PERIGEE: Hold the Last Orbit
PERIGEE is an orbital defense arcade that honours Space Invaders (1978) with modern engineering: chain-multiplier scoring that rewards precision over volume, twelve waves with boss encounters, fully synthesised Web Audio, and monochrome phosphor rendering at the original arcade resolution. The second product in the Games category. Product thirty.
In 1978, Tomohiro Nishikado built Space Invaders for Taito. It ran on an Intel 8080 at 2 MHz with a 224×256 monochrome display. The colour came from plastic strips taped to the screen. The sound came from discrete circuitry. The gameplay was perfect.
PERIGEE does not replace it. Nothing replaces it. PERIGEE honours it — then modernises everything the original couldn’t do on the hardware it had.
What PERIGEE is
PERIGEE is a browser-based orbital defense arcade. Twelve waves. Three lives. One chain. Hold the last orbit.
The gameplay loop is the same one Nishikado invented: invaders descend in formation, you move horizontally and shoot upward, destructible bunkers provide temporary cover. What changes is everything around that loop.
The chain
The chain-multiplier is the mechanical heart of PERIGEE. Every consecutive hit increases the multiplier: ×1 → ×2 → ×3 → ×4 → ×5. The thresholds are 5, 12, 24, and 40 consecutive hits. A single shot that exits the screen without hitting anything breaks the chain back to ×1.
This changes the game fundamentally. In the original, the optimal strategy is to fire as fast as possible. In PERIGEE, the optimal strategy is to never miss. Volume is punished. Precision is rewarded. The pilot who fires ten accurate shots scores more than the pilot who fires fifty careless ones.
The chain also changes target selection. High-value targets (Lanterns at 30 points) at ×5 are worth 150 points. Low-value targets (Skulls at 10 points) at ×1 are worth 10. The multiplier makes the sequence of kills as important as the kills themselves.
The Flagship
Every fourth wave, the Flagship arrives — a boss encounter that the original never had.
The Flagship has destructible gun pods that shed 5 HP each and drop power capsules. A sweeping beam attack telegraphed by laser lane warnings. An eye that opens periodically for triple damage. And progressive hull erosion — every shot chips away visible damage from the hull sprite.
HP scales with loops: 40 + (loop × 16). The Flagship at wave 12 has substantially more health than at wave 4. The boss fights reward the player who learned the pattern early and invested upgrades wisely.
Three power-ups
Rapid Fire (R) — increased fire rate for a limited duration.
Lance (L) — piercing shots that pass through multiple targets.
Aegis (A) — a shield that absorbs one hit.
Power-ups drop from Flagship gun pods and from specific invader kills. Collecting a power-up also regenerates bunker health — creating a tactical incentive to pursue capsules even when the current power-up is active.
The audio
Every sound in PERIGEE is synthesised from oscillators, not sampled from recordings.
The march — a four-note descending bass walk that marks each formation step. As invaders thin, the march accelerates. The tempo is the threat level.
The chain — a pentatonic ladder that climbs with each consecutive hit. At ×5, the audio feedback is unmistakable. Breaking the chain produces silence — the absence of the climbing tone is the punishment.
The UFO — modulated sine wave with tremolo. The mystery ship scores dynamically: 50–300 points indexed by shots fired mod 15. The optimal moment to shoot the UFO depends on your shot count, not your position.
All audio runs through a compressor (−14 dB threshold, 5:1 ratio) that keeps the mix clean at any volume. The synthesis is real-time — no audio files are loaded.
The phosphor
PERIGEE renders at the original 1978 arcade resolution: 224×256 pixels. The monochrome white phosphor simulation reproduces the look of a CRT tube. Colour is applied through simulated gel strips — the same technique the original used with physical plastic overlays, now rendered in the artwork layer.
Scanline simulation, persistence bloom, and glow auras complete the visual language. The result looks like a restored arcade cabinet running on modern hardware — because that is exactly what it is meant to evoke.
The scoring
- Lanterns (top rank): 30 points
- Pincers (middle ranks): 20 points
- Skulls (bottom ranks): 10 points
- Mystery ship: 50–300 points (shots fired mod 15)
- Flagship: 1,500 + (500 × loop)
- Multiplier: ×1–×5 on all kills
Extra lives at 5,000, then 20,000, then every 25,000 thereafter.
The Games category at two
PERIGEE joins VOIDLINE in the Games category:
- VOIDLINE — forward-facing vertical combat. Eight waves, two capital warships, Rift Break time manipulation. Rewards controlled aggression.
- PERIGEE — classic orbital defense. Twelve waves, boss encounters, chain scoring. Rewards precision.
Different games. Same engineering standard. Same principle: the scoring system tells you what kind of pilot the game respects.
Product thirty
Thirty products. Six categories. The portfolio started with KEEL — a decision-integrity system for PE portfolios. It now ends with PERIGEE — an arcade game that honours 1978 with 2026 engineering.
The range is the point.
PERIGEE is live and free to play.
Launch PERIGEE → — hold the last orbit.
Launch VOIDLINE → — defy the dark.
Richard Leclézio
Enterprise Transformation & AI Delivery Leader