Space Invaders (1999)

Space Invaders (1999)

Developers
	Z-Axis Games
Publishers
	Activision
Release dates
Windows	October 5, 1999
Taxonomy
Series	Space Invaders

Space Invaders
Super Space Invaders	1991
Space Invaders (1995)	1995
Space Invaders (1997)	1997
Space Invaders (1999)	1999
Space Invaders Anniversary	2004
Space Invaders Extreme	2018
Space Invaders Deck Commander – The Board Game	2024

Key points

Based on the PlayStation version.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail

This game is not available digitally.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows

Video

Launcher settings.

General settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Stretches from 4:3.
Multi-monitor		Readme explicitly mentions "Space Invaders does not support dual monitor systems."
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		See Increase Rendering Resolution.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Frame rate is capped at 31 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Windowed

Play in Windowed mode

Download D3DWindower and extract its contents somewhere convenient. Run D3DWindower as administrator. Click on Add Program (blue plus button) and open the game's .exe file. Select the game and either click on Program options (gear icon) or right-click on 'Invaders' and select Options (O). Set 'Width' as 640 and 'Height' as 480, and make sure 'Use Windowed Mode' is checked. In the DLL field find D3dHook.dll from the folder you made for D3DWindower and add it. Either click Run program (computer icon), double-click on 'Invaders', or right click and select Run (R).

Increase Rendering Resolution

Play at 1080p or higher

Download dgVoodoo. Extract dgVoodooCpl.exe and dgVoodoo.conf to <path-to-game>, where Invaders.exe resides. Open the MS folder in the dgVoodoo zip and extract DDraw.dll, D3DImm.dll, and D3D8.dll to <path-to-game>, again where Invaders.exe resides. Open dgVoodooCpl.exe. Make sure the 'Config folder / Running instance' is set to <path-to-game>, it may already be there by default. In the General tab, set Adapter(s) to use / enable to your current graphics card, Appearance to Full Screen, and Scaling mode to either Stretched, keep Aspect Ratio or Stretched, 4:3 Aspect Ratio. In the DirectX tab, make sure Disable and passthru to real DirectX is unchecked, and set Resolution' to 'Max. You can uncheck dgVoodoo Watermark if you wish. Click Apply and exit the program. Start Invaders.exe and set Device to dgVoodoo DirectX Wrapper and Mode to Hardware Renderer; resolution doesn't need to be changed. Causes a single horizontal line to appear towards the top quarter of the screen, may become distracting as time goes on.

Input

Control configuration.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Mouse isn't used at all.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Can detect and play with XInput controllers.
Full controller support		Need to use keyboard for many menu items.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Cannot use right stick or trigger buttons.
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging		If a controller is plugged or unplugged, neither keyboard nor controller have input.
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music and Sound
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				US/UK release.
German				German release.

Issues fixed

Game crashes when menu loads

When you attempt to start the game on newer versions of Windows, the game will hang and crash your whole computer upon reaching the title screen, forcing a system reset.

Instructions
In the launcher, set 'Device' to 'System Display' and set 'Mode' to 'Software Renderer'. This results in sluggish performance, see Poor game performance.

Poor game performance

When using software rendering mode, the game will suffer from significant slowdown if a lot of action occurs on screen, such as multiple aliens exploding.

Instructions
Set the game to run in Windowed mode, see Windowed. When the launcher comes up, select either 'System Display' or your current graphics card as your 'Device'. Set 'Mode' to 'Hardware Renderer'. Notes Tested on Windows 7. Game runs at full speed and doesn't crash your system anymore. Needs to run from D3DWindower each time you wish to play.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	6
Software renderer

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

System requirements

Installer claims that "Space Invaders is only compatible with Windows 95 and Windows 98 operating systems."

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95, 98
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 150 MHz	Intel Pentium 166 MHz
System memory (RAM)	16 MB	32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	70 MB	170 MB
Video card (GPU)	PCI or AGP video card 16-bit High Color 2 MB of VRAM DirectX 6.1 compatible	Direct-3D-compatible 3D Accelerator
Sound (audio device)	Windows 95/98 compatible sound card
Other	4x Speed CD-ROM 100% Windows 95/98 compatible mouse	Microsoft Direct Input supported Joystick or gamepad (optional)