The Autopsy of Space Invaders
written by James 'Jimster' Nation
Page 2 of 3
Finding it hard to combat the forces of Space Invadery evil? Read our playing tips...
Hitting the Saucer
The saucer travels at a constant speed every time making it easy to hit if you move to the side of the screen and use the text at the top of the screen as a marker of when to fire.
The Immunity Trick
Hardcore players of Space Invaders know the invaders' bombs cannot hurt you when they are on the last row before landing. After the third level the game is pretty much impossible without using this exploit to your advantage.
Creating a Pretty Pattern
You should shoot the invaders to create the formation as shown in the screenshot. This will force a gap between the invaders in which you can shelter as the invaders descend. Once they reach the last row, shoot the bottom row without fear of being bombed.
The only difficulty in this is making sure you hit the last speedy invader or it's all over!
The 300 Point Saucer
The 'random' nature of the saucer bonus isn't so random... As with all computers, a genuine random number generator doesn't exist and will often use system timers to generate them. This game uses the number of times you have fired to generate the 'random' saucer bonuses, and will award you the full 300 point bonus if you hit the saucer on your 23rd shot and every subsequent 15th shot. All you need to do is count the shots and wait for the next ship to pass by when you're ready for your 300 point bonus.
Using the above tricks and with some skill and luck, you should be racking up big scores in no time, like these fellas...
High Scores
The highest score on Twin Galaxies is 55,160 by Donald Hayes, however Eric Furrer holds the record for non-stop Space Invaders play - 38 hours and 37 minutes totalling 1,114,000 points... Beat that if you can!