game
icon
title Moon Alien
set name moonaln
manufacturer [Nichibutsu] (Karateco license)
year 1979
genre Shooter (hof)
category Shooter / Gallery (hof)
driver status good
driver source galdrvr.c
snapshots MW: in game | parent / CT: in game | title | parent / Mr. Do: parent / PS: in game | title | parent
zoom
rating

62.6% after 21 votes
 
parent Galaxian (Namco set 1)
other clones Galaxian (bootleg)
Galaxian (Midway set 1)
Galaxian (Midway set 2)
Galaxian (Namco set 2)
Galaxian (Taito)
Galaxian Part 4 (hack)
Galaxian Part X (moonaln hack)
Galaxian Test ROM
Galaxian Turbo (superg hack)
Moon Alien Part 2
Moon Alien Part 2 (older version)
Space Invaders Galactica (galaxiaj hack)
Star Fighter
Super Galaxians (galaxiaj hack)
Super GX
Swarm (bootleg?)
Zero Time
display
colour emulation good
palette 32
display type raster
orientation vertical
resolution 224x768
frequency 60.606061Hz
sound
sound emulation good
channels mono
controls
players 2
nplayers 2P alt
controls 2 way joystick
buttons 1
coin slots 2
hardware
cpu Z80 @ 3.072MHz
audio Samples
data
version added .068
last change(s) none
roms
name size crc set flags sha1
galx.u  2048  79e4007d  moonaln    d55050498a670d1c022ba3caad34f8fcaccf4a30 
prg2.bin  2048  59580b30  moonaln    e659426ad8c4e5e10a7cdd07d8b4fea93f875026 
prg3.bin  2048  b64e9d12  moonaln    3b07902ea61388f54c03d65082e78dfc0fa8d3d2 
superg.y  2048  9463f753  moonaln    d9cb35c19aafec43d08b048bbe2337a790f6ba9d 
prg5.bin  2048  8bb78987  moonaln    5f24dba0bb31fc8bda5bf570d568472befc4d740 
ca1.bin  2048  074271dd  moonaln    cd6a40b493bc51c5340d7083f83c51834b95b5fe 
ca2.bin  2048  84d90397  moonaln    93e6ded079c9721d3f9c003e378e8121584671c9 
6l.bpr  32  c3ac9467  galaxian    f382ad5a34d282056c78a5ec00c30ec43772bae2 
cabinet art
cabinet galaxian.png galaxian.png
marquee galaxian.png
control panel galaxian.png
flyer moonaln.png
additional information
info 0.15 [Nicola Salmoria]

0.05 [Nicola Salmoria, Robert Anschuetz]

Bugs:
  • The backround sound during gameplay is slow by about a factor of 2. The backround sound during gameplay is slow by about a factor of 2. I have 3 original midway boards and the backround beat on those all match exactly so I'm sure it's just a problem in mame. If I run a board right next to my mame cab - the background beat in mame sounds at almost exactly 1/2 of the correct pace. The rest of the sounds and the gameplay itself all appear perfect. It's only the backround sound that isn't correct. mp3s from PCB are attached. Follow-up by Tafoid in 0.116: The earliest I could test was MAME 0.37b15 - bug still exists then. dropdeadhippie (ID 00443)
WIP:
  • 0.124u1: Changed Moon Alien Part 2 (moonal2), clone (older version) (moonal2b) and Super GX (supergx) to clones of Galaxian. Changed visible area to 224x768 and palettesize to 32 colors.
  • 0.123u1: Stefan Lindberg added clone Galaxian (Taito).
  • 0.119: David Haywood added clone Galaxian (bootleg). Changed description from clones 'Swarm' to 'Swarm (hack of Galaxian)' and 'Star Fighter' to 'Star Fighter (bootleg of Galaxian)'.
  • 0.111u1: Atari Ace fixed 'Galaxian Test ROM' by adding extra ram (0xfffc, 0xffff).
  • 0.104u8: Pierpaolo Prazzoli added clone Star Fighter.
  • 0.88: MASH added clone Super GX.
  • 0.85u1: Added 2nd player and dipswitches 'Cabinet', 'Service Mode' and 'Coinage'.
  • 0.74u2: Mike O'Malley added 'Galaxian Test ROM' (19??) for region cpu1 ($0).
  • 30th September 2003: Mike O'Malley submitted an addition of Space Invaders and Galaxian test ROMs.
  • 0.68: David Haywood added clone Moon Alien.
  • 25th April 2003: David Haywood added Moon Alien to the Galaxian driver.
  • 12th December 2002: Zsolt Vasvari fixed the graphics in Galaxian that broke with the previous changes.
  • 0.59: Added clone Galaxian (Midway, old rev).
  • 1st June 2001: Zsolt Vasvari fixed the Galaxian / Scramble starfield graphics emulation.
  • 0.37b11: Added clone Galaxian (Namco set 2). Removed Galaxian (bootleg).
  • 0.37b3: Zsolt Vasvari added clone Zero Time (Petaco S.A. 1979).
  • 23rd May 2000: Zsolt Vasvari added Zero Time to the driver.
  • 26th February 2000: Michael Soderstrom fixed some Galaxian memory handling bugs.
  • 12th December 1999: Quench fixed Galaxian and clones from crashing when run without sound.
  • 0.36b11: Lee Taylor added clone Swarm (hack 1979). Juergen Buchmueller and Tatsuyuki Satoh improved emulation of the Galaxians sound subsystem. Samples are no longer used.
  • 22nd November 1999: Lee Taylor added a Galaxian clone called Swarm and four Space Invaders clones.
  • 31st May 1999: Zsolt Vasvari made the Galaxian/Scramble hardware games multi-session friendly.
  • 29th April 1999: Nicola tweaked the Galaxian tone generator to fix the coin inserted sound.
  • 27th March 1999: Nicola fixed the Galaxian starfield. Believe it or not, it had been broken since day 1.
  • 0.35b7: Removed clone Galaxian (Namco, modified). Merged galaxian romset with galmidw (cpu1 roms 7f and 7j = galmidw.u, galmidw.v, galmidw.w and galmidw.y). Splitted also romsets galap1 and galap4.
  • 0.35b5: Zsolt Vasvari added clone Galaxian (bootleg).
  • 26th February 1999: Zsolt Vasvari has added several clones (for Smash TV, Galaxian, Rampage, Satan's Hollow, Bosconian).
  • 0.35b2: Nicola Salmoria fixed (?) the title in clone Galaxian Part X.
  • 0.33b7: Changed description of clone Moon Alien Part 2 (alternate) to Moon Alien Part 2 (older version).
  • 0.33b5: Al Kossow added clones Moon Alien Part 2 (Nichibutsu 1980) and (alternate). Nicola Salmoria attempt at making the main Galaxian / Moon Cresta sound channel more accurate.
  • 0.31: Changed description of clone galap1 to 'Space Invaders Galactica' and clone superg to 'Super Galaxians'.
  • 0.29: Andrew Scott improved the Galaxian background hum, it also is no longer incorrectly played in Moon Cresta & others. Sean Gugler added in some games (e.g. Pacman, Galaxian, Rally X) the NumLock and CapsLock leds, they emulate the 1 player/2 players start lamps.
  • 0.27: Andrew Scott and Robert R. Anschuetz II improved sound support in Galaxian and clones. The background noise is now emulated, while the shoot noise still requires a sample. These changes also affect other games using the same sound routines.
  • 0.26a: Mirko Buffoni worked with the wrong source, now everything is back to normality in Galaxian.
  • 0.25: Robert Anschuetz provided infos about how to enable a shot sample with Moon Quasar, Moon Cresta, Galaxian and clones.
  • 0.18: Nicola added some lousy noise to Galaxian.
  • 0.15: Nicola Salmoria added Galaxian (Namco). This version is known to be original, it has Namco copyright and the code is slightly different from the other Galaxian (which has Midway copyright). Renamed (galaxian) to (galmidw).
  • 0.14: Hiscore save in Galaxian.
  • 0.06: Nicola Salmoria added star background in Galaxians & co. The way Nicola calculate it is probably not correct, anyway it looks reasonable.
  • 0.05: Nicola Salmoria added Galaxian (Midway 1979) (correct colors, limited sound) and clones Namco Galaxian, Super Galaxian, Galaxian Part X, Galaxian Part 1, Galaxian Part 4 and Galaxian Turbo. Only one sound channel is emulated and the game has no star background. There are so many clones here that Nicola is not even sure which is the "original" one. The dip switch menu might display wrong settings. Compiled from information provided by friends and Uncles on RGVAC. Some info on Galaxians taken from Arcade Emulator by Robert Anschuetz.
LEVELS: 255 (endless)

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Recommended Games (Galaxian):

Cosmic Alien

Cosmo

Galaxian

Destroyer

Mad Alien

Moon Cresta

Moon Quasar

Phoenix

Space Firebird

UniWar S

4 Fun in 1 (Galaxian)

Defend the Terra Attack on the Red UFO

Galaga

Galaga - Namco Classics Collection Vol.1

Galaga '88

Ghostmuncher Galaxian (bootleg)

Gaplus

Pisces

Cosmo Gang the Video

Space Bomber

Romset: 15 kb / 8 files / 10.0 zip
history Moon Alien (c) 1979 Nichibutsu.


- TECHNICAL -


Main CPU : Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)

Sound Chips : Tone generator and discrete circuits


Screen orientation : Vertical

Video resolution : 224 x 256 pixels

Screen refresh : 60.61 Hz

Palette colors : 98


Players : 2

Control : 2-way joystick

Buttons : 1 (FIRE)


- TRIVIA -


Licensed to Karateco.


- SERIES -
  1. Moon Alien (1979)
  2. Moon Alien Part 2 [Upright model] (1980)
  3. Moon Alien Part 2 [Cocktail Table model] (1980)
resource links view in MAWS
view in CAESAR
view high score and replay at MARP
view in Progetto EMMA (Italian)
view in arcade-history.com
view in arcade-history.com
view in GameFAQs
view in KLOV
view in KLOV
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in VGMuseum Gamepics
view in VGMuseum Gamepics
view in VGMuseum Gamepics
view in VGMuseum Gamepics
cheats
cheats
code comments
00000000:421D:00000005:FFFFFFFF  Infinite Lives
20800000:12D9:000000C9:FFFFFFFF  Invincibility
00100000:4013:00000000:00001010  Rapid Fire:This cheat enables continuous attack during by holding the fire button
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