Invade-a-Load

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Invade-a-Load was a loader routine used in software for Commodore 64 computer. It was used in commercial games that were stored on cassette tape and loaded using the Datassette. The loader was written by Richard Aplin for Mastertronic's own use.

Invade-a-Load was a typical "turbo tape" loader, with one notable feature: While the actual game was loading - a process which usually took a long time, even with optimized loader routines - the loader allowed the user to play a smaller game to pass time. The game was a clone of the famous Space Invaders game. The minigame was loaded in under a minute, providing entertainment while waiting for the actual game to load which could take a further five to ten minutes.

The loader itself has a copyright date of 1987, but the first games that used the loader showed up in 1988. Over the following years, Mastertronic used the loader in dozens of titles.

The loader was also memorable for the soundtrack, originally made by Rob Hubbard for a slightly more obscure Mastertronic title, One Man and His Droid.

In 1995, Yoichi Hayashi of Namco Ltd. invented a variant of this technique for use with optical disc based platforms such as PlayStation and applied for a patent. U.S. Patent 5,718,632  was granted in February 1998 and assigned to Namco.