Space Invaders (Game Boy / SNES) Playthrough
141A playthrough of Nintendo's 1994 shooter for the Nintendo Game Boy, Space Invaders.
In this video, I show off all three ways the game can be played. I begin with the game as it plays on OG Game Boy hardware. At 7:32, I run it in Super Game Boy mode, and at 13:36, I play it in its SNES mode.
Taito's Space Invaders was one of the most important video games ever made. When it was released in 1978, it was among the first wave of arcade games to make use of a microprocessor, to feature a "soundtrack," and its gameplay pioneered several innovations that would become video game staples in the coming years.
The 1994 Game Boy version faithfully recreates the original’s gameplay, and when played on an original Game Boy, that's all you get: a portable version of a then sixteen-year-old relic from gaming's dinosaur age. Nothing more, nothing less. What elevates this release is its Super Game Boy functionality.
When played on a Super Game Boy, a few new options are unlocked. The first, the Super Game Boy mode, provides custom screen borders that mimic the look of the arcade's upright and cocktail machine cabinets, and it adds color. It can mimic the look of a cellophone overlay to add a splash of color to an otherwise black-and-white display, or it can run in a "proper" color mode by assigning palettized colors to sprites and background elements, bringing it roughly in line with the 1985 Famicom version.
The real kicker, however, is the "arcade mode." When you choose this option from the menu screen, you're greeted with a loading screen that informs you that "Arcade space invaders are invading your Super NES," and a few moments later, a new version of the game will appear. This new version isn't just another variation on the base game like you see in Super Game Boy mode, either. It's a legit Super Nintendo game!
Choosing arcade mode side-loads a native Super Nintendo program from the Game Boy cartridge and allows it to run as a proper SNES game with full access to the host machine's hardware. This means that you get full-screen graphics that run at the SNES's native resolution, a flashy intro with real music, sampled sound effects, and a fancy new graphics mode that renders the in-game graphics as a transparent layer on top of a proper background image.
It's an impressive technical feat, and the feature is one that you might not have even known about unless you'd plugged the cart into a Super Game Boy - the manual makes no mention of it whatsoever.
The game play is left untouched in the 16-bit game, so if you found the original Space Invaders gameplay to be too barebones, the additions won't do anything to change your mind.
But still, it's an original Game Boy game that hosts a self-contained SNES title in its ROM. How cool is that?
*The Game Boy gameplay was recorded using a Retroarch shader to mimic the look of the original hardware.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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