Pepsi Invaders

Name:	Pepsi Invaders
Company:	Atari
Model #:	N/A
Programmer:	Christopher Omarzu
Year:	1983
Released?	No
Notes:	Only 125 copies were made

Often referred to a "Coke Wins", Pepsi Invaders is a very special version of Space Invaders given to Coca-Cola executives at a 1983 sales convention.  Each executive was given a complete Atari 2600 system with Pepsi Invaders as a present for attending (why don't I ever get goodies like this for attending sales conventions?).  Only 125 copies were made, and they were actually burned onto regular ROM chips instead of EPROM's which one would expect with a low production run game such as this.

Now I know what your saying, "If the game is called Pepsi Invaders, then why does it say Coke Wins at the top of the screen?"  That unfortunately is mystery, as programmer Christopher Omarzu doesn't remember putting that into the game.  It was probably added later when some Atari executive changed his mind, or even possibly to avoid a lawsuit from Pepsi (of course the letters still spell out Pepsi).

As I mentioned earlier, Pepsi Invaders is a hacked version of Space Invaders. The "Invaders" were changed into letters that spell out PEPSI with one Invader left at the end of each row.  The UFO was replaced with the blue and red Pepsi logo, and a three minute time limit was added at the end of which the screen flashes some wild colors and the game stops (Coke always wins I guess).  Another interesting feature of Pepsi Invaders is the fact that the player has infinite lives, which combined with the time limit makes the game fairly pointless.  Perhaps Atari thought that three minutes was all Coca-Cola execs could handle?

Pepsi Invaders came in a generic Atari cartridge case with no labels or makings on it.  The box is plain white with a small round sticker that says "Atari Goes Better With Coke" (I'll agree with that).  Pepsi Invader cartridges are extremely rare, and finding the box is near impossible.  I wonder if programmer Rick Maurer ever found out that Atari hacked is game?

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