Space Invaders. I hear it was pretty popular. It had only earned, ohhhhh, over two BILLION dollars in gross revenue in its first four years. That's nothing to scoff at, especially considering I didn't even adjust that amount for inflation!
Naturally, we could come to expect there to be a thousand clones of Space Invaders, and indeed they do exist, including, but not limited to... deep breath...
Alien Invaders - Plus!
Alien Invasion
Arcadrome
Astro Battles
Astrotit
Attack UFO
Beam Invader
Beer Asteroids
Chickenvaders
Cosmic Monsters
Crusaders of Space
Encounter
Galactic Battle
Galactica: Batalha Espacial
Invinco!
IPM Invader
More Invaders!
Rotary Fighter
Space Armada
Space Attack
Space Commanders
Space Commanders 2
Space Fever Color
Space Flights
Space King-2
Titan Attacks
Typing Invaders
What'd I miss?
And indeed, there was one other. In an age where advergaming was still in its infancy, before the days of M.C. Kids, Chester Cheetah, and the Burger King/Captain Peeping Tom, there was Pepsi Invaders, a game that plays pretty much exactly like Space Invaders, the main difference being, instead of your little ship shooting aliens, they shot at the letters of the word PEPSI... plus an alien at the end just to fill the space. There is also a UFO that flies by for extra points, except...it's a Pepsi logo!
Pepsi Invaders is LITERALLY a ROM hack of the Atari version of Space Invaders. Another major difference is the time limit, which is three minutes! That's not enough time to enjoy all that cola goodness! And, at the top of the screen, the words "COKE WINS" appears before each game.
And yet, for a game centered around advertising Coca-Cola as a superior product, one that we all should yearn for with its smooth cola flavour, bubbly texture, and absolutely tantalizing arom—er, ahem—they sure didn't actually put their game to much good. Only 125 copies were ever produced, specifically for their 1983 convention in Atlanta, at which time they were given away to potential sales clientèle, alongside a free Atari 2600 console. The cartridge itself wasn't even that fancy — it had no label and was not even available in a box. Is THAT how you market your soda, Coke?
So we, the consumers, were never given the opportunity to be brainwashed by a sub-par Space Invaders hack into believing in the power of the red'n'white cola! What a shame! I certainly would have enjoyed popping this in for a few minutes, then tossing it out like last week's tuna melt.
