Space Invaders

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Lore & Background

The Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders was designed and developed by Rick Maurer. Prior to working at Atari, Maurer developed games at Fairchild Semiconductor. Impressed with the Space Invaders arcade game, he began developing an Atari 2600 version during his time at Atari. The company staff showed little interest in the game until then-Atari president and CEO Ray Kassar saw how well Space Invaders was doing in arcades; Kassar obtained the rights to the game for the Atari 2600 and had Maurer complete his code. Maurer came up with the idea of developing a version of Space Invaders for the Atari 2600. At the time in the company, games were not assigned to developers, leading him to scout local arcades for ideas. Maurer was impressed by Taito's Space Invaders arcade game, specifically the sound of the game, and began developing the game on his own in 1978. He described the process of coding for the Atari 2600 as "having to unlearn every good programming practice you've learned." After a few months of development, he had a playable prototype. The consumer division of Atari later instructed Maurer to cease further work on the game. He then focused on coding Maze Craze (1980), which he thought would help him hone his coding skills for the Atari 2600. Management at Atari later noticed the financial success of Taito's Space Invaders in late 1978. Ray Kassar went to Japan in 1979 to get the rights to the game. This allowed Maurer to continue development of his version. He initially sought a cover art designer at Atari to create the illustrations of the invaders on graph paper to use in the game. Unable to find a designer, Maurer created his own designs for the characters. Maurer's Space Invaders was initially seven kilobytes (KB) and had to be reduced. He spent three months editing his code to be able to fit on the four KB ROM cartridge.

Reader's Guide

Space Invaders has the player at war with enemies from outer space. The player uses the joystick to move left and right and presses the red button to fire a laser cannon. The goal is to earn as many points as possible by destroying the enemies with a laser cannon and to eliminate them before they reach the bottom of the screen. While descending, the aliens will shoot lasers at the player's cannon; three hits will end the game. The further rows of aliens give the player more points when hit. Upon destroying all 36 aliens, a new set will appear. In a single-player game, a Command Alien ship worth 100 bonus points will periodically move across the top of the screen. The Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders alters the gameplay of the arcade original. It has 36 invaders instead of 55 and only three defense bunkers instead of four. There are game variations with moving bunkers, shots that zig-zag, and invisible invaders that are briefly shown after being shot. The home version of Space Invaders added two types of co-operative play: a partnered mode where each player can only move left or right respectively and both can fire the cannon, and another where one player shoots and the other moves the ship. Space Invaders was released for the Atari 2600 on March 10, 1980. As with the company's other releases, Atari would re-release the game over the console's lifespan. The earliest release had only text printed on the cartridge's black label. Starting in 1981, Atari added pictures to the labels of all its game cartridges, including Space Invaders. The last two re-releases feature labels that are first silver, then red. By 1982, Sears released an Atari 2600 console variant called the Tele-Games Video Arcade II, which included a Space Invaders cartridge. In 1980, Atari sponsored a nationwide Space Invaders tournament in the United States, with regional qualifiers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fort Worth, Chicago, and New York. The company started the event to help promote the release of its port, which contestants played to earn the highest score. Around 10,000 participants competed in the tournament, which culminated in a championship round in November between the five regional finalists at the Warner Communications headquarters in New York. The winner, Rebecca Heineman, would go on to become a video game developer.

Did You Know?

• Rick Maurer was only compensated with an $11,000 bonus for the success of Space Invaders, after which he left Atari and never developed another Atari 2600 game.
• The Atari 2600 version has 36 invaders instead of the arcade's 55, and only three defense bunkers instead of four.
• Maurer's initial code was seven kilobytes and had to be reduced to fit on a four kilobyte ROM cartridge, a process that took him three months.
• The winner of Atari's 1980 nationwide Space Invaders tournament was Rebecca Heineman, who later became a video game developer.
• Sales of the Atari 2600 quadrupled following the release of Space Invaders.