Space Fever

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Space Fever
Arcade flyer of Space Fever
Arcade flyer of Space Fever.
Developer(s) Nintendo R&D1
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Designer(s) Ikegami Tsushinki
Platform(s) Arcade game
Release date JPN 1979
NA 1980
Genre(s) Fixed Shooter
Mode(s) Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Input methods Joystick, 1 button
Cabinet Up-right, Cocktail
CPU Z80 @ 3.072 MHz, I8035 @ 0.4 MHz
Sound DAC audio
Display Raster (Vertical) standard resolution (Used: 224×256)

Space Fever (スペースフィーバー?) is a 1979 arcade game designed by Ikegami Tsushinki, developed by Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo. It was released in both monochrome and color versions. It is Nintendo's version of Taito's 1978 Space Invaders.

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

Screenshot of Space Fever in Game-A mode.
Screenshot of Space Fever in Game-A mode.

Similar to the gameplay of Space Invaders, Space Fever stars alien invaders who are attacking Earth. Player must shoot them out of the sky before they land, while avoiding each projectile shot by them. The alien craft are arranged in rows and they slowly move left and right across the screen. When the row reaches the edge, the ships drop down a row and move in the opposite direction.

Unlike Space Invaders, Space Fever has three different game modes, instead of one for 1- or 2-player games:

  • Game-A: There are two "blocks" of aliens that move in opposite directions to each other.
  • Game-B: The aliens move as one "block", but they only appear one row at a time.
  • Game-C: Equal to Space Invaders - all the aliens move as one "block" in the same direction.

As players shoot more enemies, the speed of them will increase, as will the number of their projectiles. Players have four shelter blocks above them that absorb the enemy shots until they are worn through, and being hit by an enemy shot will cost players a life. Players have three lifes and once they lose all of them, the game is over. Sometimes a UFO will fly along the top of the screen and can be hit for a random amount of Bonus points.

[edit] Sequels

A special version of Space Fever called SF-Hisplitter, released the same year, features aliens double the width of the standard variety, which can either be destroyed completely or split into two smaller aliens depending on where they are shot. Not only the color version was colored, but also got the looks of its shelter blocks modified from the looks of the monochrome version's.

A sequel to Space Fever, known as Space Fever II was built into the Game Boy Camera and acted both as a means of selecting the other built-in games, and as a game in itself. Space Fever II deviates from the Space Invaders formula, featuring instead smaller waves of individual aliens and bosses based on faces of Nintendo staff as well as the "game face" photos taken by the player, things in reality, or just drawings.

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