Fast riggedy bombs with invisible invaders and moving shields and fat guy!

Say it three times fast!

This was the game that started the addiction to video games, but it was my mother who started first: the day we bought Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 she stayed up all night playing it - this happened at our home on Randolph Street on Travis Air Force Base in California. I thought there must be something fun about this game that my mom would wear herself out playing it.

My brother and I personalized the relentless murdering of aliens by naming them although some names have been lost over the ages:

- The bottom row invaders with their swinging arms were "Fa-la-las"
- The second row contained the one-eyed "Sheldons"

- The fourth row "Jumping Jacks" were easily the most sensibly named

- Finally, the fifth row "Munchos" evoked afternoon soda and cheese puff fueled game-a-thons

When naming them wasn't enough, I started 'frying' - a technique of turning the game console off and on quickly to produce glitches and erratic behavior in the game. It turns out that if you 'fry' just right while holding down the fire button, you'll get DOUBLE FIREPOWER!

After frying for days, the double firepower gateway gameplay had us looking to score bigger and more elaborate highs. The game boasted 112 game variations - simple permutations of all the available difficulty options - we burned through them all and finally found the ultimate (and the title of this entry) in variation #16

Say it three times fast and do a crazy dance!

Fast riggedy bombs (describes the path and increased speed of the invader's laser fire) with invisible invaders (all enemies are invisible. When you hit one, the entire squadron becomes visible for a split second) and moving sheilds (your three defensive shields ping-pong left and right) and fat guy (flip the switch up from difficulty 'B' to 'A', making the width of your laser cannon twice as wide)

Fastriggedybombswithinvisibleinvadersandmovingshieldsandfatguy!Fastriggedybombswithinvisibleinvadersandmovingshieldsandfatguy!Fastriggedybombswithinvisibleinvadersandmovingshieldsandfatguy!