Space Invaders is a classic arcade game released in 1978 by Taito. It’s a pioneering shoot-‘em-up game where players control a laser cannon to defeat waves of aliens. The game’s innovative features, like the increasing speed of the aliens and the use of a high score, contributed to its massive success. Its influence is widespread, impacting the development of video games and popular culture. «Space Invaders» is recognized for its simple yet addictive gameplay, becoming a symbol of the golden age of arcade video games.
This game was programmed using assembly language for the Taito 8080 microprocessor. This type of programming is low-level, dealing directly with hardware operations and memory management. The game’s programming involved manipulating pixels on the screen to create the iconic alien characters and the player’s cannon, as well as handling user input and collision detection. The simplicity and efficiency of the code were crucial due to the limited computing power and memory of the time.
Demo release
This time we have created a demo version to update this classic video game. For this, we have used the Unreal 5 development platform and internet assets, in order to give better effects to the game. Next, we will see how it has turned out and then a summary of what has been done.
Summary:
0:23 – new model and textures
0:40 – new UI with a dynamic background and memory of the highscore
0:54 – walls that parcial bricks when are hit
1:00 – Intelligent invasors which leave the formation and go directly to our ship
1:06 – Explosion effect when our defender or the invasors are destroyed
1:12 – new squads when the last enemy is destroyed
1:34 – high score updated when we run out of lifes