Alien Wave pays homage to Space Invaders, designed by Tomohiro Nishikado and released by Taito Corporation in 1978. It is widely considered one of the most influential video games ever made — the title that launched the golden age of arcade games and permanently transformed the entertainment industry. Nishikado designed the hardware himself, building a custom CPU to run the game because existing chips were not powerful enough. An early programming constraint became a legendary feature: as more aliens were destroyed, the remaining ones moved faster because the processor had fewer objects to compute. Space Invaders generated $600 million in revenue in its first year in Japan, causing a nationwide shortage of 100-yen coins. Classic Arcade's Alien Wave replicates this escalating tension across multiple waves, with UFO bonus targets crossing the sky at irregular intervals and defensive bunkers that can be slowly eroded by enemy fire.
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Left / Right Arrow | Move your cannon horizontally |
| Spacebar | Fire a missile |
| P | Pause / resume |
| Touch left/right buttons | Move (mobile) |
| Touch fire button | Shoot (mobile) |
Alien invaders in the bottom two rows score 10 points each, the middle two rows score 20, and the top row scores 30 points. The mystery UFO that crosses the top of the screen awards a secret bonus — the exact value depends on the number of shots you have fired in the current wave, cycling through pre-set values. You begin with three lives; additional lives may be awarded at score milestones. Waves grow progressively faster — by the final rows of a wave, the surviving aliens will be moving at several times their original speed.
Shoot the aliens in the bottom rows first — they are the lowest-value targets but are closest to your position and most threatening. Take out the UFO at the start of a wave by counting your shot number to land on a high-value cycle point.
Q: Why do the aliens get faster?
Just like the original 1978 hardware, fewer aliens on screen means less processing overhead, so the movement timer ticks faster. This is an intentional recreation of the original's behaviour — the final surviving alien moves at terrifying speed.
Q: What does the UFO give me?
The UFO at the top of the screen awards a variable point bonus (typically between 50 and 300 points). The exact value cycles based on the total number of shots fired during the current wave, so experienced players can predict and maximise it.
Q: How many waves are there?
The game loops continuously — each cleared wave respawns a full formation of aliens at a higher base speed. Survival across many waves is the core challenge, not reaching a final ending.
Fan-made tribute · Not affiliated with or endorsed by any original game publisher