Space Invaders

About this game

Space Invaders arrived in arcades in 1978 and became the game that defined the golden age of the arcade. What you are playing here is not a remake or an imitation: it is an exact replica of the original 1978 arcade machine. Every sprite and animation, every shot pattern, the way the bunkers crumble, the fleet speeding up as its numbers thin, the mystery ship's scoring, the sound effects, and even the demo mode between games are precisely what the original cabinet did.

How to play

• Press 1 Player or 2 Players to start: the machine drops in the coins for you (one per player) and the game begins. The two players of a two-player game take turns on the same controls. If you prefer to do it the arcade way, the coin and start keys listed under Controls still work.
• Move your laser base left and right along the bottom of the screen and shoot the invaders before they reach the ground. Only one of your shots can be in the air at a time, so make each one count.
• The four bunkers shelter you from the invaders' bombs, but they erode under fire from both sides.
• A mystery ship crosses the top of the screen from time to time. Hit it for bonus points.
• The fewer invaders remain, the faster they move. Clear the entire fleet and a new one lands, one row closer to the ground.
• The game ends when an invader reaches the ground or your last laser base is destroyed. You start with 3 lives (choose up to 6 in the options above), and you earn an extra life at 1,500 points.
• The pause button (the two bars, at the right of the button row) or the P key pauses the game; while the game is paused the button shows a play triangle, and pressing it (or P again) resumes.
• The lock button (the padlock, next to the pause button) scrolls the page so the buttons sit at the top of the screen and then holds the page still: scrolling is switched off until you press the button again, so a sliding thumb on the touch controls or a stray key cannot move the page while you play. The padlock shows the current state: open while the page scrolls normally, closed while it is locked.

Controls

• Click or tap the game to give it keyboard focus. The keys work while the game has focus.
• Arrow keys + Space: ← and → move, Space fires, C or 5 inserts a coin, 1 or Enter starts a one-player game, 2 starts a two-player game, P pauses, and T tilts the machine (which ends the game, just like the real cabinet).
• A / D + Space or J: A and D move, and Space or J fires. The coin, start, pause, and tilt keys are the same as above.
• Arrows + left Ctrl: the arrow keys move, the left Ctrl key fires, 5 inserts a coin, and 1 or 2 starts a game.
• Touch controls: on a phone or tablet a control panel appears under the screen, with Fire at one edge and the left and right arrows at the other, where your thumbs rest. Slide a thumb between the arrows to move, and hold Fire with the other thumb. Fire is on the left unless you choose Touch controls (Fire on right). Press the lock button first so the page holds still under your thumbs. If your tablet has a keyboard, choose a keyboard option instead and the panel goes away.
• Gamepad: the d-pad or left stick moves, the A and B buttons or the right shoulder button and trigger fire, Start begins a one-player game, Y begins a two-player game, and Select inserts a coin.

Scoring

• Invaders in the bottom two rows are worth 10 points, the middle two rows 20 points, and the top row 30 points.
• The mystery ship is worth 50 to 300 points.
• The high score stays on the screen until you leave the page or reset the machine.

Options

• Controls selects the keyboard layout, or the touch control panel with Fire on the left or on the right. The panel is selected automatically on phones and tablets.
• Pixel color changes the color of the picture. The original Midway cabinet had a black-and-white monitor, so white is the authentic look; green and amber are the other classic monitor colors.
• Lives sets the number of laser bases you start with, from 3 to 6, just like the switch inside the real machine.
• Volume adjusts the sound effects.
• Your choices are remembered in this web browser for the next time you play.

Sound

Web browsers allow a page to play sound only after you have interacted with it, so the sound starts with your first key press or tap.