Talk:Space Invaders

Development inconsistencies

Marty, if you have any links or other sources that have conflicting stories about the development, post them here. I'll dig out the sources I had and try to find the article I found about his childhood dream. We'll sort them out and copy edit as needed before going to FAC. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 18:01, 18 September 2008 (UTC))

Found it. It's a GameSpy article, but it only says "supposedly". I think that's why I omitted it. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 18:34, 18 September 2008 (UTC))

Excessive categories

I meant to address this before sending it to GAN and FAC, but it slipped my mind. Anyway, there is an excessive amount of categories for this article; most of them hardly seem necessary. The ones that seem the most relevant are:

• 1978 video games
• Arcade games
• Fixed shooters
• Taito games
• Space Invaders.
• Atari 2600 games (maybe given the content in the article)

Everything else seems like it should go. Any thoughts? (Guyinblack25 ^talk 04:13, 27 September 2008 (UTC))

RE: Pop culture references

Just a minor thing, but the characters Ignignokt and Err (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) are directly derived from this game (moreso the 2600 version, but still...). If someone more familiar with the editing process wants to add that morsel to the article, it seems to me it would be justified, esp. considering the Lite Brite Mooninite bomb scare of a while back.

GoForthAndDie (talk) 19:57, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Do you have a source, like a magazine or news article, or ATHF production interview that states they are derived from the game? (Guyinblack25 ^talk 20:05, 9 October 2008 (UTC))

Hmm...Nothing that explicitly says "They are based on Atari 2600 Space Invaders", no (didn't look too long though, it isn't that big a deal to me). This site states they are representative of Atari 2600-era graphics (ATHF article, Mooninites sub-section), as do others. Sound effects associated with them come directly from the game. And, well, they look like Atari 2600 Space Invaders.

If you want to phrase it "appear to be based on ..." or somesuch, that's fine. If that's still pushing it, just forget it, I'll live.

GoForthAndDie (talk) 11:09, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

Given the lack of a reliable source, I think it's better to err on the side of caution and not include it. Otherwise it could be construed as original research. If you do happen to find a source, let use know so we can check it out. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 15:32, 11 October 2008 (UTC))

Another one: don't forget about music video from Royksopp 'Happy up here'. 95.25.137.139 (talk) 18:45, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

idle curiosity!

Anyone know if the reason for the invaders getting steadily faster as you destroyed them was actually because the CPU was working at full tilt to display them all, so the refresh rate was actually going up simply because there were less invaders to draw vs a fixed rate of invader drawing? (which may have either been fully intentional, or a mistake during development that they liked and decided to keep, or simply because there wasn't enough space in the code or leftover cycles to implement a decent constant-speed delay loop)

Totally apocryphal so far for me - it was something my dad, allegedly reformed arcade-Invaders (and two-button Breakout) addict, told me... 193.63.174.210 (talk) 19:15, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

This is a myth. SI code has intentional timing to control the speed of the aliens. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.117.174.82 (talk) 22:12, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Space Invaders: The Original Game

No mention of the Space Invaders that was recently released on the Wii's Virtual Console? Cooljeanius (talk) (contribs) 22:07, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

To my knowledge, that version is the SNES port of the arcade game. That'll have its own article. — KieferSkunk (talk) — 15:57, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Pacman 2600 orignal releace date

To my knolage Pacman was first releaced on the Atari 2600 in 1980, but for some reason or another, it says on gamespot[1] that it was first releaced 1978. This is the kind of senario that either wiki or gamespot is wrong, there should be a investgation. mcjakeqcool Mcjakeqcool (talk) 21:43, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

acording to the label on the cartigue game for the atari 2600 it was released in 1981. this game was such a hot seller that 7 million copys were sold. no other atari 2600 game was this mass produced even the other games for atari 2600 produced fewer quantites. because there was 7 million copies sold this got the video game makers into a new phase called video game sqeuls where they make follow up games in a series. for instance the next game was Mrs pac man ,also Pac Man junior and mrs pacman had a re-make for the 7800 console. so it just goes to show if one game is a hugh sucess what they usally do next is exspand on its world in seqeal games. 69.208.10.149 (talk) 01:17, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

More on cultural imact

I remember a song back in the early 80's by an Aussie band called Player One, called "Space Invaders", obviously written to cash in on the craze at the time, and with some success too - it was No.1 on the charts for some time. Does anyone reckon its worth incuding in the article, perhpas under Popular Culture? Mattopaedia ^{Have a yarn} 04:37, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Maybe. I stumbled across similarly titled songs, but couldn't find any sources that said they were inspired by the game. If you have a reliable source for saying the game inspired the song and others, then we can add it in. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 14:10, 19 March 2009 (UTC))

Someone cite the video that went with the song. It shows some of the game elements - demonstrating that it was definitely inspired by the video game. Even the lyrics show it. IIRC correctly it was the number four song in Australia for the year 1980. It didn't get to number one during the year nationally because Victoria didn't hear it at the same time as the rest of Australia. At state level it was certainly number one for several weeks. Hope this isn't regarded as original research. 58.164.108.209 (talk) 10:18, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Does anyone have a youtube video or webpage with the lyrics? If the connection is blatantly obvious, we can cite the original source rather than an independent third-party one. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 22:27, 23 August 2010 (UTC))

Here. It doesn't use the actual graphics from the game, but creates lookalikes that may as well be. It also clearly uses samples from the game. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 23:36, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

That song was... something else... or something. :-p

I'll try to add the content this week. I found an article about one of the artists that we can use to source the statement instead of the song.

While we're on the topic, a few more songs (I'm sure there's plenty out there) that we can properly source would be good to add. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 15:03, 25 August 2010 (UTC))

David Yuh

Where is the mention of the teenage prodigy David Yuh who programmed the game? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.229.151.58 (talk) 20:56, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Actually, Tomohiro Nishikado created the game. I did not come across any programmer named David Yuh in my research of the game. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 21:09, 2 June 2009 (UTC))

Yah, I just did a quick check as well. Only came up with a bunch of links and blogs quoting back to David Yuh here. And that article looks like its ripe for deletion due to lack of citations and notability. I managed to track him down at Johns Hopkins (btw none of his bios mention anything about this), and sent him an email to get a direct answer. I'll post the response here if he actually responds. If it turns out he says he was involved, I'll be requesting an interview and putting it up at cg.com for a future reference. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 21:27, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Marty, you read my mind about deletion; never really dealt with an AfD for a biography before though. I guess we'll wait until you hear back from him. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 21:44, 2 June 2009 (UTC))

Did you ever hear back about this? I heard the David Yuh reference again: https://twitter.com/#!/robot_MD/status/63388268766564353 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.126.77.164 (talk) 02:26, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Sent him an email, never heard back from him. His page here was deleted as predicted as well. I highly doubt it unless some significant evidence can be given to back up the claim. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 03:19, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

So I worked with Dr. Yuh at Yale University, he said he's idea was the source for the development of the game, he also played a big part in the design. He also said he donated all royalties to the Homeless Shelters for Kids of NYC, a year after the go-live of the game.. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nurse2IT (talk • contribs) 13:50, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Coins

The "100 yen" coin shortage - urban myth. Please check the Japanese 100 yen coin mintages on a year by year basis. 91.85.186.195 (talk) 20:58, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

The "fact" is repeated all over the net but I did find this comment: The bit about space invaders causing a shortage of 100Yen coins is an urban myth. Besides the sheer implausibility, it didn't cost 100Yen to play. At the time in Japan, 100 yen bought what about $10 buys today. [2]

--Alastair Rae (talk) 14:20, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

A commentary is not a reliable source. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 15:40, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

I didn't say it was but I haven't seen a properly cited primary source. Just because the myth is all over the net and is repeated by journalists does not make it true.

--Alastair Rae (talk) 16:14, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

A few things:

• Flipping the coin to the other side (no pun intended (well, maybe a litte)), just because someone calls it a myth doesn't make it so. Is there a reliable source stating that the shortage is a myth?
• 100 yen in the late 70s was the equivalent of about US$.50, a number which sounds about right for an arcade game to me.
• Per WP:PSTS, "Wikipedia articles should rely mainly on published reliable secondary sources." In addition to the Game Informer and The Observer journalists, that piece of information is cited in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008. And Guinness World Records is typically known for its fact checking before handing out world records.

Unless a reliable source for it being a myth is presented, I'm inclined to leave the content in the article as is. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 17:11, 23 November 2009 (UTC))

The relentless quest for truth continues :) According to Krause 1995 (quoted here) the mintages were:

1970 237M

1971 481M

1972 469M

1973 680M

1974 660M

1975 437M

1976 323M

1977 440M

1978 292M

1979 382M

1980 588M

1981 348M

1982 110M

1983 50M

1984 42M

1985 58M

I'm not a statistician but I don't see a Space Invaders peak there, particularly compared to 73 and 74. --Alastair Rae (talk) 11:49, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Per your blog source - "So if there was an increase in 100 yen coin production, it was from an unusually low baseline, and surely not a tripling of production as sometimes claimed. If it was a low-mintage year, it might not have taken much of a demand shock to cause local shortages. There did seem to be a period of higher mintages in the 1979-1981 period. I wonder if that had anything to do with the video game craze or if it was just a coincidence..." Which gives reasons why there could still have been a Space Invaders peak. In fact, the numbers actually show *why* there was a shortage - '78 was an unusally low mintage year. Space Invaders was released in June '78 there and took several months to catch on, so we're talking Sept.-Oct. before it took up steam, which means the temporary shortage would have been sometime that fall, already at the end of the minting year. For 1979, we see almost a 100% increase in production. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 14:10, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

One thing I think is causing all this confusion is that this Space Invaders yen shortage does not have a date. As Marty points out, the Space Invaders phenomenon was not instantaneous. The first 2-3 months disappointed Taito. But eventually, they released 100,000 cabinets in Japan over a number of years. The 1980 spike could have been the result of Space Invaders. When compared to the the 1979 and 1978 numbers, that is an increase, which is what three reliable sources said occurred.

While I agree that the information in the article is scarce on details, I still have not seen any reason to doubt it. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 16:54, 24 November 2009 (UTC))

Image

File:Space Invaders Arkad.jpg

Wouldn't this be a better image to use for the infobox? Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 20:29, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

I think either one is fine. I used the current one because it's of the Japanese version. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 21:20, 19 April 2010 (UTC))

The music?

It's been a long time since I played this game, so I can't remember if it had music, or only sound effects. If it did have music, do we have any idea who wrote it? I'm always wanting to know who composers for video games, movies, and shows are. I don't think an article (on a subject that has music) is completely worthy of being featured unless it has a composer in its main infobox. dogman15 (talk) 00:12, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

No music as such, just a drum beat (well a low pitch beep) when the invaders move a step, which increases in tempo along with the speed increase of the invaders. This adds a nice bit of tension. As well as a nigh pitched shooting sound when the player fires their cannon and a warble as the bonus points UFO flies overhead. 118.210.29.123 (talk) 15:52, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

Impact and legacy

In the second paragraph of this section, the word "game" appears four times in the first sentence. Also, the opening sentence of that section ("Space Invaders is considered one of the most successful arcade shooting games") and the section of the lede which mirrors this ("When first released, Space Invaders was very successful and popular") seems superfluous, especially since the article then goes on to describe all the things that made it successful.

Been a couple of years since it was promoted, so maybe a copyedit wouldn't go amiss?

Theme for Space invaders

Yellow Magic Orchestra- about 1979?

IceDragon64 (talk) 20:29, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

what is the name of the alien race in space invaders?

id like to know what the name for the alien race for space invaders was called. if no one can find it on the internet some one should Email the games creater Mr.Tomohiro Nishikado the museum of video games needs this information its critical to exspanding the knowlegde of the atari universe and the names of its alien inhabitants. some one contact him before he acidentaly dies of a heart attack or something then no one will ever now for sure. 69.208.10.149 (talk) 01:25, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

They were just called Invaders, there was no name or storyline at the time. And it was at Taito, has nothing to do with Atari. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 03:13, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

I think they were Americans: http://www.wordloosed.com/space-invaders — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.181.153.176 (talk) 07:36, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Space Invaders Sound

AFAIK, it's a combination of the 76477 and custom analog sound circuits according to the schematics [3]. The 76477 appears to be marked for the Saucer sound and other sounds are marked at separate circuits. That also appears to be backed up by this Space Invaders sound repair guide. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 00:32, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

• Fair enough, still means the 76477 should be mentioned in the article. Indrian (talk) 00:52, 30 October 2011 (UTC)
  • We still need a source for the content though. Would the schematics suffice? I've never cited such documents before. (Guyinblack25 ^talk 13:35, 31 October 2011 (UTC))
    • I imagine it would. If you prefer a secondary source, System 16 also acknowledges the sound chip. Indrian (talk) 17:12, 31 October 2011 (UTC)
      • Schematics would suffice and should be referenced in the same manner as referencing a manual (since the schematics were usually included with the machine or with the machines' manual. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 17:17, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

The bonus spaceships' scoring system

The bonus spaceships at the top of the screen were not at all random, but were completely deterministic, both as to how many points they would give, and to which side of the screen they would start from.

The controlling factor was the number of shots fired by the player since the start of a screen, or the start of a life, whichever was shorter. I only remember the figures for getting the maximum 300 point score, but I'm sure there must be a more detailed description somewhere.

(From memory) First, the player fires 21 shots then waits for the spaceship. If the 22nd shot hits the spaceship, then the player is rewarded with 300 points. Thereafter, the player should shoot 14 shots and hit the spaceship on the 15th, for the 300 point spaceships. Note: it is irrelevant whether or not the shots fired hit an enemy or not, and indeed it was very common for experts such as myself to fire at the defense bunkers, in order to be able to get the next spaceship sooner. If the player was diligent (and accurate), then a new, 300 point spaceship would appear for every 15 shots fired, and this fact was used by those wanting to set the really high high scores in the game.

Use this technique to discover if a port of the game is true to the original or not: some ports use a random number generator to generate the spaceship scores, so the technique will not work for them.

OldManLink (talk) 23:47, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

Infobox image (reprise)

Is it possible to get something less blurry for its main image? This is a featured article in an encyclopedia. Any ideas where to look? czar ♔ 21:59, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

• It was deleted per your request, which is why I had to immediately upload an image of a promotional Space Invaders flyer. The new image is "less blurry," proper, and has a "non-free use rationale" template. Oh, by the way: Hi, my name is "Mr. Gonna." IX|(C"<) 19:54, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Origin of the name

I'd be interested in any source that could be cited about the origin of the name of the game. The David Bowie song Moonage Daydream (1971 and 1972) contains the prominent lyric "I'm a space invader", for what it's worth. Tarcil (talk) 07:57, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

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Featured article in need of review

This is a 2000s promotion that needs to be check by current FA standards.

• Prose suffers from awkward sentences
  • "that move horizontally back and forth across the screen as they advance toward the bottom of the screen."
  • "The game's inspiration is reported to have come from varying sources, including an adaptation of the mechanical game Space Monsters released by Taito in 1972, and a dream about Japanese school children who are waiting for Santa Claus when they are attacked by invading aliens.[18][22] Nishikado himself has cited Atari's arcade game Breakout as his inspiration." So if there's varying reports, why is this sentence giving Breakout as the most-likely true inspiration? Possible undue weight. Also, who had that Santa Claus dream?
  • "Early enemy designs for the game included tanks, combat planes, and battleships.[21] Nishikado, however, was not satisfied with the enemy movements; technical limitations made it difficult to simulate flying"
  • "Humans would have been easier to simulate," NPOV issue
  • Music section is one long quote, and only two opinions are represented
• First para of "Rankings" section isn't about rankings, and the second para is mostly an indiscriminate list of ratings with no attempt at summarizing retrospective opinions
• Reception: There are ratings of reviews that are never covered in prose.
• References suffers from questionable sources (What is The Arcade Flyer Archive?, Game Maestro?, NOTsoNOISY?, members.cox.net?, Warp Zoned?, Discogs is unreliable), and some citations are incomplete. Ref 2 is just a list of Bare URLs

👨x🐱 (talk) 21:39, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

DOS Version

Could someone (a) clarify whether there was a DOS version of it and (b) in which year this happened? I came to find out but the current wikiepdia article does not mention this. 2A02:8388:1604:F600:6D3E:54F:D1:F386 (talk) 16:20, 15 September 2021 (UTC)

Should artefact be changed to artifact?

I know artefact is british english and is still correct, but I think it would benifit more people if it was artifact, since it is the more accepted version of the word. Hpnzii (talk) 19:18, 28 February 2022 (UTC)