Retro-gaming nostalgia: Grandstand Invader From Space

One of the older Grandstand games, Invader From Space is dated 1980 on the back. I never owned one of these until I saw this one at a car boot sale a few years ago where I picked it up at a bargain price. I got the box, the electronic game and half the polystyrene. Not bad for something 30 years old.

Though I never owned one, one of my best friends did. Of all the electronic Space Invaders I played, this one had by far the loudest and most irritating beeps. You think your kid's playstation is annoying? That's nothing compared to the Grandstand Invader From Space.

Just like real space invaders, the screen is coloured only by way of thin plastic strips in front of the LEDs. Tilt the machine too much and you get half red, half green aliens. These colours are identified on the box as "Four Cosmic Zones - UFO zone, blue zone, yellow zone (looks more like green to me) and red zone). The box also claims such innovations as an "Automatic Digital Score Display" and "Continual excitement as invaders move down Game Display". When you're 7 years old and the year is 1980, it's excitement indeed. It also claims to be hand-held, which even for adult sized hands is stretching things a bit.

Quite why this game seemed even at the time to be more old fashioned than the similar "Galaxy Invader 1000" from CGL, I'll never know.

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Above: The Grandstand Invader From Space packaging, front and back.

Above: Some brightly coloured aliens "attack "

Above:More "Continual excitement" with a screen full of aliens.

Above: Electronic game controls.

Above: Grandstand Invader From Space

Above: Your "base" and some more "continually exciting" invaders.