It doesn't make much money, thought the fiddler on the roof
He was broke as usual. His violin was old but that didn't matter, although the thing was outdated it played well. If it's an antique I'll sell it but first I have to be famous.

It was busy in front of the food bank, long lines of people and even Teslas and BMW owners were present. In a welfare state, it is only fair that everyone has something to eat and owning your own villa or Ferrari has nothing to do with having a daily meal. Some gentlemen smoked big cigars while they looked in horror at the crowd looking very hungry.
From the roof, the fiddler looked down on the masses and decided it was safer to wait a little longer. The crowd in front of the food bank looked threatening and there was no police or aid worker in sight. His stomach growled but the most they gave to poor folks like him was a box with canned sardines. It was no use to him without a can opener. The only time he had pried one open his pocket knife had broken and the fish had tasted mostly like bones. The cat he had had choked on it and died. That aid organisation was a fraud.

Lying on his stomach he looked down over the gutter where the riff-raff was. Of course, they had been helped first and he wondered what was in the McDonald's bags. It couldn't be canned fish because those bags aren't that sturdy he thought.
With the violin under his coat, he jumped onto a lower roof, he would follow the fatso in the BMW, it was a good thing the rear windows were tinted and the tailgate wasn't locked. Unnoticed he slipped into the trunk.

The car drove silently away from the marketplace, he would have fallen asleep if he hadn't heard the shooting of a game that reminded him of his teenage years.

Space Invaders, he mumbled.

If he had gotten a dollar for every point he scored he would have been a billionaire by now and his dream would have come true and he would be sitting on his roof terrace enjoying the sun while he played his violin in the evening and the music he played lit up the night for many.

I should have gone for gaming he thought bitterly, then I would have had a safety net.
The teachers had all been wrong and he had become the victim of what the elders said who had ruined their own future. It was true, one is a product of his upbringing. His present life, like the future, was meaningless.

The shooting continued, tyres screeched, the vehicle spun on its axis and came to a halt with a loud bang against a large oak tree. The engine revved, glass shattered and the violinist tried to swallow the frog in his throat.

Be careful what you wish for, he heard her say just before he breathed out for the last time.

What I see is a screenshot of the game Space Invasion which you can play if you have a computer.

You can play it for free or login to Steemit (whalevault or keychain) and have a chance to win Steem. Even if you don't beat the champion, you can always claim the "lucky" player prize. This amount is the same as what the winner receives.

Is the game difficult?

That depends on the PC or laptop you are playing with, your internet connection and your keyboard. If everything works, you only have to shoot "aliens". It is most optimal if you can leave your screen at 100% if you play. I have to set it at 90% (good for a game of 5x6 centimetres of screen!).
This way I am able to see the entire game, but the disadvantage is that you have less eye movement and quickly start staring. One of my children has to set het screen at 80% which means the game is actually too small to play (considering distance eye and game).

I only played the game for free four times (on different days), where I liked the first time the most, the second time was stressful and yesterday I reached level 26 but I don't believe the number of points is high-flown (see screenshot underneath).
Only on the second and fourth day (today) as I played I saw the life bar turn red. This disappears when you shoot aliens.

Is there a strategy?

I haven't discovered it yet, but with just shooting I have more levels than when I use the laser (shooting + laser is the best choice, for this you have to work with both hands and also use both hemispheres of your brain!).
Note: Relying only on the laser is not wise.

The keyboard I use is not practical, the arrow keys are small (if not tiny).
It is hard to move back and forth.
If you keep shooting you can often kill an alien that almost hits the ground (keep hitting the space bar)
With me during gaming a message pops up that stops the game after a few seconds and then it's the end of the retro game.

It's good enough to shoot off but it's over quickly and I also get negative stress from it. Maybe that will get better? To me, it's not addictive. I try it 3-5 times, basically because I notice something and like to figure out what it is, and I leave. This time the laptop didn't crash and I played it with VPN.

Review of the youngest daughter

This game isn't horrible, but honestly, I don't think it's very good either.
It's not an original concept. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but there's nothing that makes this specific game special.
I personally don't see a reason, to choose to play this game, instead of one of the hundreds of online versions and phone apps, and all the other games that are basically the same. I understand that it's trying to imitate the look of an older, retro game. But I don't think it executes that very well. It lacks any of the charm that the real retro games have.

I'm not a fan of the graphics, it looks like they took images of several different styles and just put them together - not really caring about aesthetics.
For example, the blue "monsters" look like they're from some 2d cartoon, while some of the green monsters look like Mike Wazowski (from Monsters Inc.) with wings. The red text with the shadows isn't a great choice either, simply put: it's hard to read.
Overall the mixture of different styles of the monsters, the rocket, the background and the text just causes a chaotic image.
It makes it harder for me, personally, to focus on playing the game. The different images just don't fit together, there's no harmony.
The scoreboards on the sides are also kind of distracting.

About the gameplay itself...
I'm not a gamer, but I've occasionally played similar games when I was bored and had nothing else to do (waiting for hours in the cold till the bus arrived).
It generally took me less than a minute to lose my lives. That might just be because I'm not that great at most games, but it's not fun this way.
I also had to set to zoom level of my browser from 100% to 80% - otherwise, I couldn't see (or play) the game normally.
Anytime I would press the space bar (to shoot) my screen would also "shoot" up.

This led to seeing even less of the game, it was also quite distracting and annoying. Again, it wasn't fun playing this way.
I don't say this to be mean or harsh but there's a lot of work to be done, to make this game a first choice and make people sign up on Steemit.

All pictures shown I took with my phone

<sub>shooting is screen jumping up - see the white part at the bottom



I shoot (hit space bar) the screen moves up and the scoreboard shoves behind the game



2D and 3D figures



80% is needed to see the game</sub>

Links

• My first review
• My second review - my son's review included.

_{5.2.25
cc. @mikitaly @ilnegro @darthnava @cicisaja
7 prompts + 1 picture prompt
All prompts used for the story are provided by @freewritehouse}