Taito's Space Invaders went supernova in late 1970s Japan and even caused a national coin shortage! Yokai Attack! co-author Matt Alt was a gaming nut back then, putting an endless stream of quarters into arcade game after arcade game. When he was seven years old, he sat down and composed his first opus space invaders, based on the classic Taito title. Recently found at his grandparents' house, it reads:
The space invaders took off in their spaceship shooting their lasers at some ships. A laser hit their ship; it crashed. The space invaders got out just in time! When the ship blew up, the fire was so bright it looked like a sun! They built a bigger and better ship. It took 10 weeks to build. As time went by, the ship got bigger and bigger! The time came when the space invaders invaded earth! There were no bad things, like fires or stealing. They made some friends and had to get their computers help to take off. They went to ziron home base, 50,0000 miles from earth.
Whew! So glad to know that when the space invaders finally do come, there will be no bad things like fires or stealing. Nov. 2, 1980 [Alt Japan]