space Invaders Part II that has the same cabinet design but a different, though still predominantly red, paint job and monitor glass graphic. Part II does not use a color overlay, however. Instead, the program has color data and uses a color monitor. The only difference in gameplay between the two is the point value of the blinking saucer: 500 in Part II, only 200 in Deluxe.

 

The original Taito SI Part 2 did in fact have a b&w display using a mirror on a color overlay just like the original Taito SI part 1. However this version was rarely seen in the states & the UK so that's why there's a lot of confusion on the net about it. The UK upright version did use a color monitor but without a mirror.

 

Taito SI Part 2 had a pretty spectacular bright red background and was really beautiful.. but it's impossible to find any pics of the playfield on the net as far as I can tell. Everything you find is just the SI Deluxe background.