----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alien Invaders Plus FAQ/Strategy Guide for the Odyssey^2 by Sam Skinner Copyright Sam Skinner, 2008-2018. See the final section of this guide for more information on the copyright Guide started on 03-03-2008 Version 1.00 finished 03-03-2008 Version 1.01 finished 09-21-2018 Resubmitted 09-23-2018 My E-mail = Arguro AT hotmail.com Please direct any questions, comments or corrections to my e-mail. Thanks. Also, let me know what you think! I need some feed back! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents Press CTRL and F and enter the code in the parenthesis to quickly jump to that section Introduction (AIPINT) Controls (AIPCON) Game Mechanics (AIPMCH) Strategy (AIPSTR) FAQS (AIPFAQ) Version History (AIPHIS) Copyright Information (AIPCPY) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction (AIPINT) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alien Invaders -- Plus! is a shooting game for the Odyssey ^2. It is very similar in style to games like Space Invaders from the same time period. It does have some differences though that make this game better and more appealing to some people. Perhaps the biggest difference is the ability to gain a new ship if you get shot. If you are shot by an alien, you lose your ship, but not your life. You can convert a shield into a ship and continue with the same aliens that you all ready shot. The shields do not disappear except for when converting them into a ship. There are only two rows of shootable aliens and they only drop down a few steps, rather than the entire screen. The aliens them selves have impenetrable shields as well. Anyone who played and like Space Invaders will enjoy this game. I choose to write a strategy guide for this game because it is different enough from Space Invaders that it warranted some strategy. While this game is very basic, it never hurts to have a general strategy guide for a game. This is one of my first attempts at writing for a game that is fairly simple and as such, I may have glossed over an area of importance. If you see something that should be added, or have a general question, comment or correction, please feel free to e-mail me. My e-mail address can be found at the beginning and the end of this guide. ***Update!!!*** I haven't played this game since I made this guide over ten years ago, but I do still own the game and system and have ready access to them both. I am willing to dig it out of the closet and hook it up to my HDTV (yes, it will work) and attempt to answer any questions you may have. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Controls (AIPCON) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you first turn on your Odyssey ^2, press either the number 1 or enter on the keyboard to start the game. The Joystick moves your ship left and right on the screen. The Action button shoots a laser up towards the invading aliens. After being shot, the action buttons converts a shield into a new ship when positioned under the shield. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Game Mechanics (AIPMCH) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have ever played Space Invaders on the Atari 2600 or Space Armada on the Mattel Intellivision or either in the arcades, then you will have a basic understanding of this game. Alien Invaders Plus is more or less a rip off of Space Invaders with some interesting quirks that have been added. The basic premise of the game is that there are alien invaders (technically, you are on an alien planet in this game) and your must destroy them all, one by one before they land. There are essentially two rows of shootable enemies that stay in formation at all times. A third alien ship will come in and move around across the top of the screen. When either all aliens are dead or all of your shields are destroyed, the alien ship will come in close and shoot at you from near point blank range. The alien ship can be shot at any time but will come back after a few seconds. It can only be fully destroyed once all other alien invaders are killed. There are essentially three rows of aliens. One of them are alien shields that are represented by green circles. These shields move opposite of the other two rows. The second row, which is represented by yellow or orange (depending on your TV) mushroom looking things are the alien cannons. As long as these cannons exist, they can shoot you. The third and final row, which are red humanoid looking things, are the aliens them selves. They operate the guns which are behind the shields. The second and third row will move one step right and then back to the left while the first row (the one with shields), moves left then back to the right. This opens up the guns and aliens to be shot. Only the guns above you will shoot you at any given time. They typically shoot when directly above you. The alien ship will shoot only when above you as well, but it shoot you on the left or right side in addition to head on. If you shoot the alien behind the gun, the gun will no longer shoot. You are represented by a gray triangle on the bottom of the screen. You are free to move left and right as you please, but you cannot move forward or backward. You also cannot move past the edges of the screen. Directly above you will be three Black Squares which represent your shields. Your shields are impenetrable by enemy lasers as well as your own. You cannot shoot through them and they cannot be shot through. If you get hit by an enemy laser, your triangular ship disappears and your guy is left on the bottom. If you get under a shield square and shoot, the shield will then turn into a new ship and you can shoot the aliens again. This causes the shield to disappear but is the only way to continue the game. When all aliens (except the green shields) are killed you gain one point and the game starts over. If you are shot twice in a row, meaning you are shot and lose your ship and are shot again in guy form, you lose and the computer gains a point. The game will then start over. This continues until one side earns ten points. Once ten points are earned on one side, the game is over. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Strategy (AIPSTR) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since your shields cannot be destroyed by the aliens, they are your best friends. You should always hide behind them. They can be shot repeatedly and will not disappear or weaken. Choose one side. I prefer the right side. The aliens will step out from behind their shields for a brief second to the right side of your shield. When they do, quickly move right, shoot and move back behind your shield. Kill the alien and the gun on the far right first. Now move to the left side of the right shield and wait for the aliens to be unprotected. Jump out and shoot then quickly move back and hide. Once the aliens that are three from the right are dead, move to the far left shield. The two aliens that are second from the right will still be there as they are hiding above your shield. Do the same thing on this side now. Start with the ones on the far left then shoot the ones on the other side of the same shield. You should also be able to shoot the aliens that are above this shield as they will have dropped down and will have reversed direction. When the three on the left are dead, head back to the right and shoot the ones you could not previously hit. Now head to the middle shield and do the same thing here. This should leave a few left in between the left shield and the middle shield as well as in between the right shield and the middle shield. Your best plan of attack is to move quickly and shoot blindly. If you stop to aim, you will likely be hit by either the alien ship or the yellow guns. Move quickly back and forth until all are dead. When all are dead, the red alien ship will come in. It will come in to very close range and will shoot at you. You need to destroy it first. Try and stay to one side of it until it shoots. Then stop moving and let it catch up to you. Shoot it the instant it is over you. You have to plan ahead and shoot shortly before it reaches you so that when it is over you, it will be hit. When it is dead, you gain a point and the game resets. This is, of course, the perfect scenario strategy. This is what you want to plan on doing. However, this is not what will actually happen most of the time. You are likely to get hit a couple of times. When you do get hit, run to the nearest shield. From here you have to determine which shield will be the best to sacrifice to get a new ship. You want to choose the one with the least amount of either aliens or guns above it. Remember that guns cannot shoot without aliens and aliens cannot shoot without a gun. Your center shield is the one you want to try to save for last. You should only sacrifice it if all aliens above it are destroyed. You want to keep it because it is the fastest one to get to from anywhere. If you lose all your shields or two on the same side, do not stop moving back and fourth. If you stop, you will be shot. Continue moving from the far side of the screen to the other far side and back again. If you move part way then double back, you are likely to be hit by a laser that was already shot. You want to keep shooting so repeatedly press the action button. The aliens will move down periodically. They do not come far, but their ending location is much closer than their beginning location. This causes them to be able to shoot quicker, giving you less reaction time to move out of the way. Any laser that is shot at you can be countered with a laser of your own. If you shoot a laser that meets an enemy laser, the lasers will counterattack each other and they will both stop and disappear. Above all else, movement and the shields are your friends. Remember that the aliens cannot shoot you when they are behind their shields as well as your own. The only one that can hit you is the red ship at the top. This means that it is advantageous to move to a new shield when they are behind their shields. This game is just repetition and will time and practice, you will get better. Should you be shot and you have no shields left, you will be dead meat. As a guy with no ship, you cannot attack. You can try to avoid being hit, but you will eventually be killed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frequently Asked Questions (AIPFAQ) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please send any questions you my have to my e-mail address. It can be found at the top or the bottom of this guide. Q: What is this game? A: Alien Invaders -- Plus! is essentially a Space Invaders rip off for the Odyssey. Space Invaders was an Atari made game and as such, only appeared on Atari consoles in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Space Invaders was immensely popular and was one of the first video games that appealed to everyone. There were many rip offs and parodies that were made for other systems. This is one of them. Q: Who made this game? A: According to the label on the cartridge, the game was made by Magnavox Consumer Electronics Company. Q: When was this game released? A: The only date on the cartridge is the copyright year of 1980. I would assume it was released in 1980. Q: My game freezes on me after playing several rounds. What happened? A: It is likely that you or the computer has won 10 matches. The number in the top left indicates the computer's score and the number in the top right indicates your score. If neither of these numbers says 10, then you may have a faulty game. Try resetting and if it does it again, you can probably assume that is the case. Q: Is there a way to fix it if it is broken? A: There may be, but I would not know how. Try asking a dedicated electronics forum on the internet or just buy a new copy. It will not cost you much money. If you are able to take the game apart, you may be able to look for weak solder points, however, I would assume that they would render the game non-working. Q: Where can I buy this game? A: It will be next to impossible to find this game still for sale in a store. My main suggestion is to look online. A secondary suggestion would be to try thrift stores and pawn shops that specialize in old games. I personally got mine for about 50 cents on eBay in a lot of 100 or so Atari 2600 games. I have occasionally seen Odyssey ^2 games available in specialty game shops, though usually not in abundance nor in the best condition. Q: I have a different strategy that seems to work better than yours. Will you post it in your guide? A: Absolutely, assuming it is a valid strategy. E-mail your method to me and I will try it out. If it works, I will include it in my guide along with my strategy and I will credit you. Q: Are there any harder difficulty settings than the default one? A: No. The default settings are the only settings for the game. Q: How many points are each alien worth? A: The game does not keep track of points. There is no on-screen indication of points other than how many games have been won by either side. The game ends when ten points are scored by one side. No points are tallied. Q: How many lives do I have? A: Technically, you have ten. If your ship gets shot and then your guy gets shot, you lose the round and the computer gains a point. If this happens ten times, the game ends. You have as many ships as you have shields per round. Shields reset every round. Q: Can I host this guide on my site? A: No. I do not allow anyone to use my guides without expressed, written permission. I do not give permission unless I am asked, specifically, about this guide. I do not like automated e-mails. I will most likely only allow my site to be hosted on a small website, usually one centered around the game or system my guide is for. For more information, see the Copyright section of this guide, at the bottom. Use of this guide without my permission is considered theft and will be reported to the proper authorities. Q: How do I contact you about this guide? A: E-mail is the best way to do so. My e-mail can be found at the beginning or the end of this guide, just remember to take the numbers 123 out of it because they do not belong. I keep them there to prevent auto scanning websites from obtaining my e-mail address. Alternatively, you can also contact me via MSN using the same e-mail address of on AIM using the screen name ArguroDeXill. While I am almost always online, I am not always at my computer and it may take as many as 8 hours to get a reply from me. Just be patient if this is the contact method of choice. I am not ignoring you, simply doing something away from the computer. ****Update!!!**** The above paragraph is hilarious looking at it in 2018. I haven't used instant messaging in almost ten years now! I don't even know if instant messaging is a thing anymore. Just e-mail me. Q: What other guides have you done? A: Just simply click on the name Arguro at the very top or the very bottom (orange text in a black box) of this guide and it will take you to my contributor page. From there you can see all the different things I have contributed to Gamefaqs. ****Update!!!**** Gamefaqs looks a lot different now. Just go to my contributor page. Q: I really like your guides. Can I donate money to you in support? A: If you really want to, you can send a Pay Pal payment to my e-mail address which is at the top or bottom of this guide. Please understand that any donated money does not mean I will name you in my guide. It also does not mean I will do any special work for you and it certainly does not give you any rights to host this guide or publish it anywhere. I do not want the user to feel obligated to pay me in any means. This is a free guide for personal, private home use. I will not reject your offer to pay me, but I do not want you to feel it is necessary. If you do decide to donate to me, please only donate what amount you are comfortable with, even if it is a single penny. Once a donation is made, it is final and there will be no refunds. This is an odd question and I debated about adding it for a long time, but when I saw other FAQ authors had a similar question, I felt it would be a valid addition. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version History (AIPHIS) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.00 completed March 3rd, 2008 at 9:36 pm Mountain Time Version included the addition of the entire guide, including the following sections: Introduction, Controls, Game Mechanics, Strategy, FAQS, Version History and Copyright Information. Guide is complete. Seven total pages when printed. (18 KB) Version 1.01 completed September 21st, 2018 at 8:13 pm Mountain Time Version included the resubmittal of the guide to Gamefaqs, mostly as a test to see if my guides are still acceptable. If all goes well, the rest of them may make a reappearance. I made some small updates as commentary to the antiquated references that were, and have been kept, in the guide. Fixed a few typos in the copyright section. Seven total pages when printed (who prints these anymore?). (19.6 KB) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright information (AIPCPY) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This guide is the copyright of Sam Skinner 2008-2018. This guide may not be reproduced on any website without my expressed, handwritten consent. The user is hereby granted permission to store this guide on his or her hard drive under the following conditions: 1. The hard drive may only be accessed by the user and his or her immediate family; 2. The guide is kept fully intact, i.e. no section, paragraph, word, letter or punctuation mark is missing from the guide; 3. This section is kept stored with the guide and is read before any other section is read when the individual accesses the guide for the first time. The user is also hereby allowed to print this guide in any fashion as he or she sees fit, provided that this section in its entirety is included with the printed version. The printed version must not be sold or given away under any circumstance. This guide may only be hosted on www.gamefaqs.com at this time. If you want to use this guide on your website, you must send me an e-mail to Arguro AT Hotmail.com and please specify which guide you want to host. I ask that you specify so that I know you actually are interested in my work and that I am not reading an automated e-mail that scans FAQS for email addresses. If you do not specify the guide and include specific reasons why you would like to host it, I will NOT allow to host it at any time now or in the future. I reserve the right to determine what sites may and may not host this guide as well as the right to ask for monetary compensation for the hosting of this guide as I see fit. Failure to abide by these rules set forth is a violation of US copyright law and is subject to persecution. Further use of this guide is considered acceptance of these rules set forth. If you do not agree with these rules, do not use this guide.