Party like it’s 2002! “Chicken Invaders: The Next Wave” (a.k.a. Chicken Invaders 2) was released on 22 December 2002.To commemorate the 20th anniversary of that occasion, CIU supports a special mode which simulates an (approximately) authentic 2002 experience: graphics have been reduced in color and resolution, music has been replaced with era-appropriate tracks, and certain special effects have been disabled.

CIU v.124 always starts off in this mode, but it can be disabled through the main menu (you must restart the game to enable it again). Also, for technical reasons, this mode is not available on Android.

Admittedly, this mode comes a bit earlier than expected, because there are three main events in December and unfortunately they all come very close together:

• “Chicken Invaders Universe” leaving Early Access on December 15th
  
• “Chicken Invaders: The Next Wave” 20th anniversary on December 22nd
  
• Christmas Edition on December 25th
  

Some of these events clash together (e.g. music replacements from 20th anniversary and Christmas), so I’ve decided to spread them out a bit so that they don’t overlap. Starting with the next version, 2002 party mode will still be available, but it will not be the default startup mode (because not everyone is familiar with Chicken Invaders history, and it would not be appropriate to leave Early Access with 20-year-old look as default).

Finally, this version re-enables cross-platform multiplayer (Windows vs Android), which had been temporarily disabled until a crashing bug could be fixed. This was one of the most elusive bugs and it took almost two weeks to track down, because… compilers.

More information about this update can be found here: https://forum.chickeninvaders.com/t/early-access-version-124/25402