Space Invaders

Space Invaders, because apparently 26-year-old DirectX code refuses to die

I originally released this little game back in 2000 as a demonstration of the DirectX game engine I was developing at the time.

It wasn’t really about Space Invaders.

The idea was to demonstrate sprites, collision detection, sound, music, input, animation, device handling and all the other things I’d built into my engine, while producing something vaguely entertaining at the same time.

Fast forward 26 years and I found the source code again.

I opened it in Visual Studio 2026 to see how catastrophically it would fail.

Except…

It compiled.

Worse still, it ran.

After testing and some modern Windows compatibility work, x64 and ARM64 fixes, and several moments of wondering why on earth I’d written things that way in 2000, here it is again.

It’s free.

It’s old.

It contains aliens.

What more could you reasonably ask for?

FAQ

Is this a faithful recreation of the arcade classic?

Awww, hell no.

There are developers who have painstakingly recreated every timing quirk, alien movement pattern, pixel and sound of the original machine.

Those people have dedication, patience and attention to detail.

I had a DirectX engine I wanted to test.

The resemblance is therefore somewhere between “loving tribute” and “I know! Let’s make Space Invaders!”

So why should I download yours?

Excellent question!

There are undoubtedly prettier versions.

There are probably more accurate versions.

There are almost certainly versions developed by people with a much healthier respect for the source material.

But ask yourself one very important question:

Do they have WHO’S YOUR DADDY MODE?

No?

Well then.

What exactly is Who’s Your Daddy Mode?

A poor decision that became a game option.

Take the normal game.

Now make the invaders considerably less interested in your wellbeing.

Add faster bullets.

More things trying to kill you.

Less time to think.

And then confidently tell yourself:

“I’ve played Space Invaders before. How difficult can this possibly be?”

You’ll find out.

What else can I mess with?

Depending on how much punishment you feel you deserve:

• Invisible invaders
• Faster bullets
• Moving defensive bases
• Difficulty settings
• Extra-life settings
• Windowed or full-screen play
• Sound and music
• Controller Support
• And, naturally, Who’s Your Daddy Mode

Configure it sensibly.

Or don’t.

The harder the game, the higher the score!

Is it actually fun?

I asked my friend George.

His review was:

“WHO’S YOUR DADDY!!!! Lol. Tried so many times, just can’t beat it hahaha.”

I’m choosing to interpret this as five stars.

Why release it now?

Because software from 2000 still running properly in 2026 amused me far more than it probably should.

Modern developers have Unity, Unreal, Godot and a huge ecosystem of libraries and frameworks.

Back then I was writing my own sprite engine, DirectDraw handling, DirectSound code, DirectInput support and generally reinventing wheels because that’s what you did.

This game survives as a little snapshot of that era.

So rather than leave it sitting on a hard drive for another quarter of a century, I thought I’d let it out again.

Does it work on modern machines?

Against all reasonable expectations: yes.

Windows 10 and Windows 11 are supported, with builds for:

x86, x64 and ARM64

It even has a compatibility path for Wine on Linux because apparently we’re taking this resurrection seriously now.

How much is it?

Free.

Download it, play it, abuse the difficulty settings and wonder why games ever needed quite this many aliens.

If you enjoy it and fancy leaving a donation, that’s hugely appreciated.

If not, that’s completely fine too.

Just promise me you’ll try Who’s Your Daddy Mode at least once.

For science.