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SPACE INVADERS
BY ATARI, INC.
To insert your 5200 game cartridge, hold the cartridge so that the
name of the label faces you and reads right-side-up. Then carefully
insert the cartridge into the slot in the center of the console unit.
Be sure the cartridge is firmly seated, but do not force it in. The
POWER ON/OFF switch is located on the bottom right side of the ATARI
5200. Press this switch to turn the power on AFTER inserting your
game cartridge. See your Owner's Manual for further information.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Earth Defense Corps
2. Game Play
3. Using the 5200 Controllers
4. Trak-Ball
5. Scoring
6. Game Variations
7. Strategy
8. Game Select Matrix
9. Your Best Game Scores
ATTACK! COUNTER ATTACK!
1. EARTH DEFENSE CORPS
You are a recent enlistee in the Earth Defense Corps. For the past
six weeks you've undergone grueling and intensive training. Now you
stand at attention, nervously anticipating the most critical section
of your training: Attack/Counterattack! In preparation for this task
you've read, reread and memorized the SPACE INVADERS manual.
"Okay, kid, you're on!" barks your commanding officer.
Quickly you climb into a laser tank. A second enlistee follows you.
You each settle into deep, leather seats. With a soft whirring
sound, the automatic hatch cover closes overhead.
As your eyes adjust to the dim light of the laser capsule, you begin
to make out the controls. Mentally, you check off each knob, dial,
button, and display. For the next several hours you and the other
enlistee with operate these controls to defend your planet in an
attack simulation.
The screen in front of you lights up. A column of bomb-dropping
aliens advances toward you. What next? For a second your mind goes
blank. Have you learned your lessons well? No time to refer to the
manual now. Your commanding officers are watching and it's your
show.
2. GAME PLAY
This is your mission manual. Commit it to memory. Your tasks are to
stop the invaders from landing on your territory; avoid enemy bombs;
and score as many points as possible. In one-player games, the game
ends when you lose all your lives or when any invader lands on your
planet. In two-player games, play ends for each player after three
or five enemy hits, or when the invaders touch down.
SPACE INVADERS offers 12 game variations (See section 6 -- GAME
VARIATIONS for a detailed description of each game). Each game may
be played by one or two players, and you can start with three or five
lives, depending on the variation you select.
If you destroy all 48 space invaders before they touch your planet, a
new set of invaders will appear on the screen. Each new set of
invaders starts from a position closer to your territory.
WAVES
There are four waves in a game. Each wave begins with invaders
moving slowly toward you and dropping bombs. As you progress from
one wave to another, the invaders move faster, fire more accurately,
and are worth more points.
After you have eliminated half of the aliens on the screen (24
invaders), the attack speed of the remaining invaders doubles and the
point value for these fast invaders also doubles. (For more about
SCORING, see Section 4).
You must clear the screen of invaders twice to move from Wave 1 to
Wave 2, from Wave 2 to Wave 3, and from Wave 3 to Wave 4. Wave 4
continues to reset until all lives are lost or the invaders touch
down.
Periodically, an enemy command saucer will fly across the top of the
screen. The saucer always cycles once from the left and twice from
the right. If you hit this saucer, you score a variable number of
points, depending upon how many shots you have taken during that
wave. (See the COMMAND SAUCER SCORING TABLE in Section 4, for a
breakdown of saucer point values.)
SHIELDS
You begin each game with three shields. Initially, you are safe
behind the shields. But as you and the enemy hit the shields with
lasers and bombs, they become damaged, allowing laser beams from your
cannon and bombs from the enemy to pass through them. As the space
invaders approach the shields in their descent toward you, the
shields disappear altogether. Figure 1 shows a typical SPACE
INVADERS playfield, with attacking aliens, the command saucer, your
laser cannon, and shields.
LIVES
Each time you are hit by an invader's bomb, the game pauses
temporarily, and the number of turns (lives) you have left is
reduced. Remaining lives are displayed at the bottom right side of
the screen, as shown in Figure 2.
3. USING THE 5200 CONTROLLERS
Use one or two 5200 controllers with this ATARI game cartridge. For
one-player games, plug the controller into controller jack 1 on your
console. For a two-player game, plug the second controller into the
number 2 jack. In two-player games, the player using the number 1
jack controls game selection and starts the game (See Figure 3.)
KEYPAD OVERLAYS
For your convenience, two keypad overlays are included with this
game. Slip the tabs into the slots above an below the keypad on your
controller (See Figure 4).
PLAYER SELECTION
Press the right # key (or, on your overlay, the square marked 1-2
PLAYERS) to choose a one or two-player game. The message PLAYER 1
appears on the lower left side of the screen below that player's
score, and the message PLAYER 2 appears on the right side of the
screen below his score. You can always tell whose turn it is because
that player's display will flash on the screen. (See Figure 2).
GAME SELECTION
Press the left * key (on your overlay, the square marked GAME SELECT)
to cycle through Games 1 through 12. The game number appears to the
right of the PLAYER 1 display, as shown in Figure 2.
START
Press START to begin the invasion. The START key is deactivated
while a game is in progress and reactivated after all lives are lost.
RESET
Press the RESET key at any time to return to pregame-play mode.
PAUSE
To suspend a turn in progress, press the PAUSE key. The action
immediately freezes in its present position on the screen. To
continue play, press PAUSE again.
CONTROLLER ACTION
Move your joystick right or left to maneuver your laser cannon right
or left across the bottom of the screen. Do this to avoid direct
hits by enemy bombs (which the invaders will continually drop from
the sky), and to aim your laser beams.
To fire your lasers, press either or both of the bottom red buttons
on the front right and left sides of the 5200 controller (See Figure
3.) You can fire lasers as long as you depress the fire button.
Your supply of laser beams is unlimited.
4. TRAK-BALL (Future Accessory)
This SPACE INVADERS cartridge offers a TRAK-BALL option. A TRAK-BALL
may be purchased seperately. To play any of the game variations with
a TRAK-BALL, plug the TRAK-BALL into the number 1 jack on the front
of your 5200 console. Follow the instructions in Section 3, USING
THE 5200 CONTROLLERS, for player and game selection. You do not need
a seperate TRAK-BALL for each player. Simply pass the TRAK-BALL back
and forth as each turn comes up. The computer switches between
players and keeps each score automatically.
NOTE: You cannot switch from a TRAK-BALL to a joystick (5200
controller) or mix the two types of controllers midgame; choose one
or the other. If you decide to switch from TRAK-BALL to 5200
controller, or vice versa, unplug existing controller(s), plug in the
new, and press START. The same game variation you previously played
will come on the screen.
TRAK-BALL ACTION
Move your TRAK-BALL right or left to maneuver your laser cannon in
the same direction across the bottom of the screen. To fire lasers,
press the fire button on the TRAK-BALL. See your Owner's Manual for
further details.
5. SCORING
You can score an infinite number of points in this game. However,
since each score display has space for five digits only, a score will
be reset to zero after it passes 99999 points. There are four waves
of invaders. Initially, the space invaders attack from the top of
the screen and slowly advance down the screen toward your terrain.
After you have eliminated one-half of the invaders, the remaining 24
speed up and the point value for them doubles. In each of the first
three waves you must clear two full screen of invaders to move to the
next wave.
Each time the invaders are reset on the screen they will start from a
position closer to your laser cannon. This makes it increasingly
difficult for you to keep the aliens from landing on your territory.
The point value for hitting an invader doubles with each progressive
wave, as shown in Figure 5.
WAVE 4
When you get to wave 4, the invaders mutate before your eyes! As the
invader changes from one form to another, it goes through a
crystalline stage (see Figure 6). If hit during this crystalline
stage, the invader is not worth any points.
The scoring system for fourth wave invaders is based upon shape and
color. As you can see in Figure 5, blue invaders are worth 10
points, green invaders are worth 15, and red invaders are worth 20
points.
On a black and white television, the invaders' shapes indicate their
point value. Figure 7 gives a breakdown of point values for fourth
wave invaders.
Wave 4 continues to reset until all your lives are lost or an invader
lands on your planet.
(Figure 5 below - Invader Point Values)
Wave Number 1 2 3 4
Normal Attack Speed 2 4 8
Double Attack Speed 2 4 8
Blue Invader 10
Green Invader 15
Red Invader 20
INVADER SAUCER
Throughout the game, enemy command saucers fly overhead on
reconnaissance missions. The saucers always cycle once from the left
and twice from the right. You can score extra points by shooting the
enemy saucers. When you hit one, the point value for that saucer
lights up on the screen, as shown in Figure 8.
The scoring system for hitting a saucer is based upon how many shots
you have taken in the game. For example, if you zap a saucer on the
first shot you get 20 points; but if you hit it in the fifteenth
shot, you earn 60 points. Every time you take 15 shots, no matter
what you shoot at, the saucer score cycle starts over. Also, when
you move into a new wave or lose a turn, the saucer scoring cycle
resets to start over at 1. For a breakdown of the command saucer
scoring system, see TABLE 1.
(Table 1 below - Commander Saucer Scoring)
Shot Taken 1 2 3 4 5
Point Value 20 20 20 10 30
Shot Taken 6 7 8 9 10
Point Value 20 20 10 10 20
Shot Taken 11 12 13 14 15
Point Value 30 20 20 10 60
CLOSE ENCOUNTER
Every time you clear seven screen of invaders, the saucer hovers
over, picks up your laser cannon and flies off with it. The screen
then resets so that the invaders advance from the top again. After
this "Close Encounter", the shields reset and start over again.
6. GAME VARIATIONS
Below is a description of each of the 12 games contained in this
cartridge. For a quick reference guide, use the GAME SELECT MATRIX
in Section 8.
GAME 1: A good choice for beginners, this easiest SPACE INVADERS
game offers slow enemy bombs and five lives for you.
GAME 2: In this version the enemy bombs alternate between slow and
fast, and you have five lives (turns).
GAME 3: You have five lives and all the enemy bombs are fast.
GAME 4: With slow enemy bombs, this version is identical to Game 1,
except that you have three lives instead of five.
GAME 5: The alien bombs alternate between slow and fast and you have
three lives.
GAME 6: All the enemy bombs are fast and you have three lives.
GAME 7: The enemy bombs are slow but, in this game, the invaders use
sophisticated radar to hom-in on you. You'll find it's a real
challenge to avoid such smart bombs. You have five lives.
GAME 8: This version of SPACE INVADERS is like Game 2. The enemy
bombs alternate between slow and fast and you have five lives. As in
Game 7, the bombs will home-in on you.
GAME 9: Try to dodge fast invader bombs that home-in on you. You
have five lives.
GAME 10: The enemy bombs are slow but smart -- they home-in on you.
You have three lives.
GAME 11: Home-in bombs alternate between fast and slow. You have
three lives.
GAME 12: The invaders' bombs are fast, they home-in, and you have
three lives.
7. STRATEGY
1. Try to hit invaders at the edges of the rows. This will slow
them in their march toward you.
2. Use the shields to your advantage. Hide behind them to avoid
enemy bombs, then rush out to blast the invaders.
3. Take advantage of the 60-point saucer by counting your shots.
One way to make the most of this is to shoot 14 invaders, then
wait for the saucer (behind a shield, if possible) and use your
fifteenth shot to hit the saucer, thereby gaining 60 points.
8. GAME SELECT MATRIX
Game Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Five Lives X X X X X X
Three Lives X X X X X X
Slow Enemy X X X X
Bombs
Fast Enemy X X X X
Bombs
Slow & Fast X X X X
Enemy
Bombs
"Home-In" X X X X X X
Enemy
Bombs
9. YOUR BEST GAME SCORES
Name: Date: Score:
_______________ ______ ________
_______________ ______ ________
_______________ ______ ________
_______________ ______ ________
[snip]
END
Typed by Keita Iida
Used with permission from Atari Gaming Headquarters
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