Space Commanders

Space Commanders is an action game released by Columbia Data Products in 1983 for the IBM PC. It is essentially a clone of Space Invaders with very similar gameplay and a few minor differences. As in Space Invaders, players control a ship with the goal of shooting the numerous attacking invaders before they land.

Players control a ship which can move anywhere on the screen (this is different than Space Invaders where movement is restricted to left or right only along the ground). There are five rows of attacking invaders and players need to shoot all of them to advance to the next, more difficult level. The invaders are constantly moving to the left or right as a group; each time they reach the end of the screen, they reverse direction and drop downward. If they make it all the way to the ground, the game is over. As the invaders are shot and fewer remain on the screen, their speed increases making it more difficult to shoot them. The invaders are constantly dropping bombs; players need to be sure to dodge the attacks and also need avoid crashing into the invaders themselves or a life is lost.

Along the bottom of the screen are 5 shields; this can act as a barrier to protect players from invader attacks, however they will also block the player's shots as well. Points are earned in the game for shooting the invaders with the higher row invaders are worth more points than the ones in lower rows. Additionally, a flying saucer will occasionally fly across the top of the screen which can be shot for bonus points. The game includes 5 skill levels which affect the difficulty and speed of the game.