Space Invader last strengthened his invasion of London in 2016 and from a peak of 150 the number of Invaders stationed in London has slowly diminished. Some have been kidnapped and a number of those have been held to ransom on Planet Ebay. Some went dark, contact lost as they simply disappeared. Some deteriorated and decayed with time. The lucky few however returned to their sentry posts restored, refreshed, reinvigorated and reactivated by Space Rescue International. They prefer “Reactivation.”
News of recent reactivations prompted a bike ride this morning to wildernesses south of the river where a number have resumed their stealthy monitoring activities.
The most far flung was way out in Brixton, its remote location prompted an invader health check with one of the supreme reconnaissance group on the leader board of Space Invader’s smartphone game “Flash Invader”. This guru advised that LDN_42 had actually been sighted and recently cleaned by another Master of the High Score screen, Mr Steam and as a result, the signal was strong.
It’s not about the stats or the ego of soaring up the high score chart but five invader’s inspected, 100 points scored and a huge 678 place rise smashing into the top 40,000 on the leader board made this a very productive hour.
My tally of flashed London Invaders also nudged into treble figures, 101 of 150 mosaics flashed, this is the kind of stats fetish that satisfies the inner nerd.
LINKS
Read more about the work of the Reactivation Team in our 2016 interview with this highly secretive group of space operatives here.
Space Invader’s London Webpage
UK Reactivation Insta
All photos: Dave Stuart