Invader Overload

Published 2023-06-12


How to Play
Collect 3 of the same the color power-ups to gain a powerful new weapon.
Shoot the UFO and collect the yellow power-ups to kick off fever mode!
Collect enough fever mode coins to enter a boss battle

This game is endless. Survive as long as you can while chasing a high score.

Controls
Left/Right move
Z shoots your gun (hold for auto-fire)

Updates
v1.7.2 - Fixed incorrect hitbox on UFO. Minor cleanup.
v1.7.1 - Fixed a crash bug in the background randomizer
v1.7 - Holidays are over...removed snow and Santa. Few minor fixes.
v1.6 - Holiday edition! Added shield powerup. Better manual fire. Boot up credits.
v1.5 - Bug fix for touchscreen added in 1.4
v1.4 - Touch controls for PocketCHIP. Touch sides of screen to move player.
v1.3 - Added auto/manual option for better PocketCHIP play. General cleanup.
v1.2 - Added boss battles between stages plus boss battle music.

About the game

Programmed by Brian Vaughn ( @morningtoast)
Music by Brian Follick (@gnarcade_vgm)
Backgrounds from the Pico-8 Community

This cart is less about the game and more about the people that contributed to it. It's tribute game in more ways than one.

First off, it's a tribute to Space Invaders Extreme that originally appeared on the Nintendo DS. It was Space Invaders kicked up a notch with a total sensory overload.

Second, it's a tribute and thank you to all the great little carts coming out of the Pico-8 forum. In particular, Invader Overload uses several of the carts from the TweetJam thread as manic backgrounds. Designs from zep, NuSan, kometbomb and others are included and create one hell of a show.

There were so many cool little demos coming out of the TweetJam thread that I just needed to find a way to use them. I consider Invader Overload a sort of TweetJam jukebox and hopefully we can all expand on it because you can totally add your own background! There's plenty of room left on the cart so give it a try.

This cart also features some great music from Brian Follick, aka, @gnarcade_vgm. He made a great music track specifically for this game along with a few sound effects, and without that collaboration, this game would have fallen completely flat.