Internet Arcade: Space Stranger

Space Stranger is a vertical arcade shooter game manufactured by Yachiyo Electronics in 1978. Yachiyo Electronics is one of the many Japanese companies that developed and manufactured arcade video games in the late 70s and 80s. Currently, the company still exists and it manufactures electronics .

Space Stranger is one of the various bootleg arcade games released after Space Invaders. This game, like the original video game, features a space ship controlled by a player and several alien ships which the player must then defeat at each level. Space Strangers also features identical graphics and gameplay as Space Invaders. The player’s ship is armed with a gun system which can be used to blast off alien ships which are in the player’s gun range.

The player is armed with 3 extra lives at the start of the game. Each life is lost when the player’s ship gets destroyed. To protect the space ship, player must avoid contact with aliens by blasting them before they get to the bottom part of the screen, where the player’s ship is stationed. The player’s space ship can only move left and right but unable to move upwards. Aliens come in a formation which consists of the light blue, yellow, blue, green and purple soldiers. The light blue aliens are the closest to the player, but they don’t fire guns as soon as they appear. The next group on the assault line are the green aliens, these aliens shoot periodically. The blue aliens come next to the green aliens are they fire projectiles more frequently than the green aliens. The yellow aliens are more advanced, while the purple and yellow aliens are at the topmost part of the formation.
For defence, there are four blocks stationed right before the player’s ship. The blocks are meant to protect player from aliens trying to destroy it. All aliens shoot projectiles which are fired in the player’s direction. If the player gets hit by any of the aliens’ projectiles, one of the lives is lost. On each level, there is a mothership that hovers over the formation of aliens. Because they are harder to reach and faster than the other aliens, mothership award more points. Motherships award a minimum of 100 points while other aliens on the screen award 10 to 50 points each.

Although the defence blocks are supposed to protect the player’s ship, they get gradually destroyed when hit by alien or the projectiles they shoot. Player must then make sure to eliminate all hostiles before the defence blocks wear out and leave the ship vulnerable. Initially, aliens only move from the left to the right side of the screen while shooting at the player, but as the game continues, the aliens advance towards the player and destroy the ship if they are not all blasted off. Also, when a few aliens are left on the screen, the speed at which they move and advance towards player increases and at this point, they pose a huge threat to the player. Once a wave of aliens has been cleared, the next stage loads and aliens take formation like the previous stages. In advanced levels, aliens move towards the players at the bottom of the screen with more speed.