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Return of the Space Invaders
pashdown writes "Get your two-liter bottles of Shasta and your all-Rush mixtapes ready! In honor of the 25th Anniversary of Space Invaders, Taito has commissioned Namco to remake the classic arcade game. The only thing not nostalgic is the price, increased from one quarter to two." We had a sneak peek of this cabinet as a Slashdot Games story a couple of weeks back.
Great history of Space Invaders.
be realistic, people. This game is 25 years old. You can play it on one of those joysticks you plug directly into your TV that costs $20. Who the HELL is going to pay 50 cents to play this thing. I haven't been in an arcade in a couple years. Does EVERYTHING cost 50 cents? Are there just no quarter games left? Is nostalgia really that powerful? I wasn't old enough to have any quarters the first time around. This is space invaders 25th anniversary and i just had my 24th. Maybe I'm young and dumb. Come on. 50 cents? Anyone?
HO
I've missed this game! You used to only be able to play it in small-town pizza shops anymore. I wouldn't mind owning one myself...it would make a great conversation piece for the livingroom.
Damon,
http://actionPlant.com
two-liter bottles of Shasta and your all-Rush mixtapes
wow, and back then I though I was a loser...
Personally, I wish they'd reissue MK2 -- I kick *ass* when I'm playing on one of the cabinets. Nobody beatin' me when I'm driving Baraka....
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Why don't they bring out the classic video game that everybody loved-- Custer's Revenge!
What's surprised me is that I can often get in a quick arcade fix at the local quickie mart or laundromat for a quarter. Sure, anything reasonably new will be 50c, but a single quarter gets me as much fun as it did in 1985.
Wouldn't that be roughly the equivalent of playing Pac-Man for a 1980's dime?
As for this game, are they still planning to package it with QIX? That's one of the old school games I miss. That and my favorite game of all time, Mr. Do!. If anyone knows where a working Mr. Do! is within 100 miles of Dallas, lemme know and I'm there with a roll of quarters!
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
"Taito aims to sell 10,000 of the standalone game machines at $2,772 a unit." At first I thought 'there's no way people would be willing to pay so much for a game', but then I realized that the intended market for the game is nostalgic baby boomers with a lot of disposible income... I'd bet they do end up selling out. I only hope that a few make it to the local arcades - it would be so much better than that Dance Dance Crap.
Although the game itself will not change, inflation has taken its toll. One play will now cost 50 cents, compared with 25 cents a generation ago.
Speaking from an outsiders standpoint, don't arcade games today let you set how much it costs to play? Not to say I wouldn't use it for 50 cents, but why mess with a classic?
this baby better be showing in 256 colors!
Note that the provide no Screen caps, so it will probably the exact same game that gets boring after 2 minutes, just like every other ROM you loved as a kid.
Do yourself a favor, stay away, keep the memories of your youth pristine and unmolested. Do not be a George Lucas.
(/local/home/curiosity)-#who -u|grep thecat|cut -c 44-49|xargs kill -9
If there was demand for it, it would have been remade, and I haven't seen space invaders in an arcade for 10 years. The only arcade games to be remade and be successful are Mrs. Pacman and Galaga, most of which fell apart after 20 years, with the survivors suffering from horrible screen burn. Some games that used to be ubiquitous, like TMNT and Mortal Kombat II, are now becoming increasingly scarce, but will probably not be remade just because they were popular in the contemporary sense only.
From article:
Taito aims to sell 10,000 of the standalone game machines at $2,772 a unit.
That is a bit expensive if all you're looking for is nostalgia since you can buy the original for $1295 or maybe off e-bay for $369 (current bid at time of comment).
As discussed here , there was a trick with the original game that allowed for ultra high scores. Basically it involved timing the shots at the bonus flying saucer, to maximise 300 points whenever possible.
;)
I found out about this trick as I met Mr Furrer through work just recently. Basically many a night was wasted in The Bombshelter at Waterloo University (Ontario, Canada) playing that game before he gleamed on the pattern. Last he knew, he had the world record for Space Invaders.
Now he's a J2EE programmer working on Weblogic platforms. Unfortunately playing Space Invaders never turned into a full time career for him.
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
I picked up a non-working Mr. Do! a couple of years back, was gonna do the MAME cabinet thing but never found the space to put the cab.
:). The speaker was unplugged, so the guy I got it from just assumed it was busted. I finally managed to cobble together a cable to interface into an old Tandy RGB monitor. So instead of a nice 19" screen, I play on a sad 9" screen :(
As it turns out, the only thing wrong with the game was that the monitor was blown (and no, I'm not up to re-capping it, thanks
I've been debating looking into the cheap LCD monitors you can get for PSX/GC/XBOX, and basically making the world's stupidest gameboy. The original Mr. Do! board fits almost perfectly into a standard sized briefcase, so it would be a fun luggable to show off.
Anyone know if any of these screens can accept straight RGB inputs? Or are they composite/s-video only?
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Space Invaders is an old, old game and definitely looks it. I'm sure their target demographic are the people who grew up playing this and want to relieve a little bit of nostalgia for old times sake. And those of us old enough to be in this demographic are certainly not hurting for money so 50c is pretty much the same as 25c to us. I'm not going to squabble over a few cents, for chrissake. We just want to relive how we felt in the days when we played videogames in arcades, listened to Journey and got raging hardons everytime Jodi Jackson walked by our desk in 8th grade algebra class. If I gotta pay 50c for that experience, big fuckin' deal! Besides, it's not like we're going to play it over and over all night long. We'll just play it once or twice, laugh, and then get back to drinking with our friends. 50c is a big increase over 25c to kids but I'm sure they wouldn't really be interested in Space Invaders anyhow. They'd probably just laugh at the graphics and repetitive sound effects and say "That's something my dad would have played!" -- and they'd be right!
As for Qix, I'm simply direct you to my earlier post. That game really rocked. Big time.
GMD
watch this
Not the actual price depending on your location. Most modern(post 1990?) coin op games have some sort of pricing setting in the service menu and can be set as high as 8 coins, whatever coin you may use. Whether it be a quarter, nickel, or loonie.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Get your two-liter bottles of Shasta and your all-Rush mixtapes ready!
Why would I want to listen Rush Limbaugh? I would rather have some of his good drugs while I am playing the game.
Space Invaders reminds me of a time, a time that seems perfect to me.
For me, I was a youngster in NYC in late 70's thru early 80's. Penn Station was my playground. They had all the videogames you could think of down there. They even had those old football games with the rollers that you had to smack at with the palm of your hand, which would inevitably get pinched by rolling too far and falling into the small crevice next to the ball.
All games were 25 cents. All of them.
The Penn Station arcades are no longer there. It doesn't seem the same to me.
A NYC slice of pizza and a water down soda, invariably from one of the 50 "Original Rays" would sustain me for hours of game playing. The grease would run down your arm...but you didn't care. It was all about the game. Even now, the smell of a NYC slice takes me back to that time.
Most pizzerias back then had a couple of game machines. Most do not these days.
I remember a small videogame place named Simon's on 8th avenue between 17th and 18th st., if I remember correctly. I'd walk there from JHS 70 and play pacman and asteroids and missile command for hours. I'll never forget the time this guy was playing and left 50 cents in the game for me to play as he left. He was my hero that evening.
It's no longer there. Some hip new eatery has long ago replaced it.
But Space Invaders was my firs love. How I loved that game. Beautiful in its simplicity. When I run into a machine, I have to play at least one game. No matter where I am. It brings me back to fun days. Days not longed by worries about job and mortgages and terrorism. Kids need those days.
I hope this release of a classic will give kids of today memories like I have.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
This site has versions of Pacman and Space Invaders which run inside an Excel spreadsheet.
You would think that the red and green celophane would screw up the appearance of Qix....
A remake of space invaders is like a remake of Tolkein ... its been knocked off so many times unofficially, what in god's name would be the point of paying someone to knock it off?
I think it is going to be hard to sell 10,000 units of a 25 year old video game. There may still be a bit of a market in Japan, but the coin-op market in the US is pretty much dead.
About the only place left in the US that video games still make a buck are family entertainment centers (FEC). In recient years, the trend in FECs has been toward simulators and games with LARGE screens. back in the 80's a 15" screen was the standard. Now-a-days, most cabinets have at least a 22" monitor.
The sad part of this is that pinball machines got nixed in the process. Midway shutdown there operation in 1999, and the only company realy pouring money into it these days is Sega.
If it weren't for MAME and Visual Pinball, a lot of the old games would be forever lost, or locked away in some companies code vault.
"Hi, come on in!"
"Hey what's that thing?"
"Oh this, it's my Space Invaders cabinet. Isn't it awesome to behold?"
"Uh, yeah. Neat. How much was it?"
"I got one used for around 500 bucks and it only took around 350 man hours to refinish."
"That's...um, great."
"Did you want to have a game?"
"No...thanks. Um, where can I sit?"
"We have to sit in the kitchen."
"I should get going."
Sure, while everyone's complaining about the $0.50 price tag per game, only one other person (so far) has mentioned the actual sales cost of the console -- $2,772(!!)
Considering the game itself can be played on a cpu less powerful than that in today's cell phones or children's toys, a 20" TV can be had for $69.99, the rest of the cabinet is particle board and laminate, and there are no incremental R&D costs to amortize, why the hell are they charging so much?
Given the state of arcades in the US, I think they'd sell more if they charged $699 (still a robbery) and went after the niche of geeks wanting one in their living rooms.
This is ridiculous.
Parents always complained about the place, as parents are want to do. Not that anything ever went down there. The owners were parents themsevles and wanted to make sure it was just a fun place to hang out.
Long story short the mall they were located in got tired of hearing parental complaints so they forced them out by jacking up the stall price quarter after quarter after quarter until it got too pricy. About a year after it left, the mall sold the stall and the one next to it to a Fun Factory.
Now, the place is all lit up, bright and shiny, and costs three to four times as much for each game. There a couple of guys who stand behind the counter and occasionally play a game or two, but it is now home to a few mall rat gangs and has had more fights break out in the last couple of years over high scores than the old place ever did in its lifetime.
From Who Shot Mr. Burns, Part Two:
Willy: I'm telling ye, I could nay have shot Burns.
[uncrosses, then recrosses, his legs; everyone groans]
Eddie: [cocking pistol] This is your last warning about that.
Willy: It's impossible for me to fire a pistol. If you'll check me medical records, you'll see I have a cripplin' arthritis in me index fingerrrs. Look at 'em! [holds them up] I got it from "Space Invaders" in 1977.
Wiggum: Aw, yeah. That was a pretty addictive video game.
Willy: [surprised] Video game?
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
Watch, as I fire upwards through our own shield!
"My God...It's full of ads!" -Fry, about the Internet, Futurama
Why don't you just get MAME and download the ROM for Space Invaders and play it on your computer? I have to agree with everyone else.. Space Invaders is definitely not worth $.50 In fact, None of those games from 20 years ago are even worth a quarter to play. Maybe if I was at some place that had free arcade machines I might play it, but why pay for something that you can play for free at home? What's next, people charging $5/round to play a game of Counter-Strike at an arcade?
Don't you mean...
The sad part of this is that pinball machines got nixed in the process. Williams (the maker of Bally tables) shutdown their operation in 1999, and the only company realy pouring money into it these days is Stern. (who inherited the Data East/Sega legacy)
Those who complain about affect & effect on
Now that's just sad.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I also liked Bagman.
So you're the guy. Always wondered who you were.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
I know it deserves respect as one of the earliest, but the game was very weak compared to most of its close successors. I never found it engaging, even when it was almost the only option.
Some years later, an arcade in my hometown had a Space Invaders machine running for free. No one touched it. I think I played a couple of games and got bored... I can't help thinking the same fate will follow this venture. Sounds like something no sane arcade owner would buy... more of an executive toy.
Now Donkey Kong, Centipede, Tempest... any of those I would pick up and play with some interest.
I think something is seriusly wrong with there math. On the face of it, it seems fine. $0.25 in 1978 (year Space Invaders was released) dollars comes to $0.74 in 2003 dollars. In other words, $0.50 actually represents a price cut of about 1/3. Not bad...except for one thing.
While prices overall have roughly trippled since 1978, prices of computers, electronics - almost everything that uses transistors, in fact - have plummeted. The hardware to run Space Invaders wasn't far off cutting edge in 1978, and it was *EXPENSIVE* (hey, it ran at a whole 2 Mhz!). The price of $0.25 was as high as it was because the operators needed to pay off the purchase price. On the other hand, the hardware needed to play Space Invaders is cheap. Hell, a $8 embedded microtroller has enough grunt to do it. With hardware costs so low, I'd expect a MUCH lower cost to play, not just 1/3 lower.
Incidentally, I note it's now selling for $2,772. Anyone know what the cabinet cost when new? I'm wondering how big a price drop that represents...
this