Went and read the link you posted. The rumor that they talk about I had never heard of before.
I did some save states and find that it is impossible to shoot around lower invaders and hit the top row of invaders. Even in a tas play by prog61

He is not able to shoot the top invaders. So as the method described by the rumor I believe is either just that a rumor or it was described incorrectly and wish there was more truth or information about this tactic.

On another note though I know that you can on other boards besides the first board get extra lives from using the roll the shot counter so it's under 55 when you shoot the last invader and are awarded an extra life. Still playing around with the game and trying to find other ways to play the game.

At 1:23, there's 6 top invaders and 6 bottom invaders. The player then proceeds to shoot all the top 6 invaders first before shooting the bottom 6. If you can set up the board so that you have all the top and bottom invaders left, it might be worth seeing if it's possible. Unless those top shots aren't possible until you get down to 12 invaders and they speed up such that it's then possible.

Nevermind. Just accessed the video directly from Youtube and saw the OP's comments about trying to prove/disprove that old rumor. Looks like it's indeed impossible. I don't remember the source of that rumor (magazine, book, newsgroup, etc) but it would be great if Mr. Brian Deuel can be tracked down.