Atari VCS Space Invaders on a C64! - Preview 3
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Welcome to my third preview of Atari VCS Space Invaders on a C64. A conversion of the classic Atari console game.
The Atari VCS version of Space Invaders is probably the most famous conversion in the world - as it has been dubbed in recent years the first ever 'killer app'.
The cartridge sold millions of copies for Atari and even though it wasn't like the arcade game, it was the favourite of many who played and bought it.
This may seem like a straight-forward conversion to the Commdoore 64, but it isn't as easy as it appears and it's going to take some clever coding to get it looking like the VCS. The C64 has a limited colour palette compared to the Atari and it is also hampered by how close multiplexed sprites can be on the y-axis.
I plan to simulate all the switches of the light/heavy sixer models and include all 112 game variations. I may add a title screen, high score table and a few other extras into this conversion.
No planned release date - as this is just a side-project to keep me motivated. More details will follow in the weeks and months to come.
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Video was uploaded in HD*.
All code, graphics, sound by Robert Wilson. © 2025 rwx designs.
Original game released by Atari Inc./Sears and written by Richard Maurer © 1980.
*Note: video quality may be reduced by TH-cam or your personal settings. Any adverts which may be shown before/after the video have been added by TH-cam and not by myself.
Military experts are baffled, as the once-termed "Invaders from Space" have gone into what appears to be a permanent holding pattern. Two sentry vehicles have been deployed to the scene with an "observe only" directive. Residents are advised *not* to discharge firearms into the sky, as they might inadvertently start an interstellar war.
Always erring on the side of caution, the military is working fervently on creating three static shields, possibly consisting of custom-made groups of hires characters. While shots from either side can and will chip away bits of these shields, they will afford us some protection in likely conflict to come.
Wow! It’s looking brilliant, no way did I didn’t think you were doing 112 variations! Amazing, you never do anything by half do you?! Personally I’d get it up and running and get it out, most people won’t notice the 112 variations. It’s going to be an Atari VCS Invaders Emulator!
Thanks. Yes, the plan in my head was to do all 112 variations of the game. I don't think there's much point in putting it out without them. Once I've got all the basic mechanics of the game up and running, it should be quite easy to do them all. But it's all just designed to look like the original, none of it behind the scenes is the same at all and it is quite different - it's just quite subtle.. and to notice the differences you've probably got to have played the original game thousands of times over.
Keep up the good work! Who would have thought that this could be so difficult, eh?
It's a fun side project for me. I've always wanted to see this version on the C64, so it's just a case of seeing how things develop in the next few weeks. I've added more since the video which I will show in Preview 4.
Very interesting. I was going to ask why you don't do the aliens in character mode, but you answered that in the video. Look forward to seeing more of this. Space Invaders was pretty impressive on the VCS considering the hardware.
Thanks, yes - I used to play the game all the time when I was a kid. It was well written for the time and it doesn't suffer with sprite flicker like a lot of other VCS games. To cram everything into 4k of ROM with all the game variations was an achievement in itself.
Great idea!
Thank you.. I kinda wanted to see how it would look on a C64.
Nice work!
Thanks. Plenty more to come..