MegaMania

MegaMania is an action game with many similarities to Space Invaders. It was first released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in 1982 and later ported to the Atari 5200 and Atari Home Computers.

As in Space Invaders, players control a space ship like blaster at the bottom of the screen which can move horizontally. Various types of invaders appear at the top of the screen and attack continuously. The goal of the game is to earn as many points as possible by shooting all of the incoming invaders. Each time a wave of invaders is destroyed, the game continues to the next, more difficult wave. Players begin the game with three blasters; each blaster has a limited amount of energy. As time passes the energy slowly reduces a little bit at a time, essentially providing a time limit for each level. When all energy is gone, the blaster is destroyed. Additionally, coming into contact with any of the invaders or their missiles destroyes the blaster; the game ends when players have no more blasters remaining.

MegaMania features eight different types of invaders; if the player defeats all eight waves, the game repeats with a higher level of difficulty. Instead of alien invaders, MegaMania features a variety of different objects that attack; each type of invader has a different attack pattern and point value. The invaders and point values in the game are as follows:

• Deluxe Hamburgers: 20 points
• Ice Cream Sandwhiches: 30 points
• Refrigerator Magnets: 40 points
• Radial Tires: 50 points
• Diamond Rings: 60 points
• Steaming Irons: 70 points
• Party Bow Ties: 80 points
• Dreaded Space Dice: 90 points

After all eight attack waves are defeated, the game repeats however all point values remain at 90 points. When the game repeats each invader has a slightly different attack pattern making the game more difficult. Bonus points are earned for any energy your blaster has remaining at the end of each wave.

Similar to many Activision games of the era, players could earn a patch for high scores in MegaMania. To earn the MegaManiacs patch, players could send a photo of their T.V. showing at least 45,000 points to Activision.