Invinco / Head On 2 (set 1)

Arcade Video game published 44 years ago:

Special Dual II: Invinco + Head On 2 (c) 1980 Sega.

Head On 2 is a 2-D maze racing game. You control your car through the maze to pick up the dots while at the same time avoiding the car, or cars, that are constantly trying to ram you. Successfully get through one maze and many more await you. This is good practice for freeway driving in the big city.

Invinco is a game inspired by "Space Invaders" with some innovation on the aliens : One row blinks in and out of view, another row's aliens roll so as to make themselves harder or easier to hit, and a 3rd row of aliens each take (at least) 3 hits to kill. A 4th row has aliens that turn into bombs, blowing up everything around them to make your job somewhat easier.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : 271-286

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 1.93356 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Discrete circuitry

Players : 2
Control : 4-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in March 1980.

- SCORING -

For Head On 2 :
Dots : 5 points X number of cars on field.
Diamonds : 25 points X number of cars on field.

For Invinco :
Bottom Blue Aliens : 100 points
White aliens : 200 points
Yellow aliens : 300 points
Light Blue Aliens : 400 points
Top Blue Aliens : 800 points
UFOs : 1,000 - 2,000 points

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

For Head On 2 :

* Always be aware of where the Jam Car(s) is/are located. They can only make one lane change at a time but that lane change may be into your lane.

* The faster you go, the fewer lanes you can cross. At full acceleration, you will only be able to change one lane at a time. In the earlier levels, this will be fine since you will only be dealing with one car. In the multiple Jam Car levels, this can be a very bad thing. Decelerate (take your finger off the accelerate button) to go across multiple lanes.

* The Jam Car(s) always travel in a clockwise motion while you travel in a counterclockwise motion. Remember that so that you don't get confused when there are multiple cars in the maze. Also, the color of the Jam Car is red while yours is white.

* Don't try to get all the dots on one of the lanes. You need to anticipate where your next move is well before you enter the lane change area since you cannot change lanes at any other time. Sometimes, on the earlier levels, it is best to do a staggered type dot pickup where you do lane one, change to lane two, to lane three, lane four, lane five, then back to lane one. If you time it right, the Jam Car or Cars will still be in the maze.

* Don't let the speed of the Jam Car(s) throw you. Just plan to be out of your lane and in the lane change area before them. If both cars enter at the same time, you run a big risk of a collision.

For Invinco :