Defend Earth in Space Invaders
Arrow keys move, space fires · P pauses.
Space Invaders is the arcade classic that launched the shoot-’em-up: a grid of aliens marches side to side and creeps ever closer while you slide a laser cannon along the bottom, firing up to wipe them out. Hide behind crumbling bunkers, dodge the bombs raining down, and clear each wave before a faster, lower one takes its place.
How to play
Space Invaders in 4 steps
Move your cannon
Slide left and right along the bottom with the arrow keys or the on-screen buttons to line up your shot and dodge incoming fire.
Fire upward
Press space (or the fire button) to launch a shot. Each alien you hit bursts and scores — the higher rows are worth the most points.
Use the bunkers
Duck behind the shield bunkers for cover, but they erode with every blast — yours and theirs — so don’t lean on them too long.
Clear the wave
Wipe out every alien to advance. Each new wave starts lower and marches faster, so the pressure never lets up.
Controls
- Arrow ← → / A D
- Move the cannon
- Space / ↑
- Fire a shot
- P
- Pause / resume
- R
- New game
- On-screen buttons
- Move & fire (touch)
Strategy
Tips to play better
Thin out the edges
Pick off the outer columns first so the swarm has farther to travel — and farther to drop — before it reaches your side of the screen.
Mind the speed-up
The fewer aliens left, the faster they march. Keep a couple of easy targets alive while you reposition, then finish the wave on your terms.
Lead your shots
Aliens shift a step at a time. Fire just ahead of where a moving alien will be, not where it sits right now, so your laser meets it.
Never stop moving
Bombs fall straight down. A stationary cannon is an easy target, so keep drifting and only pause to take a clean shot.
About Space Invaders
Space Invaders was designed by Tomohiro Nishikado and released by Taito in 1978. He built the hardware himself when no existing board could move that many sprites, and the result became one of the first true shoot-’em-ups — the game that ignited the golden age of arcades. It was such a sensation in Japan that it spawned a lasting legend about causing a national shortage of 100-yen coins.
Part of its genius is emergent: the aliens speed up not by design but because the early hardware could redraw fewer sprites faster, so each kill quickened the survivors. That accelerating march — and its iconic four-note heartbeat getting quicker as the swarm thins — turns every wave into a tightening vice of tension that still works on players today.
This Unicode edition draws the swarm, your cannon, the laser fire and the crumbling bunkers entirely from glowing characters on a neon grid — no images, no sprites. It plays with keyboard, touch and on-screen controls on any device, and your best score is saved locally in your browser between sessions.
FAQ
Space Invaders questions
How do I shoot?
What happens when the aliens reach the bottom?
Do the aliens really get faster?
Is my high score saved?
Is it really free?
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