Space Invaders runs on a salvaged vacuum fluorescent display

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A classic arcade game has found a glowing new home. Hackaday reports that José Luis Monteiro and his father got Space Invaders running on a salvaged vacuum fluorescent display, the kind of bright green or blue screen once found in video recorders and car dashboards

They used an HV5812 driver chip to control the display, and the code is available on GitHub. Anyone can try the same project at home

The display's limited vertical resolution makes the game a little cramped to play. The sprites still look great, with the classic glow that makes VFDs so appealing

VFDs were common in electronics for decades before LCDs took over. Many still sit in old devices waiting to be salvaged

A father and son project bringing new life to old parts is a lovely story. Vacuum fluorescent displays have a warm, retro look that modern screens cannot match. Space Invaders is the perfect game for it, since the original arcade had a very similar feel

Do you have any old electronics with VFD screens? And what retro game would you put on an unusual display?

Space Invaders On A VFDhackaday.com