Tanooki wrote:CRT...Is this how your Invader looks? I've been hoping to find a bootleg of that one too because the legit price is pure crap at $150+ for a lousy GBA game. I really wish I understood why it was up there while other EU only games are not as I've got a few.
I opened one of the Invader carts and confirmed there is a regular chip and not a blob top. I think the other was also a chip, I open all game carts when first bought to clean the contacts.
I remember Noise raving about the obscurity of this game and now see it is high priced even in Europe!
aaron wrote:i offered 'em $25, they countered at $45, i offered $30, then they went to $40 and said that was as low as they would go. i told them we hadn't reached the middle yet and offered $35. they were not amused.
i might still pick one up. really want this game.
There must be someone in PAL land that might find this on the cheap. I checked Amazon UK which shows unavailable. Wow, even EBay UK shows a high price cart only!
Maybe hunt every Thrift Store and Swap Meet since U.S. Gamestops did sell them and was part of the official store inventory?
CRTGAMER on Fri May 11, 2012 wrote:THERE IS STILL ONE GBA INVADER CART AT GAMESTOP IN DALLAS TEXAS 75211
CRTGAMER on Tue May 29, 2012 wrote:GBA Invader - $9.99 $2.25 Gamestop
Nobody jumped at a chance of the rare game, so I said heck with it and had it shipped in. At least I waited a couple weeks to give someone else an opportunity. This was the VERY LAST COPY at any Gamestop in the U.S. and is difficult to find, also has a EUR PAL tag on it! I can justify owning two copies since it is Link capable with two GBAs.
I bought mine reduced for just over two bucks each at Gamestop, currently shows back to $9.99. A very very long shot today to find the cart at Gamestop, but I have found some obscure games that employees have forgotten buried in a dusty drawer. These were games the store supposed to have cleared out since a given system was no longer carried. Though very very slim chance maybe give the Zip code search a try. Imagine if you did spot one, a neat find which can be shipped between stores.
http://www.gamestop.com/gba/games/invader/32184
I gave the game another go, a bottom shooter. Not bullet Hell as in many SHMUPS, but a lot of enemies. You have a choice of ships with vertical shooting or angle shooting. You can all set the game to UNLIMITED continues and direct back to back all the Boss level modes. Okay a couple of neat stuff, but really no where up there in quality as Raiden or Gyruss. On the GBA screen, everything is so tiny, this game plays better on the Gamecube Gameboy Player with an Arcade Stick and much larger visuals. Its still a pretty good game, but a judgment call if worth the extra price. Play the game emulated to help decide if worth that high cost.
I am interested why that seller did such a nice reproduction. This alludes to the original maybe having a low production run?
Would be interesting to see the history of GBA Invader. I did find this article on IGN, interesting about the name change during the preview phase. Now this would really be the cart version to find!
IGN on 5 Sep 2001 wrote:http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/09/05/kaisertal
On the Game Boy Advance, European developer Formula has its own take on the theme: Kaisertal. It's progressing quite nicely...all it needs now is a company to put it out.
Features
- Weather and Day/Night effects
- Link cable support for multiplayers
- Only for Game Boy Advance
Kaisertal is a top-down shooter blast-a-thon through throngs of invading aliens...much like many of the adventures shooter fans have gone through on the Super NES and Genesis several years back. World have fallen in the face of the Swarm, a marauding extraterrestrial force terrorizing the cosmos. You are the only hope for the Alpha Necronis Solar system. Well, you and at least one other friendly pilot, and that's what makes Kaisertal one to really look forward to.
The shooter offers Linked Play between at least two Game Boy Advance systems for multiplayer frag-fests. Impossible odds look a lot less daunting when there are two reckless warriors hell-bent on doing the impossible. This will be one of the first handheld shooters to offer Linked shooting multiplayer since the days of the Atari Lynx, and it's a very welcome return to the genre.
Kaisertal also promises a swarm of effects and break-neck gameplay in the gunning fight. Graphical tricks such as weather effects and varying night and day conditions with throw the Game Boy Advance in a tizzy of visual gusts, but may also add to the gameplay variety -- enemies will be harder to see in the darkness, and wind effects might affect the physics of flight. Coding of this shooter is still early, but Formula was able to provide some screenshots of the game's progress, and the results are promising. Look carefully at the shots and you'll see that Formula is integrating sprite rotation features for the veering alien ships. Also take notice of the shadow effects below the ships that appropriately trace the shape of the ships. Kaisertal has a long fight ahead of itself, but the multiplayer gameplay and nicely crafted effects give hope to this to be a noble cause.
Formula hasn't signed a publisher for this shooter yet, and it's going to be interesting to see if retailers and distributors have changed in the "if it's not licensed, it won't sell" mentality. The development team are gambling on Kaisertal's innovative gameplay style instead of a name -- we'll see if it pays off.
Kaisertal Youtube Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLlt9KzNkDA
