XLIENS by KTB Retro

 

XLIENS by KTB Retro for ZX Spectrum 48K

First Love in Pixels

"A blinking screen, a heart aflame, Space Invaders called my name.

Lines of foes, they marched in tight, I swore to guard the world that night.

A pulsing sound, a trembling start, the game’s first beat—a racing heart.

Invaders march, a growing dread, the echo drums inside my head.

Each pixel burned into my soul, a love so fierce, beyond control.

Though years have passed, the thrill remains, forever lost in retro flames."

- Unknown poet, late 20th century.

   Of course, for many of us, Space Invaders was our first love. The magic of interacting with the action on the screen and the fantasy of galactic defence left an indelible mark on many.

   A short introduction by the culprit, Mr Tomohiro Nishikado:

"It all started with Atari’s Breakout. “I was hooked on it”. When Taito management asked him to make something that would surpass Atari’s brick-basher, Nishikado was already deep in thought about how to achieve this. “I decided to plan a shooting game, which was my forte. But until then, shooting games were mainly time-based—players defeated as many targets as possible within a set period. So I decided to make a game with a lives system, and interactive gameplay in which multiple enemies would attack the player.”

His initial design had you shoot at tanks, but Nishikado remembers that their shape and movement “didn’t feel right.” The team tried fighter planes and battleships, but those didn’t work any better with the limited technology of the day. “I then tried a solider and was satisfied with the movement, but there was an opinion that shooting people was not a good idea, and so I gave up on that,” says Nishikado.

A solution arrived in the form of War of the Worlds. Nishikado remembered the 1953 film from his childhood and became inspired by various media depictions of the invaders, which often resembled sea life. “I based a new target on an octopus, and since it was now an alien, there was no problem shooting it,” he says. And with the shape not having to be specifically recognizable, any issues with realism went away. Nishikado set about creating further enemies, abstracted from marine creatures like crabs and squids."   - Excerpt from an interview in Wired.

   Many of us have probably programmed a Space Invaders at one time or another, trying to relive our first love. Inspired by the muses and ignoring fashion, KTB Retro Computing Productions, the arch-famous company dedicated to creating video games for the ZX Spectrum and Enterprise, dutifully enters our prominent contest with a very homemade, BASIC-written version of the venerable Invaders.

"You know how to play this" - I loved it.

   It says version 0.1, I hope this is the beginning of a saga of new Invaders for the Spectrum that the author lets slip in his email. I hope KTB makes them and I hope we see them here.

   After this sparse introduction, we set out on a mission to defend the Earth, to save the planet:

   Our well-trained brains are more than capable of seeing our super-advanced defensive weapon, which travels on magnetic levitation rails instead of that green arrow. The XX are invading creatures from the Andromeda galaxy who look so menacing that our hero will have nightmares about them for the rest of his life. And the red * is a plasma shot at a temperature of 7000 degrees Kelvin that instantly disintegrates the invaders' shields.

   Fortunately for the planet, the intruders are on a tight budget and have not been able to equip their ships with weapons. In their policy of extreme frugality, the tactic is to land and conquer on foot. Approaching from the air, they are vulnerable to our gunfire.

   Xliens counter, wave indicator and score number, what more do you need?

   Well... Speed, and that is something that is completely lacking in this game. We know that in the presence of large amounts of energy or mass, time slows down. That must be the circumstance. Something very energetic is coming with these uninvited ships, almost stopping the clocks.

(Yes, the great Salvador would agree.)

   The game is painfully slow, things happen in your life between the time you press a key and the time the action is reflected on the screen. But don't panic, extreme miniaturisation comes to our rescue, modern processors allow us to increase the speed of our emulator to, say, 3x. Now this is really fun. Those aliens are about to find out what a devastating defensive weapon we have.

   

   Damn it, they've cut back on laser cannons, but not on shipbuilding, more to come!

   Unlikely as it is, they may be able to land and... Goodbye humanity.

   I'm serious, if they manage to invade, even the Z80 will be destroyed:

   The author says that he made the game in a lunch break and that its place is in this contest, I don't think he's suggesting that we host crappy games here...

   Zzzzzzaping it all together: Although it may seem obvious and too basic, I love a Space Invaders every time. The lack of speed makes it a member of the highest crap category. The use of emulator acceleration makes it a member of the very enjoyable category of games. Minimal beeps humiliate a species that has traversed space only to be unspectacularly disintegrated. I understand that there was no time for a few UDGs between the bite of the sandwich and the sip of juice. I have no problem with 'filling in the blanks', in fact I like it. But maybe the next version will even have 3D animations.

Scrambled Smile: 7/10.

Broccoli and Squid Yoghourt: 7/10

Deep Fried Ice Cream: 6/10

Strawberry Monosodium Glutamate: 6/10

Affable Hot Chocolate Sauce: 2/10