Scott's Space Invaders

(c) 2007 Scott M Baker / SB-Software, http://www.sb-software.com/spaceinvaders/

They arrived one day. They attacked the outpost. Funny little green guys shooting purple energy zigzags. All would have been lost were it not for the lone defender in his little ship. He fought them. Wave after wave. They only kept coming faster and faster. Did he ever defeat them all? Perhaps we'll never know...

Overview, Requirements, and Installation

Overview:

Scott's Space Invaders is a space invader style game (well, what else did you expect)... It has a few little bells and whistles to jazz things up -- lots of powerups, spinning invaders, cool explosions and other effects, photographic backgrounds, etc. But it's still a space invaders game. It has been written to use the latest and greatest 3D graphics hardware of your modern PC.

Requirements:

This game requires Windows XP and Microsoft DirectX version 9.0 or greater.

This game requires a decent video card with 3D acceleration.

Installation:

The automated setup program will install Scott's Space Invaders to your hard drive, and place an  icon on your desktop. Click the icon, start the game. It's as simple as that.

Getting Started

Launching the game:

The game is launched, unsurprisingly, by clicking the desktop icon labeled "Scott's Space Invaders" on your desktop. This will bring up a dialog box where you can configure game options, graphics settings, difficulty, etc.

If you want to jump right into things, then go ahead and click the <Play> button.

If, on the other hand, you want to study the full range of exciting configuration options available to you first, then continue reading...

Accessing the options menu:

The options menu is accessed by clicking the <Options> button on the main window (no surprise there....) When you do that, the splash screen of the game will be replaced with an options tab control. You can click a tab to select the options on that tab.

Windowed vs Full Screen:

You can choose to play the game in a window, or on your full screen. Personally, I recommend full screen mode (who ever went to an arcade and played a game with windows and dialog boxes in it...)

Windowed mode is useful if you still  want part of your windows desktop visible. For example, if you're waiting for an important email message or some such nonsense.

Difficulty:

The difficulty levels range from a complete and total wimp level, to unreasonably difficult. Adjusting the difficulty level will make asteroids harder to destroy, and your ship easier to destroy.

Acceleration Effect:

The acceleration effect controls how responsive your outpost defense fighter is. Traditionally, Space Invaders is played with very little acceleration effect, so we suggest turning the slider all the way to the left. But, if you'd like a bit of a challenge, crank up the acceleration effect and you'll find your little ship more difficult to control.

Playing the Game

The game is played using the keyboard, joystick, or mouse. To select an input device, use the "options" button on the main window, and select the "controls" page.

Keyboard commands:

Left-Arrow Rotate your ship left  
Right-Arrow Rotate your ship right
Ctrl Fire a nuclear torpedo (you have an unlimited* supply of them, so you have safely hold down the ctrl key if you wish)
Alt Fire a special weapon, such as Starburst
ESC Pause (or quit) the game
Shift Engage shield, if you have shield power available (you must collect power-ups)

Joystick:

[Note: By default, keyboard support is selected. To use your joystick, use the options button on the main menu and select the controls page]

Joystick support is self-intuitive. Pressing left or right moves your ship to the left or the right. Moving the joystick up or down has no effect. Weapon, Starburst, and Shield are controlled by joystick buttons 1, 2, and 3. You can also use the keyboard to fire the weapons and activate the shields.

Mouse:

[Note: By default, keyboard support is selected. To use your mouse, use the options button on the main menu and select the controls page]

Using the mouse is a very efficient way to control your ship, and with practice can be even better than using a joystick. Moving the mouse left or right will move your ship in that direction. The mouse's left button fires your primary weapon, and the right button will fire alternate weapons, such as the starburst missile. The middle button (if your mouse is so equipped) will activate shields.

You can also fire your weapon, starburst, or shield with the keyboard.

Invaders:

Several rows of invaders show up at the top of the screen, and will march left-to-right† across the screen. When they get to one side, they'll step down a row. Eventually they'll be right on top of you (that would be bad...) so try to shoot them before they get to you.

Hull Plating:

Your ship is equipped with a limited amount of hull plating. If an invader's zigzag bullet hits you, then your hull plating will be reduced by exactly one (this is due to highly predictable quantum effects). When you run out of hull plating, your ship is extremely vulnerable, and any hit will destroy it. That would be bad.

Power-ups:

Sometimes when you blow away an asteroid, it will leave a "power up" behind. Power-ups are equipment, materials, and treasure that were hidden by space pirates inside of the asteroid. Chase down the powerup with your ship and you will get a bonus. Here are some power-ups:

Hull Plating Adds to the existing hull plating rating of your ship.
Starburst Adds to your available starburst missile inventory. A starburst fires multiple missiles in multiple directions, and is usually fired with the alt key.
Extra Missile Launcher This will add an extra missile launcher to your ship, allowing you to fire two missiles at once. It will last a while, and then eventually burn out, leaving you with just one missile. If you already have two missile launchers, and you pick up this power-up, then you will be able to fire three missiles at once.
Extra Ship Add another ship to your inventory. Useful. Very useful.
Shield Picking up a shield powerup will increase your shield reserve. Shields are activated by using the Shift key

 UFOs

There are a variety of UFOs that will show up periodically and harass you. UFOs differ from asteroids and other hazards in the respect that UFOs also have nuclear torpedo launchers. Fortunately though the UFOs are exceedingly poor shots, and rarely hit you. Here are some common UFOs:

Flying Saucer These are believed to be the "mother ships" of the invaders. They usually fly across the screen above the ranks of the invaders.

Footnotes:

* You may ask yourself how we managed to fit an unlimited supply of nuclear torpedoes inside such a small space ship. This is not as difficult as it seems, because infinity is not nearly as a big a number as most people think it is, and the inside of your ship is bigger than it looks. We ensure you that your ship does in fact hold an infinite number of nuclear torpedoes and we encourage you to count them if you do not trust us. We would never lie.

† There has been much speculation as to why the invaders march in such a predictable left-to-right and right-to-left pattern. Scientists have speculated on the motivation and behavior of the invaders for many decades since they were first discovered in deep space. Recent scientific theory predicts that this behavior is an attempt to lure us all into a false sense of security and a more advanced form of invader will soon appear. However, the more likely explanation is that the invaders are simply extremely stupid. 

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