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Invade-a-load is a Commodore 64 tape loader with an integrated Space Invaders clone.
Initially, it took minutes to load a game, with nothing else to do on the computer. To make up, a technician at video game publisher Mastertronic, Richard Aplin, had an idea: The first thing that loads is a minigame, and while you play this minigame, the game you actually bought loads in the background. Once loading finishes, the minigame stops and the main game starts. All this was many years before Namco's patent.
Aplin had made another loading game before, namely Load-'n-Play (C64), only it was not that popular. By contrast, many gamers found Invade-a-load so much fun, more fun than their actual purchase, that they stopped the tape to prevent loading from finishing and thus the minigame from stopping. Both minigames take only 4 KB for music, 2 KB for graphics, 2 KB for program, and about one minute.
Screenshots
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The title screen.
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Game start.
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Playing along.
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Shelter.
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When you die, wait a second, then move fast!
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Every level, the invaders start out a bit lower.
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Music
After about one minute of black screen, a title screen, song and sound effect from One Man and His Droid (C64) appear. Aplin recalled:
“
I nabbed this tune because
we already owned the rights to it and the whole Invade-a-load thing was just something I did for fun anyway. Nobody would have actually paid for original music for this at the time.
„
Hubbard did not know the name Invade-a-load until 1997.
Recording
The song was recorded from a real PAL C64C with an 8580 R5 4091.
Credits
(Sources: title screen, comparison with One Man and His Droid (C64).)
Game Rip
Audio Devices
This game uses the computer's built-in SID chip. It sounds the same on every chip. An official NTSC release is unlikely, as disk drives were more affordable there.
Releases
Links
