The End

The End
Developer: Konami Publishers: Konami (JP), Stern Electronics (NA) Platform: Arcade (Galaxian hardware) Released in JP: November 1980 Released in US: December 18, 1980[1] This game has unused graphics. This game has regional differences.

Keep the enemy fighters from stealing your bricks and spelling out their hidden message or it will be The End for you.

Unused Graphics

Konami	Stern

The mothership has an unused "empty" hatch frame in the Konami version, and an unused "full" hatch/mouth in the Stern version. Neither are used. These would have been used when the mothership starts firing after wave 3.

Extra Life Value

The variable that controls the extra life threshold is stored in RAM address 4017, and is set on boot...but this value is always 5 or 10, depending on what version you're playing. At one point, they might have planned to control the threshold with a dip switch, like in other Galaxian-based games, but that obviously never happened and they went with a hard-coded value.

The aforementioned code comes before the game reads the Coinage / Cabinet Type and Lives dip switches and sets those variables in RAM, which supports this theory.

Version Differences

Gameplay

Konami	Stern

• The base value of the purple enemy increased by 20, while the yellow enemy had its point value doubled.
• The player gets an extra life at 5,000 points in the Konami version and 10,000 points in Stern's version.

Konami	Stern

• The biggest change between games is where the player is positioned.

In the Konami set, the player is behind the three 4x4 brick walls. This lets the player easily dodge enemy shots, but makes it more difficult to shoot enemies when they're carrying bricks back to the other side.

In the Stern set, the player is in front of the brick walls, which lets them more easily shoot down retreating enemies but makes them constantly vulnerable to enemy shots. They're also susceptible to contact damage, which isn't a factor at all in the Konami version.

• At the start of the game, the player starts out in the center in the Konami set, while they're put all the way to the right in Stern's game.
• The way the mothership sends out its troops is different between versions:

• In the Konami version, the sequence is: RRRRRRRRPPYYRPYRPYRPYRPYRPPRPPRPYRPYRPPRPPRPPR. There are 20 red enemies, 18 purple enemies, and 8 yellow enemies.
• In the Stern version, the enemies are neatly separated by color. First come 11 red enemies, then 27 purple enemies, then 8 yellow enemies.

• In the Konami version, all enemies move at the same speed. In the Stern version, the purple enemy is the same speed as the Konami enemies, the red enemy is about 50% as fast as the purple one, and the yellow enemy is around twice as fast.

• A new feature added to the Stern set: The title for the upcoming level scrolling in from the right side of the screen. This is either "2ND ATTACK", "3RD ATTACK", "4TH ATTACK", "NEXT ATTACK" (For waves 5+), or "LAST ATTACK" (When the game goes into "CHANCE TIME" mode.)
• In the Stern version, enemies will not start firing at the player until wave 2.

Graphics

The game went through a bit of a retheming under the Stern license.

Konami	Stern	Notes
		The player's ship was changed from a conventional spaceship design to a bright blue, animated beetle.
		Of course, the explosion animation had to be updated with the new design...
		...as did the life icons.
		The mothership changed from a kind of flying saucer-deal to an animated spider. I guess that thing is its egg sac.
		The bricks are now eggs. Or tic-tacs, maybe.
		The enemy brick-carrying graphics were redrawn to match.

Music

In both versions, the game will play a warning jingle (The first six notes of "Taps") once there are 10 bricks left in "THE END".

7-10 Bricks Left	4-6 Bricks Left	1-3 Bricks Left

• In the Konami version, the BGM will change depending on how many bricks are left, getting more frantic the closer the player is to a Game Over.
• In the Stern version, none of those tracks are present. The game will continue playing the warning jingle until the player gets a Game Over.