Introduction

Our final project is the classic Atari version of space invaders on the MEGA32. The story: A horde of space invaders are attempting to land on the planet’s surface. You play a heroic pixilated thing on the ground trying to stop them one bullet at a time. It wasn’t Half Life, but eh… it was the 80s.

The real challenge is implementing the game without television flicker or artifacts. With the MEGA32, we use “hardware interrupts” so that sound can easily be played without interfering with the TV paint interrupt. A simple points system and basic gaming mode functions- such as player “deaths”, invader landings, and subsequent levels- are of course supported.

A Screenshot from the Atari version of Space Invaders