Playing the Atari 5200 version of Taito‘s classic Space Invaders you can’t help but wonder what the programmer was thinking when he made it. Had he ever played the original Space Invaders, or was he instructed to “make something better” than the original? Because this seems to ignore a few important details from the arcade game…

Firstly: the invaders begin their march left-to-right from off-screen, which is bizarre. Secondly: the invaders speed up quite quickly. By the time they’re half gone, they’re moving pretty fast. Thirdly: the bases (your protective buildings) are squashed (but still effective), probably because the invaders are so large that they had to save some height by making the bases small. Fourthly: when you’re at the extreme left and right of the screen, you can’t seem to shoot the furthest invaders.

That said: Space Invaders on the Atari 5200 is still reasonably playable. It does at least follow the convention for shooting (you can only have one bullet firing upwards at once), and the controls are responsive, giving you a chance of success. I managed to get to the third wave on my first go, but felt that I’d seen pretty much everything the game had to offer*, which demonstrates its lack of longevity. The scoring is also very low, which doesn’t help.

Still, Atari must’ve spent a fair bit of money on the licence for this game, and I’m guessing that they were hoping to replicate the same kind of sales that they got with the Atari 2600 version, which I’m sure didn’t happen.

*= There are twelve different play modes, so I definitely didn’t see everything the game has to offer, although these are just minor variations, with features like enemy bombs that home in on you, and fast and slow bombs. They’re nothing to get excited about…

More: Space Invaders on Wikipedia