Chapter 40: Space Invaders Deluxe

After who knows how many presses of the reset button, you finally manage a run where you defeat every enemy in the galaxy. The final enemy shatters, the MACC screen turns green, and the victory trumpet sounds. You slump back in the pilot’s seat, and everything fades white as your Starfighter is transported back into the spaceport in the Mothership. As you step out of the ship, dramatic trumpets suddenly play, and you see the instructor standing on a stage holding up a variety of medals, patches, and other honors.

“WELCOME TO THE ORDER OF THE SUPREME STARMASTER,” he booms through the microphone. Suddenly, you hear more booming, the unfortunately familiar sound of laser bombs crashing against the Mothership. “PLEASE APPROACH THE STAGE, AND RECEIVE THE EMBLEMS OF YOUR ACHIEVEMENT.”

But you are already running for the door. “Can’t you hear that?” Melvin shouts at him, zipping behind you, “The Mothership is under attack!”

“BUT I HAVE A TWO HOUR SPEECH PREPARED, ON THE GLORY OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A SUPREME…”

His voice disappears behind you as you race down the hallway, the doors popping open as you approach each one. You race through the central chamber, and wave at the Administrator, who is frantically flipping switches, turning knobs, and scanning printouts. You see out the window that the Mothership is still in the weird realm of rainbow stars, and you hope that the ship is almost ready to make a jump out of here. The great orange concrete shields are still sliding around unstably, and the laser bombs from the invaders are dropping down in that frustrating zigzag motion, but now much, much faster.

“Holy scanlines!” shouts Melvin, climbing into the loading chamber. “These guys keep upping their game!”

As you climb into the seat of the laser cannon and slide it away from the main hall, you see serious cracks in the glass window of the main hall and wonder how much longer it will be before it shatters.

“I hope the Administrator can make the jump soon,” you say as you push the red button, launching Melvin upward into the ever-marching invaders.

Place the Space Invaders cartridge into your Atari 2600. Set both difficulty switches to b. Use game select 8. Play until you score 1000 points. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.