Thursday, July 26, 1979
Summer Session Kansan
Alien ships capture players
Bv MARY JO HOWARD
MARK SPENCER
He never drinks when he plays.
Bent over the machine, Tom Brigham skillfully destroys the advancing aliens with a controlled vengeance. The adrenaline he struggles to conquer the space invaders.
For the last four months, Brigham's attention has been consumed by the "Space Invader," an electronic game with a hypnotic rhythm that keeps laring its players back.
`Hiigham, Route 1, said he has spent $400 on the game since he began playing Space
Galaxy.`
"I was hooked on it from the first—it was the sound effects," he said yesterday. "I've been working on that."
At first I was impressed by 3,000 points.
then 4,000. Then I figured 5,000 was just
8,000. Then I figured 8,000 was just
my final result is 9,540.
A PLAYER SCORES points by destroying the advancing rows of alien spaceships on a video screen. For 25 cents, he is armed with a gun and can take down the alien ships, while he dodges their fire.
For each ship destroyed, a player gets a certain amount of points. Additional points can be earned by knocking out the mystery ship or by grabbing it periodically flices across the top of the screen.
The machine has a rhythm all its own, like the advancing footstep of an electronic music device.
"I's that beat," said Tim Griffith, an employee of the 7th Spirit Club, which has
"It kind of gets you excited. It's a subliminal 'playme.'"
Judi Cooley Oakley, co-owner of Cooley's
"YOU SEEN absolutely nothing," she said. "If you've seen 'Star Wars' you know that we've only scratched the surface. If the movies can do it, so can we."
Music and Amusements Co., RFD 4, which supplies area bars with the machines, said she thought Space Invader was only the start of a vast future for electronic games.
Cooley said Space Invader had gained a large national following and that she thought it was the beginning of a trend toward solid state games. There are Space Invader tournaments, a Space Invader series of followers in every city that has the game.
The five Space Invader machines in Lawrence are located at the Sanctuary, 1401 W. 7th, the 27th Spirit Club, Time Out, 1500 N. 8th, the 192nd Iowa St., and Bogart's 207, Eighth St.
"Always keep shooting, you have to go out and get them," Slimmer said.
Each player seems to have his own strategy.
The game has attracted both casual players and addicts to his club, Griffith said.
A common strategy is to move one's cannon from left to right across the screen, picking off the first row of aliens, and then to pick off the second row, and destroy the end column of alien ships.
THE $25-A-WEEK players have more THECED strategies. Brigham counts his shots, he said, because by shooting the 2nd shot, he obtains 23rd shot, additional points may be earned.
The current high score in Lawrence is 11,000 points. A boy in Arlington Heights, I., however, holds the national record with a total of 25,397 points, his shot worth 24,000 last month, Slimmer said.
"Amateurs quit after lait," Griffith said, "but the bung-ho ones stay with it. We have a regular group of people that come in during the day when we're not even open to the game. They get $10 worth of quarters from the bank and it's gone in an afternoon."
For Cooley, the game is more than just points.
MOST PINBALL machines gross $73 a week, Cooley said, but the Space Invader machines cost $98 a week.
"Machines have personalities. They're entities. If you go up to a machine and respect it, OK, but if you don't respect it, you'll pay," she said.
"You give this machine something, it creeks it back to you. It's like marriage, it's like a relationship."
The allure of the game is the "fight for superiority over the machine," said Chris Slimmer, employee of Cooley Music and Amusement Co.
(Our*Unusual Fry Offer— A Large Order of Fries in a Flying Saucer)
The group of watchers around Brigham offers its encouragement.
At Wiener King, we have a french fly phenomenon so unusual we call it a U.F.O. Unusual Fry Offer. And it's going to invade your senses with good taste and light fun! Because when you buy a large order of our own special French fries for 89 cents, you get your very own flying saucer. This may be your only chance to ever catch a U.F.O. How long they remain is just a matter of time. So hurry to Wiener King for your U.F.O.
"Turn it over, I want to see 10,000, Tom."
Richard tears them throbbed.
"You're in combat with the machine," he said. "It's all in learning the rhythm."
At Participating Wiener King Restaurants
27th and Iowa While Supplies Last
swim suit
don't forget ...
beach towel
"Don't say that to me now," he says, "I'll never do it now."
volleyball set
suntan lotion
He pauses, then confidently wipes his palms on the knees of his jeans.
"All right, I'm going to do it now."
TONIGHT with MARCIA BALL $1.06 pitchers of Beer from 8:00 pm till 10:00 pm Tickets $3.00 at the Door only +sound by Superior Sound
Staff photo by KEVIN KING
642 Mass. St., Lawrence, Ka. (913) 842-6930
Rent it.Call the Kansan. Call 864-4358.
KU SENIOR DONNA CONNOLLY WINS ENGLAND & $500
Pictured (left to right) Mike Schmidt, Program Director of 106 Donna Connolly, KU Senior (Our Winner) Louis Copt, of Maupintour Travel Service.
THE WHERE IN THE WORLD CONTEST IS OVER . . . BUT LOOK OUT THIS FALL!
Another quarter into the machine and Tom Brigham, Rt. I, Lawrence, is ready for another battle with alien spaceships on a video game at the 7th Spirit Club. The game, "Space Invaders," has attracted a large national following. Brigham has spent over $400 on the game in the last three months.
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