Happy Hanukkah and Thanksgiving everyone! Let us celebrate and give thanks for the mighty Space Invaders, savior of the Atari VCS (later the 2600). We'll talk a little about the arcade game, the 2600  programmer Rick Maurer, and a whole lot about the different packaging variations. One thing I didn't mention in the podcast was my assumption that Atari had an iron grip on the US console rights for Space Invaders for many years. It came out on many systems in Japan, but didn't see any kind of US release until the 90s. That's pretty amazing. Next week, I'm going back to the Activision well with Freeway and one of my very favorites, Kaboom. Hopefully I can get my USB paddle adapter to work so you can hear my amazing prowess at this game! I am good at some games! As always, send your stories and memories to [email protected]. Also, please send me your Christmas and Hanukkah Atari related memories by December 20th, there will be a special Christmas show released (he says) on December 24th. I am thankful for all of you! Enjoy your holidays! Pertinent Links Space Invaders on KLOV Excerpts from James Hague's interview with Rick Maurer Pepsi Invaders page at Atari Protos site Coke Wins article at Digital Press Archives 2005 CGE Keynote Address: Jerry Lawson 2004 CGE Keynote Address: Atari 2600 Programmers (with Rick Maurer) mp3 Feb 2012 World Coin News article by Mark Fox disproving the yen shortage thing (I also forgot to mention this on the show, dammit!) Now You're Playing With Podcast's Comic Sans Invaders shirt Favorite Atari 2600 Games of FocusRS - Space Invaders Double bullets trick on Youtube How To Beat The Home Video Games - Space Invaders Proud member of the Throwback Network! Facebook page Twitter page Blog page Listen to the show on the Retro Junkies website!