Intel 8080 Emulator

Play the iconic Space Invaders game popular in the 1970s

This is an emulator for the Intel 8080, probably the most popular CPU of the 1970s. To prove the emulator works, here it executes the machine code for the Space Invaders game released by Taito in 1978.

One or two reviewers have commented that it isn't that difficult to write a Space Invaders game for modern mobile devices, but I think they miss the point! This app isn't primarily a Space Invaders game, it's an emulator for the Intel 8080 running on top of the Android OS. It just so happens the emulator loads and executes the original Space Invaders object code, but it could execute other 8080 code. For instance, I don't see any reason why the emulator could not be used as the basis of running the venerable CP/M Operating System on an Android (MS-DOS would require an 8086 emulator).

NB: This app uses Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime). AIR is essentially the web FlashPlayer code, but packaged as a standalone product. Many very popular apps on the playstore use AIR, for example 'Candy Crush Soda Saga' and 'Empire: Four Kingdoms', but you don't realise this as developers often package the runtime as part of the download. I don't package this app with the runtime for three reasons:

i) By having you download the runtime you will get bug and vulnerability fixes from Adobe as soon as they are made available. If I packaged the runtime with the app (as many developers do), you would have to wait for me to publish a new version of the app to get these fixes.

ii) The Adobe runtime is quite big (about 9 meg). If I packaged AIR with this app, its size would increase from about 300k to over 9meg!

iii) The AIR runtime is SHARED. You download it once, and any app that needs AIR will use the download (and that download will be updated by Adobe as and when required).

Background:

This emulator was originally developed by Thibault Imbert (http://www.bytearray.org/?p=622). This code ran perfectly on my PC but was EXTREMELY slow on my Samsung Galaxy Tab. All I've done is a bit of "tweaking", and added a few buttons - all credit to Thibault!

As already mentioned this app is NOT for you if you are looking for an ultra fast implementation of Space Invaders, possibly with lots of 'improved' features. That is not its intention. Don't forget this app is primarily an emulator for the Intel 8080 CPU. Here it just so happens to be running the original Space Invaders object code.

A note about colour: The original game ran in monochrome, all the objects were white on a black background. The illusion of colour (the green protective bunkers) was obtained using green cellophane strips!

I apologise, but I am not in a position to supply you all with green cellophane strips to stick on your Android screens to change the colour of the protective bunkers! I will see if this effect can be implemented at screen copy time without slowing things down too much!

This app is free and does not send you a single ad! It doesn't store your IP address or any other information about you whatsoever!

PS: don't leave this app running in the background. Stop it, or it will deplete your battery really quickly! I will fix this in an update.

What's New in the Latest Version 1.4

Last updated on Dec 9, 2015 v1.4 - An annoying bug where the player would keep moving (possibly in the reverse direction) when left or right button was released. This fix makes this much less likely to occur. If you find this update fixes the problem you've been too polite to complain about, let me know by mailing me at [email protected] . Thanks!