Space Invaders is one of those titles we owe more to than we realize. It single-handedly rescued an entire industry, inspired countless names in the world of video games, and now it has made the leap to real life thanks to a project created by Tomer Daniel and his team at GeekCon 2016. This version of Space Invaders uses a motorized chair, drones as enemies, and a laser as the main weapon.
The battle starts slowly; the player feels safe behind the four available barriers, and enemy fire doesn't seem very accurate. But it only takes a few seconds for the alien horde to start advancing. Their movements accelerate, as does the music. The barriers crumble, the mysterious ship escapes, and errors multiply. The last enemy reaches a chilling speed, and it's likely the player will be shouting at the screen by that point. This is everything Space Invaders has generated since its official release in June 1978, and what it continues to generate today. Space Invaders is a classic, but it has never stopped reinventing itself, and the latest proof is this fascinating project prepared for the GeekCon 2016 convention in Israel: Space Invaders with drones and lasers.
The system details mention a total of eight DJI Phantom 3 drones equipped with Arduino hardware, LED lights, and laser sensors, programmed to move in formation similar to how the enemies move in the game. The player doesn't just control the cannon; they move from one end to the other in a motorized chair, apparently taken from an old car. Each time a drone registers contact from the laser cannon, it turns off its lights and falls to the ground, "shot down".
The creators also introduced a firing interval for the cannon. After all, the laser can work continuously, but in Space Invaders the cannon fires in pulses. Unfortunately, we couldn't confirm whether the enemies have any way to "return fire" at the player, but fighting eight drones at once aboard a motorized chair with a laser weapon... where do we sign up?
