A fun and classic hack brought to us by Rob Kudla and Atariage. This hack has been around for around 20 years, and is still great today. The label design is awesome and pays tribute to the original arcade cabinet artwork.
Keep in mind, this is just a cosmetic hack of the original Atari Space Invaders (as far as I can tell). This probably won't appease die hard arcade SI fans, but has it's place. Simply a better looking and sounding version of the original release for fans of the Atari version. Can never go wrong with Atariage quality either.
Not satisfied with the version of Space Invaders Atari created for the 2600? Would you like one that more closely resembles the arcade version? Rob Kudla has taken Atari's Space Invaders and modified the graphics, colors and sounds to make it truer to the original. Amazing that Atari didn't do this themselves!
Original Game | Space Invaders |
Hacked By | Rob Kudla |
Number of Players | 2 |
Controller | Joystick |
Cartridge Size | 4K |
Label Design | Dale Crum |
My favourite "Space Invader" version on the Atari-2600. I clearly prefer this over the original version. The changed graphics works really good here.
This is my favorite home version of Space Invaders for the Atari 2600. Even though it has the same number of invaders as Atari's release, it looks and sounds so much better.
Space Invaders Arcade hacks the graphics of Atari's Space Invaders to better mimic the original arcade game's graphics. Both the sprites and colors have been changed and look pretty good, although the bottom two rows of invaders look slightly off, and the flying saucer is still more of a blob than a saucer. All of the original game variations are present, including the double-shot cheat. The sounds have also been altered some, although the 2600 really isn't capable of reproducing the arcade sounds very well.
If you're looking for a version of Space Invaders that looks more like its arcade counterpart, this will work well enough, but I wish there were more to it. There's a different, more extensive hack that turns Space Invaders into Space Invaders Deluxe, complete with title screen, intermissions, different invaders, and other nice touches. It would be great to be able to get a cartridge that included both Space Invaders Deluxe and Space Invaders Arcade. As it is, for those of us who wish Atari had replicated the arcade graphics better in the first place, this is a pretty good alternative.
If you're looking for a version of Space Invaders that looks more like its arcade counterpart, this will work well enough, but I wish there were more to it. There's a different, more extensive hack that turns Space Invaders into Space Invaders Deluxe, complete with title screen, intermissions, different invaders, and other nice touches. It would be great to be able to get a cartridge that included both Space Invaders Deluxe and Space Invaders Arcade. As it is, for those of us who wish Atari had replicated the arcade graphics better in the first place, this is a pretty good alternative.
Space Invaders Arcade plays just like the original release, except the aliens, bunkers and ship graphics have all been modified to more closely resemble the arcade, and the colors have been modified as well. Another huge improvement is the sound: Space Invaders Arcade brings back the original "heartbeat" sound of the advancing invaders, as well as improvements in other sounds. I also have "Space Instigators" which is an excellent game, but it doesn't play or sound nearly as good as this one, so I strongly recommend "Space Invaders Arcade" - for the price, it is an absolute no brainer, and a must have.
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