Am I the only one that doesn't like Space Invaders?

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:20 pm

I must say that I played space invaders the other day and realized that I hated it.

I know many people consider this a good shmup but I can't. The game is unresponsive and just plain slow. The fireing rate is non existant and the stupid shields just get in the way. It's like shooting birds through a picket fence with a musket that must be reloaded after every shot.

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:22 pm

Welcome to ANCIENT games.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:25 pm

do

not

knock

breakout

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:41 pm

I kinda like Akkanvader / Space Invaders '95.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:59 pm

I cannot go back to the original Space Invaders, but this series has definitely come a long way. Return of the Invaders isn't bad, and Majestic 12 and Akkanvader are great stuff.

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:15 pm

I don't mind the clunkyness or slow pace I enjoy many old clunky slow games(Elevator Action, Tron, Circus Atari, Pong, Gunfight, Galaxian, and many more). But the fucken houses or shelter or whatever those things are wreck the game for me,they never help only hinder.

Spazicon · Post by **Spazicon** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:22 pm

Pixel_Outlaw wrote:I must say that I played space invaders the other day and realized that I hated it.

I know many people consider this a good shmup but I can't. The game is unresponsive and just plain slow. The fireing rate is non existant and the stupid shields just get in the way. It's like shooting birds through a picket fence with a musket that must be reloaded after every shot.

The game is over 20 years old. It was a great game when it first came out, but you cant play it now (for the obvious first time) and expect it to be the best game the shmup genre ever recieved.

Young kids these days.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:28 pm

No I value old games, I just can't bring myself to Like Space Invaders. I love Galaga and Defender.

Klatrymadon · Post by **Klatrymadon** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:04 pm

It's kinda like Pac Man - a bit cack, but revered by most of us for being "influential", and absolutely worshipped by ex-gamer arseholes for being "VINTAGE!!!!!!!"

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:12 pm

Dale wrote:I don't mind the clunkyness or slow pace I enjoy many old clunky slow games(Elevator Action, Tron, Circus Atari, Pong, Gunfight, Galaxian, and many more). But the fucken houses or shelter or whatever those things are wreck the game for me,they never help only hinder.

The moving shields are IMO really a problem in Return of the Invaders, but I just shoot them away (probably 13-16 times) to get rid of them.

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:22 pm

Spazicon wrote:Young kids these days.

I LOL'd.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:23 pm

Space Invaders is one of the most important games ever. It was the first game to ever feature character animation.

Playing it isn't really so much fun though. But back in the day, wehn you had either Pong or Space Invaders... well, I guess I would've played Invaders too.

zinger wrote:I kinda like Akkanvader / Space Invaders '95.

I'll second that!

Daigohji · Post by **Daigohji** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:30 pm

Funny this topic should come up today. I was just playing Space Invaders on Taito Legends this evening... for one credit, then I went back to Great Swordsman.

I have no problem with slides, but the original Invaders is just too clunky for me now. Compared to that, it's amazing how well the likes of Defender and Robotron 2084 have aged, both of which I still find compulsively playable.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:54 pm

I never liked the original Space Invaders, being able to fire only one shot at a time killed it for me. Galaga on the other hand is great.

BTW, the first game with spaceships and shooting was Spacewar for PDP-1, which is much more fun than Space Invaders (and predates it by 17 years!). There is a great conversion for Vectrex avilable, it's called "Space Wars". If you happen to have a Vectrex do yourself a favor and buy the grandfather of all shmups. It's even better with 2 players.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:18 am

Not only the grandfather of muost shmups but also the grandfather of video games. (I think, I could be mistaken)

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:19 am

Nope, never did, never will. Same with Pac-Man, Galaga, Asteroids, Centipede, Tempest, etc. Now, Pong and Breakout were excellent classics IMO (OK, so I just like paddle games). I also used to really like Pole Position but I can't stand the monotony nowadays.

zed · Post by **zed** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:54 am

ive never liked spaceinvaders ever
i can remeber when it came out ( 25years ago in my town 4000ppl with 4 video aracdes + all except one were space invaders, walk down the main street thump thump thump)
yeah same with pac man (though ms pac man was ok)

Not only the grandfather of muost shmups but also the grandfather of video games. (I think, I could be mistaken)

yeah spaceinvaders was the game that lanched the whole videogame craze, true u had tennis in front of the TV a few years before it but it was nothing compared to spaceinvaders

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:36 am

the great thing about old games is that some of them are terribly easy

like ark area

Davey · Post by **Davey** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 3:10 am

Pixel_Outlaw wrote:No I value old games, I just can't bring myself to Like Space Invaders. I love Galaga and Defender.

Good games age better than bad games... story at 11.

For those of you who were around back when it hit the arcades, what made Space Invaders so special? Was it mostly novelty that made it so popular? Technology changes, fun doesn't, and it's certainly not fun enough to warrant an international craze.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 4:33 am

Davey wrote:For those of you who were around back when it hit the arcades, what made Space Invaders so special? Was it mostly novelty that made it so popular? Technology changes, fun doesn't, and it's certainly not fun enough to warrant an international craze.

I was there. I think people just hadn't seen anything quite like it before. It really was something novel. But it quickly became old hat as much more engaging gameplay came along, i.e. Galaga, Defender, PacMan, Donkey Kong, Centipede...

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 4:36 am

It's kind of funny... I was just playing this last night.

I still enjoy Space Invaders and Space Invaders Deluxe. Simple, not exactly fast paced, but fun for quick blasts to try and beat that old high score. The old sound effects and such bring back many memories of standing before an SI machine at some restaurant. I'd be given a few quarters, and off I'd got to play for a bit until our food was ready. Never lasted very long, but to my young mind, this was great stuff.

Good times.

Post by **Icarus** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 6:04 am

The only version of Space Invaders I actually liked was Super Space Invaders '91, and only because I grew up playing that in the arcades. It was different to other Invaders with its new weaponry, formation variants and bosses. Probably why I liked it.

Space Invaders itself launced the videogame era as it was a new thing to see in pubs, restaurants and of course arcades. I think it got a lot of people in to games mainly because of the competitiveness - the game was endless and the only thing you could take away from the game was a huge score.

zed · Post by **zed** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 7:01 am

Davey wrote:For those of you who were around back when it hit the arcades, what made Space Invaders so special? Was it mostly novelty that made it so popular? Technology changes, fun doesn't, and it's certainly not fun enough to warrant an international craze.

as i mentioned i was around when it came out ~25 years ago.
in my town of 4000 there were 30 video machines + 29 of those were spaceinvaders, im not kidding (nowadays theres 3 machines total if youre lucky)
why it was so big?
mainly cause it was the first game that broke the mould, until then most of the stuff was like pong eg ( a ball + a couple of paddles )
+ here comes this game outta the blue with 40 aliens onscreen!!
barriers to hide behind, mothership
set in space as well (spaceshuttle was about to go up i dont remember if this was an influence though)
the sound helped, thump thump thump

here in nz for years (even until the present day ) arcades and/or video games are called spacies, after spaceinvaders

D · Post by D » Wed Nov 01, 2006 7:21 am

Pixel_Outlaw wrote:I must say that I played space invaders the other day and realized that I hated it.

I know many people consider this a good shmup but I can't. The game is unresponsive and just plain slow. The fireing rate is non existant and the stupid shields just get in the way. It's like shooting birds through a picket fence with a musket that must be reloaded after every shot.

You can hate it all you want, but you respect it though nevertheless. If you didn't respect it you wouldn't be on this board. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Danny · Post by **Danny** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:36 am

To be honest when I first got my Atrai 2600 I had two shmups. Space Invaders was one of them and Centipede. Now I do actualy like Space Invaders and I did play it a little back in the day although I have to say that today I would have to play Galaga or one of the newer version of Space Invaders.

Saying that I proberbly owe a huge debt of graditude to Centipede and it's creator Dona Bailey because it's thanks to this game that I felt for the first time in my life that I could be playing video games for the rest of my life and I discovered that I really loved Shmups though Centipede. I became so good at Centipede on the Atrai 2600 that I managed to loop the game and pretty much go on forever hence my family banned me from playing the game, good times!

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 11:56 am

zed wrote:
Not only the grandfather of muost shmups but also the grandfather of video games. (I think, I could be mistaken)
yeah spaceinvaders was the game that lanched the whole videogame craze, true u had tennis in front of the TV a few years before it but it was nothing compared to spaceinvaders

No, we were talking about Spacewar, which is from 1961, programmed at MIT by Steve Russel and others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar%21

The Wikipedia article neglects to mention the Vectrex conversion Space Wars, which is superior because you can also play against the computer and there are different difficulty settings.

mulletgeezer · Post by **mulletgeezer** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:02 pm

I'm not really bothered about playing Space Invaders via emulation but due to a couple of retro events over the last few years I've had the privelege of playing SI and a few others on the original cabs. Being an old timer there's been a bit of nostalgia involved but many of these games are still really striking - SI has amazing use of sound and probably pretty intense gameplay if you can get into it properly, using the so-called Wall of Death method while counting shots for maximum mothership bonuses. Asteroids is still pretty cool too, and Defender and Robotron are both amazing games and easily beat 90% of the stuff that gets talked about on this forum.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:37 pm

The Tempest X game on PSX was pretty cool

Spazicon · Post by **Spazicon** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:59 pm

I think alot of people (in this thread) arent looking at this right. Space Invaders, and MOST games of old werent about fast action, blazing TRIX, and tons of fire on the screen. It was about scores, and high scores, and getting the best score, and staying alive longer than your homie/friend.

Tetris
Pac-Man
Space Invaders
Xevious
Dig Dug
etc etc

All slow paced games, that focused on scoring.

And I still can play Space Invaders, even till this day btw.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:40 pm

Space Invaders is one of those games that in today's world just isn't as fun as it was when I was a kid. However, it's one that you have to pull out from time to time & play again in order to appreciate the origins of the shmup genre & see just how far we've come. Truth be told, I enjoy playing Space Invaders more than the myriad of clones that came out (w/ the exception of Galaga). However, it's not one I can play often.

shmups.system11.org

Am I the only one that doesn't like Space Invaders?

Am I the only one that doesn't like Space Invaders?

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