Invasion of the Space Invaders
  • Published: 19 November 2018
  • ISBN: 9781787331198
  • Imprint: Jonathan Cape
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 128
  • RRP: $35.00

Invasion of the Space Invaders

An Addict's Guide to Battle Tactics, Big Scores and the Best Machines

Buy from…
The Nile Mighty Ape BookHub Whitcoulls The Warehouse Paper Plus Fishpond
Find local retailers

Back in a facsimile edition is Martin Amis’s closet passion project, first published in 1982: a compulsive gamer’s guide to arcades and beating your younger self’s high score

Back in a facsimile edition is Martin Amis’s closet passion project, first published in 1982: a compulsive gamer’s guide to arcades and beating your younger self’s high score

In this offbeat book, introduced by Stephen Spielberg, acclaimed author Martin Amis explores how 1980s video games took a generation by storm. Delving into the electric atmosphere of the arcades where he misspent his youth, he asks: Why did Space Invaders invade our hearts and minds? How much time, loose change and sex appeal did they cost us? And most importantly, which secret cheats and tactics must we master to reach the next level?

Part cautionary tale, part celebration of a lifelong addiction, this is an essential manual for many a self-confessed cyber geek, computer nerd and joystick junkie.
  • Published: 19 November 2018
  • ISBN: 9781787331198
  • Imprint: Jonathan Cape
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 128
  • RRP: $35.00
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Martin Amis

Martin Amis was the author of fourteen novels, two collections of stories and eight works of non-fiction. His novel Time’s Arrow was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, for which his subsequent novel Yellow Dog was also longlisted, and his memoir Experience won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. In 2008, The Times named him one of the 50 greatest writers since 1945. Amis died in May 2023.

portrait photo of Martin Amis

Also by Martin Amis

Inside Story
The Zone of Interest
Time's Arrow
Money
The Rachel Papers
The Rub of Time
Lionel Asbo
See all

Praise for Invasion of the Space Invaders

[Invasion of the Space Invaders] has remained one of the great literary curios of the 20th century… Like Updike on golf, or Foster Wallace on tennis, Amis approaches video games with an enthusiast’s glee, deploying pleading prose that seeks to illuminate the subject’s hold on the writer.

Simon Parkin, Observer

A quirky guide to arcade games from Space Invaders to Gorf.

Cal Revely-Calder, Daily Telegraph

There’s plenty of stylistic fizz and flash on show, as always with Amis… he really does, or did, know his video games.

Sam Leith, Daily Telegraph