LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Astro Invader
built 635 days ago
Making its debut at the Oklahoma Video Game Expo in 2005, Astro Invader is a translation of the Stern arcade game. It was originally released in Japan in 1979 with the title "Kamikaze." The Leijac Corporation (later know as Konami) licensed it to Stern in 1980 and Astro Invader became the company's first release. The Arcadia 2001 is the only other console known to have a version of the game and had a non-U.S. release in 1982. Brian Miller set the official arcade world record at 39,880 in 1983.
Source:
Astro Invader is a 1980 space shooter from Stern Electronics, the same folks who developed classic arcade shooters like Berzerk and Frenzy. In this one, you pilot a ship capable of side-to-side movement while under attack from a hostile group of aliens. A mother ship drops 200 alien ships into 10 columns at the top of the screen. A column is at its capacity when clogged with four alien ships. Therefore, any additional aliens dropped into that column forces the bottom ship to hurl toward earth. Use a laser cannon to destroy these alien ships before they hit the ground, or, at the very least, get far enough away from their impact point to avoid their explosion.
Source:
Due in part to the limited technology of its time, Astro Invader is programmed to follow very predictable patterns, which an experienced player can exploit for maximum points. The small aliens are dropped in one of two patterns, depending on whether it is an odd or even-numbered wave. The saucers ... descend from the three wide columns in a fixed pattern: center, far left, far right, center, far right, center, and so on. This pattern goes back to the beginning after 16 saucers have descended or when the player's ship is destroyed. Even the point value of the saucers can be exploited if the player has the patience to count his/her shots; the player obtains the maximum 400 points by shooting a saucer with his 15th shot fired, and with every 16th shot fired thereafter. Like the saucer pattern, the shot count also resets when the player's ship is destroyed.
Source:
Astro Invader is a flawless port of the fast-paced arcade game of the same name. Scott Huggins has brought the thrill of the arcade game home to your ColecoVision, faithfully reproducing the sights, sounds, and gameplay of the original. How many waves of alien invaders can you fend off before being overwhelmed?
Source:
An Astro Invader machine appears in the music video for the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song You Got Lucky. The band finds a working one buried under some junk in an old barn, and eventually Petty knocks the machine over. Although not commented on at the time, this has retroactively caused some lament among arcade fans because Astro Invader machines were not produced in large numbers to begin with, and intact, working specimens are now fairly rare.
Source:
Astro Invader is a simple 2-D shooter. You control your laser base against an endless stream of alien invaders. The invaders don't come in set waves, instead, they come in a constant stream. Once you have gotten through one barrage of aliens, more are just behind to continue the action. Your job is to keep them from overwhelming you with their superiority in numbers. Kill or be killed, that is the objective.
Source: