Alien Invasion

[DarwinNE]

Name: Alien Invasion
Author: DarwinNE (D. Bucci)
Released: July 23rd, 2018
Genre: Arcade Game
Requirements: Unexpanded VIC-20, PAL or NTSC
Development system: Textwrangler + ca65 + VICE xVIC + real PAL machine

Description: A Space Invaders-like game with a reduced number of aliens that become extremely fast after a few waves.
How to play: Use joystick or keys Z and X to move a small cannon at the bottom of the screen. Shoot with fire or SPACE at aliens that progressively get nearer and nearer. Avoid lethal bombs. Toggle music on/off with M.

Screenshot:

Video preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daVFV-qBjzE

Cassette inlay:

Download: https://github.com/DarwinNE/vic20-alien ... ses/latest
Open source GPL v.3, the source code is available.

A few words of comments: a few months ago, I wrote a small Space Invaders like game to train myself with the 6502 assembler on an unexpanded VIC-20. The result seemed to be sufficiently pleasing to push me to release the game on GitHub so that it can be freely downloaded and played by VIC-20 enthusiasts. Apart from some dubious realizations in BASIC many years ago, that is my first complete game for the VIC-20.

I hope you'll enjoy, let me know what you do think about it, some of my friends found it was entertaining. It can surely be improved, but it has been a nice experience and I will release other games in the future... well, at least one

Cheers

[English Invader]

Just gave it a go. I'm having trouble getting used to the Z,X and Space keyboard mapping you've used. I personally found the L,; and A in Defense Shield more intuitive because I'm right handed and it's closer to how I would normally operate a joystick (right hand does movement, left hand does button - the situation is reversed for gamepads and arcade controls but somehow it works).

[DarwinNE]

Hi, thank you for your suggestion, I'll think about it for my future games.

I realized I begun to play this game with my left hand on the Z and X keys, indeed, and I stuck to that...

[akator]

I have no problem with the controls. This game is a fun, quirky take on the genre. I have no doubt it would have been hit back in the day.

[DarwinNE]

Thank you! I wanted to write something similar to Space Invaders, but much faster, almost as Arcadia, but with a much more gradual increase of the difficulty and the speed (Arcadia is too difficult for my skills).

[orion70]

Wow. A smart, challenging, and very replayable version of the most popular game. Thanks for it! My 6 yo daughter is enjoying it very much as well: she likes the possibility to kill two or three foes at the same time .

[DarwinNE]

Thank you, orion70!
Two days ago, Alien Invasion was tested by the son of a couple of friends, a 5-years old kid who really enjoyed it. I was so happy about that!