Space Invaders
Model No: 1178-E
Released: May 8, 1979
Designed By: Jim Patla
Art By: Paul Farris
Space Invaders was the first pinball machine to be based on a video game. Bally's video game division, Midway, had licensed Space Invaders from Taito in Japan, and decided to capitalize on the machine's incredible success by using it as a theme for a pinball.
It was a wide-body game, with the cabinet being as wide as the backbox. The artwork on the machine was highly inspired by H.R. Giger's design for the "Alien" from the movie with the same name. In fact, they ended up stopping production of the game early due to pending lawsuits, the artwork was so similar, though 11,400 machines were produced.
The backglass was actually two seperate pieces. The back piece had the game's name, a very large alien (as stated, looking incredibly similar to Giger's alien), and was mirrored. Around the edge was a set of 32 lights that would light in sequential patterns around the edge of the backbox. In front of the lights was another backglass, designed to reflect the image back upon itself while still being seen from the outside. The end result was that the moving lights would seem to head off into infinity.
The sound effects also attempt to recreate the feeling of the Space Invaders video game. A repetetive "thump-thump" plays, speeding up as you hit more targets. It can get annoying after a while...
The Playfield:
The plunger lane heads to the top, where the ball is trapped by two gates in a section with three rollover lanes below it. The rollovers lead to a set of three pop bumpers. A path to the right leads back into the rollovers from down below. To the upper left is the 'clone chamber', where a captive ball is stored, and when hit, rolls up to a target.
In the center, directly below the bumpers, is a small horseshoe, and the center of the horseshoe has a single target at the bottom. On the middle left side is a set of three drop targets, with more drop targets on the right side.
There are four flippers at the bottom. A regular set of two flippers, with a set of two mini-flippers above them, and toward the sides. There is one outlane on each side, and two inlanes, with the inner inlanes going to the small flippers.
The Rules:
I cannot find the rules or scoring at this point. I shall sit down with Visual Pinball and see if I can iron out the workings of this game. They shall appear here as I figure things out. If anyone knows any information, it would be appreciated.
Sources:
The Internet Pinball Database, http://www.lysator.liu.se/pinball/IPD
Space Invaders Pinball, http://www.baverstock.com/invader.html