[HN Gopher] Space Invaders creator reveals game's origin story
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       Space Invaders creator reveals game's origin story
        
       Author : bookofjoe
       Score  : 69 points
       Date   : 2023-04-16 17:50 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.wired.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.wired.com)
        
       | Luc wrote:
       | This is so badly written. Seems to exist mostly to plug that mini
       | cabinet.
       | 
       | Here's a much better one from 10 years ago:
       | https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-spac...
        
       | ncr100 wrote:
       | Glad these people are being interviewed. NoClip
       | (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0fDG3byEcMtbOqPMymDNbw) also
       | talks to game developers / artists / and more.
       | 
       | It's calming and assuring to my intellectual / perfectionism
       | streaks to read about Important People also having to make
       | mistakes, and iterate in order to find a great solution.
        
       | hepek wrote:
       | Slightly offtopic: French guerilla artist invading the world with
       | iconic graphics from the game:
       | 
       | https://space-invaders.com/world/
        
       | fauxpause_ wrote:
       | I still think the most interesting thing is that the game doesn't
       | intentionally speed up aliens, the game just runs faster when
       | there's fewer aliens.
        
         | codeulike wrote:
         | The frame rate stays the same (e.g. the player always moves the
         | same speed). It's more that only one invader gets moved on each
         | frame. So the fewer invaders there are, the more they get
         | moved. It's deliberate.
         | 
         | I guess they weren't doing a whole-screen-refresh (with double
         | buffer) in those days, just turning pixels on and off to move
         | the objects. So then there's a limit to how many objects can
         | move per frame.
         | 
         | E.g. the player moves by blanking our pixels on one side and
         | adding them on the other...
        
         | morelisp wrote:
         | There's no code which controls the aliens' speed; that doesn't
         | mean it wasn't intentional.
        
           | Jorengarenar wrote:
           | It was intentionally decided that "it's not a bug, it's a
           | feature!"
        
             | iamerroragent wrote:
             | "We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents."
             | 
             | - Bob Ross
        
             | morelisp wrote:
             | I'm just a little sick of this getting trotted out as a
             | factoid when it's patently ridiculous, like they never
             | noticed it or that compensating for it in some way was
             | impossible. There are _actual unintentional mechanics_ like
             | the Nagoya Shot, unexpected technical skills like the
             | rainbow finish, or one of the earliest examples of RNG
             | manipulation for UFO control, that are much more
             | interesting to talk about.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | fauxpause_ wrote:
               | It was not intentionally designed. It was intentionally
               | left in. The first statement is what is cool.
        
           | peteri wrote:
           | There is some code that controls the speed when there is a
           | single alien left it moves faster right to left see the code
           | at 00C2 in
           | http://computerarcheology.com/Arcade/SpaceInvaders/Code.html
           | 
           | But basically one alien moves every video frame.
        
       | jhbadger wrote:
       | Odd that the screenshot in the article isn't of the actual arcade
       | game but rather the Atari 2600 port (which is granted a quite
       | good port given the limitations of the 2600), but still.
        
         | hota_mazi wrote:
         | Indeed. And it's not hard to find screenshots of the actual
         | game since Space Invaders is a very popular project for people
         | interested in emulation:
         | 
         | https://github.com/cbeust/space-invade.rs
        
         | dottrap wrote:
         | Thank you for identifying that. I felt a bunch of things were
         | off in that screenshot. For one, I don't remember those colors.
         | But I didn't trust my memory.
         | 
         | But more importantly, since the article went on to describe the
         | "octopus" and other aliens in some detail, I was looking at
         | that picture trying to see those details. None of those aliens
         | were quite as I remembered them. That Atari 2600 picture really
         | doesn't do justice to what the article goes into detail about.
        
           | blihp wrote:
           | There was color but it was achieved via tinted cellophane
           | tape. (though I do remember playing pure black and white
           | versions as well) Later, there were 'real' color versions in
           | arcades but I don't recall if it was a later iteration of the
           | hardware or a knock-off.
        
       | bookofjoe wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/HyCJT
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-16 23:00 UTC)