If you are looking at this page now, then there is a good change that you just read about Prize Space Invaders in issue 41 of retroGAMER magazine. In this issue some pictures were used of the 2 prize space invaders machines that I own (actually turns out the picture was missed out)

Introduction

Prize Space Invaders was a SWP (Skill with Prizes) machine released in 1990/1991 by BWB.

At the time it was quite likely that you will have seen one in a UK pub, as SWP's were popular with pubs as they don't require the same expensive licencing as Fruit Machines.

The Machines

Prize Space Invaders was made available in 2 different style cabinates.

Firstly there is the tall thin upright, which I have no doubt is the dedicated machine of the 2,

Secondly there is the short wider machine, which to me looks like an old style Crystal Maze cab. It is quite likely that this was intended to be sold as a conversion kit for Crystal Maze machines.

The taller machine has plastic scoreing and instruction cards inserted behind the main glass panel, the shorter machine has a plastic panel for the instructions, but the scoring is printed onto the upper glass panel, so looks slightly better than the taller one in that respect.

Technical

Both machines use Barcrest MPU 4 motherboards, which is a good thing, as these are easy to get hold of should you need a replacement (they are found in hundreds of different fruit machines) The MPU4 motherboard contains a cartridge to run the Prize Space Invaders game, which is linked via a ribbon cable to a MPU4 video board (this is used in MPU4 based quiz machines, again no problem getting these)

Both styles of machine use black and white monitors with colour overlay strips (just like the original 1979 Space Invaders did)

The taller machine uses a 14" monitor and the shorter machine uses a 20" monitor.

Both machines uses decent quality leaf buttons for left and right movement and for the fire button.

There are different versions of software for the different jackpot payouts. There is a £20 jackpot, a £12 jackpot and there may be other?

The £12 jackpot machine will try to pay out regular small prizes as well as saving up to pay out the £12 prize. The £20 jackpot machine will pay out less small prizes as it has more work to do in trying to save up to pay out the £20 prize.

Gameplay

There are 2 different modes of play.

1. For 30p per go, you can play a non-prize game, this plays simular to the original Space Invaders. In this mode, you can select whether you want to start at level 1,2,3 or 4. The biggest difference is that you must never miss hitting the "mystery ship" otherwise your score will be reset to zero. You get 3 lives in this style game. There is also a timer that counts down, which awards you bonus points once you clear the screen. Once you loose all your lives, if you scored well enough, you will be able to enter you name into the highscore table.

2. For 50p per go, you can play the prize version of the game. Again this plays simular to original Space Invaders, however in this mode the computer can vary the difficulty hugely in several ways. The computer can pick whick pattern of invaders you will start with, it can control the number of invaders you have on screen, it can control the speed of the invaders and can also make the invaders so that they split into 2 or 3 to make it harder for you to complete the level. The computer has to do this otherwise people who were very good at space invaders would be queing up to play this machine and just keep on winning the jackpot over and over again, however if you are a good space invaders player, you should be able to do quite well on this machine, unless it has given you an invaders pattern which is set as the absolute hardest difficulty. In prize mode, you get only one life, once you die it is game over. If you die, then you loose all points and any prize you have been previously awarded.

Like in the non-prize mode, you must always hit the mystery ships, otherwise your score is reset to zero. If your score is reset to zero then you loose any prize you previously have been awarded, unless you can get your score back up to the score required for the next available prize.

When you start the prize game, a score and prize will be displayed to you (for example "£0.20 at 136 points") so once you reach 136 points, you will have a £0.20 prize available to you, the game will then show another prize and score for you to try and reach (e.g. £0.50 at 210 points) If the machine has gone for some time without paying out, then sometimes when you start a level, you will hear a bleeping noise and the machine will offer a "PRIZE BOOST" When it is doing a prize boost, I have seen it offer as much as £3.60 for 96 points (which would be very easy to obtain)

In order to claim any cash prize that has been awarded to you, you must make it to the end of the current level you are playing. Once you have cleared the screen, you will be asked whether you would like to claim your prize or whether you would like to gamble for more money. If you claim your prize, then the ammount awarded is added to the bank and you can then you basically have 3 options. You can collect any money from the bank, or you can use the money towards playing either another prize game, or starting a non-prize game. A good player could keep aiming to claim small prizes, adding them to the bank, and then re-using them to play another prize game, in the hope that the machine will offer you a good prize boost sometime soon. As soon as you get the prize boost you want, you can then aim to complete the current level you are on and then claim the more substantial prize (After a good prize boost, you can have as much as £5 at the end of level 1)

If you die during a prize game, sometimes afterwards, the machine will give you the chance to continue your last game for an aditional 50p. If you continue the last game, then basically you go back to where you left off with the same prize/points award and the same number of invaders left to kill. If the game decides to offer a continue, then the Continue button will be lit to let you know (as well as telling you on screen that you have the option to continue your game)

All in all, if you like Space Invaders, then you will probably enjoy this game. It has alot of the original character of Space Invaders, but with the added challenge of having to deal with the hugely varying difficulty levels that the computer can throw at you.

My Machines

I own both the taller and shorter versions of the machine. If you are reading this, there is a good chance that you have already seen some pictures of my machines which apeared in the retroGAMER feature on Space Invaders.

Although the shorter machine is more of a rarity and features a nice big 20" monitor, I think I prefere the taller machine myself as it takes up slightly less space (space is a problem when you have 41 machines in your collection) though to be honest there is not that much difference.

Both of my machines are fully working. There is only one problem with the shorter machine and that is the previous owner removed the coin payout mechanism and disconnected the buttons to allow you to start a prize game, the game however plays the non-prize version of the game perfectly. It would not take much effort to reconnect the prize buttons and to fit the payout mechanisms back into the machine, then it would be fully working for prize games as well. The coin payout mechanism could be sourced from a simular quiz machine. I have seen many scrap crystal maze games going for as little as £10, so the coin payout mechs could just be taken from one of those to fix this one.

Want to buy?

If you are looking to buy one of these then you may be in luck. I have not reviously wanted to sell these, but as I have gone a bit mad with buying machines recently, I really need some space, so as long as you are willing to pay the going rate, then I would consider selling either one or both of the machines. Contact me if you have a genuine interest in either.

Once the extension on my games room is complete however, the machines will most likely NOT be for sale anymore, as I will have all the space I need to keep them again.

Drop me an email luke@arcadeuk.com if you want to discuss :)