Defender FAQ, v 0.1a (c) June, 1996 by Jonathan Folkers, folkers@cais.com Please feel free to distribute this document far and wide, so long as it is not truncated or modified in any other way. Additions, suggestions, comments, words of encouragement and gifts of gratitude may be sent to me at the above e-mail address. Introduction: =20 One of the greatest video games from the early days simply refuses to die, and with good reason -- it=EDs great! Defender and its various offspring have been succeeded by countless sequels, rip-offs, and improvements, but the original is still a gameplay classic. I was amazed to hear that there are people who have never seen or played the original, and this FAQ is meant as an effort to get them to be half as obsessed as I am with this wonderful game, and as the creator of Defender 2000 would say, =ECto make your thumbs bleed!=EE Contents: What=EDs so great about Defender anyway? It=EDs from 1980, for God=EDs s= ake! What is the history of Defender? What is the object of Defender? -Or- Just how does one play this thing? How does the =ECSmart Bomb=EE work? Why don=EDt the Humanoids just go inside? What did the original arcade control panel look like? What are the characters in Defender and its sequels called? On which systems can I play Defender? What are Defender clones? Which are the best versions of Defender? Who are Eugene Jarvis, Jeff Minter, etc? Who owns the rights to Defender? What is Stargate? Is it the same as Defender II? What is the Digital Eclipse emulator? How does it work? What do the switches in the arcade game mean? Help! I really suck at this game. Can you give me some pointers? Help! I=EDm too good at the game, and keep rolling the score table! What are some hidden features or =ECeaster eggs=EE in the game? Where can I look for more information about Defender and other classic games? Unanswered questions/requested help: How many Defender arcade units exist today? ASCII art for title page, control panels, ROM schematics How to fix your own machine to run ROM images More strategies (especially from wizards) (maybe) More Defender clone descriptions More contact information, URLs Answers to the FAQ: What=EDs so great about Defender anyway? It=EDs from 1980, for God=EDs s= ake! The question of what makes a classic is debated in every artistic and creative field. At the risk of pompously elevating humble video games to the heights claimed by literature and film, I would define a classic as a work transcends its time, continuing to entertain and challenge long after its rivals have faded into obscurity. A classic game is often the first to contain play elements that are used in later works, or implements old ideas in an innovative or superior way. Finally, a classic game continues to challenge long after it is begun while providing an addictive =EChook=EE to keep the player coming back to try again. Besides, Defender=EDs explosions and sound effects are pretty darn cool, even today. Defender=EDs graphics are no longer state of the art, but their effectiveness cannot be denied. What is the object of Defender? -Or- Just how does one play this thing? The backstory on Defender is mercifully brief and to the point. Evil aliens are attacking planetary outposts. Their goal is to grab the peaceful, purple-pink resident Humanoids and transform them into hideous Mutants by hauling them to the top of the screen. You, must Defend these little people by catching the aliens in the kidnapping act, shooting them, and catching the poor Humanoids before they fall to their demise. In case that sounds easy, forget it -- a bestiary of other bad guys is also out to distract you from your mission and our out to blow you out of the sky. Fortunately, your ship is well-equipped and very maneuverable. You have a long-range scanner that can tell you about events outside of your immediate field of vision, and can warn you of incoming attackers. You have an inexhaustible laser cannon, a limited supply of powerful Smart Bombs, and an emergency Hyperspace drive. Each planet begins with ten Humanoids, which are in immediate jeopardy.=20 Should all of them be destroyed (either by falling, by transformation into Mutants, or by your own careless shots) the planet will explode, and you will have to fight Mutant-rich invasion forces until you die or you reach a wave number divisible by 5 (i.e. wave 5, 10, 15, etc.). How does the =ECSmart Bomb=EE work? This little green button is a marvel of military intelligence (which is not longer an oxymoron in the time of Defender, except for the fact that only one ship was sent out against hordes of invaders). Press it, and every hostile force on the screen will explode! The Smart Bomb is particularly useful for dispatching large numbers of Mutants and Pods, and can also be used to clear a screen to facilitate a Humanoid rescue.=20 To make the game challenging, your supply of Smart Bombs is limited, but you can earn extra ships and Smart Bombs by reaching high scores (DEFAULT -- 10,000?). The Smart Bomb is a faster-than-light missile that can be in more than one place at a time. It=EDs made of a material that=EDs harmless to you = and your Humanoids, but the Aliens just can=EDt handle it. (Remember how the invaders in =ECWar of the Worlds=EE went down after exposure to Earth infections? It=EDs like that, only different.) Why don=EDt the Humanoids just go inside? That=EDs what my wife wanted to know as I played Defender 2000. This question plagues only the Atari games, interestingly enough, since they=EDre the only ones to use cities as backgrounds. In the true Defender, there is no =ECinside,=EE so the people are stuck with scrabbli= ng around on the rocky surface, hoping the Landers don=EDt see their purple asses. In the Atari games, the Humanoids are just kind of stupid -- but they=EDre still worth saving since they can either prevent future abductions (2600 version of Defender), prevent the planet from exploding (2600 Defender II/Stargate) or can help you fight (Jaguar Defender 2000). What is the history of Defender? [From the background material in the Digital Eclipse Emulator ...ADD] Defender was released to the arcade-game playing public in 1980, during the peak of excitement about this new entertainment form. At the time, the machine=EDs controls were the most complex of any game, including an up-down joystick, a reverse button, thrust, fire, and Hyperspace buttons, and the first use of a =ECsmart bomb.=EE Jarvis was afraid that the new machine would be a bomb -- no one would play it at trade shows. There=EDs a gob of good information on the early days of Defender -- see the =ECsources=EE list at the end of this document. What did the original arcade control panel look like? What about subsequent conversions? The original Defender console, like many games of the times, relied on push-buttons rather than joysticks for most controls. Perhaps joysticks were not as durable as buttons, but the final Defender panel was intimidating for novice players in the early 80=EDs, and the game quickly received a well-deserved reputation for being difficult. The player=EDs left hand (use your imagination; I can=EDt do ASCII art!) grasps an up-down directional joystick, which controlled the ship=EDs altitude. Th= e player=EDs thumb hovers over a =ECReverse=EE button, which instantly make= s your ship face the opposite direction (while maintaining its original direction and velocity). The player=EDs right hand controls Thrust (inde= x finger; applies Newtonian thrust to your ship in the direction the nose is facing), Fire (middle finger; fires offensive laser weapons as rapidly as needed), and Smart Bomb (thumb; destroys all hostile enemies on screen). Finally, a Hyperspace button in the lower center of the control board can be used as a last resort to jump to a random (often deadly) place on the planet. The first home conversion was for the Atari 2600, or Video Computer System (VCS). Aside from graphical differences, the biggest compromise in this version is the control scheme. On the Atari version, the player controls their ship using a single 8-directional joystick, which eliminates the need for separate thrust and reverse keys. More importantly, the player no longer has the ability to activate certain weapons at will; instead, he or she must move the ship to the bottom of the screen (into the =ECcity=EE) for a Smart Bomb or to the top of the screen (into =ECspace=EE) for Hyperspace. Subsequent home computer versions of the game also used the 8-directional joystick approach, but their additional keyboard capabilities made it possible to activate extra weapons without special moves. Similarly, the Atari 5200, the Colecovision, Intellivision, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Game Boy versions of the game featured additional joystick buttons that could be used for extra weapons. Atari=EDs conversion of Stargate/Defender II did not use a multi-button joystick, but allowed the use of a second joystick for weapon deployment. The player could either move the stick in the desired direction for Smart Bombs, Inviso, or Hyperspace, or could simply press a button and the computer would choose the best available weapon. The button would activate a Smart Bomb until the supplies were exhausted, after which it would select Inviso until it to was used up, and would only activate Hyperspace once all other resources were gone. (Personal note: During the videogame crash of 1984, I had a blast with this game, which I purchased for 99 cents and an Atari Trackball, which was $3.00 and soon broke -- but the weapons buttons still worked on Stargate, so I was happy.) The Macintosh Defender arcade emulator allowed you to assign keys for controlling your ship, while the PC, Atari Jaguar, and Sony Playstation versions allow fully configurable joysticks/joypads. What are the characters in Defender and its sequels called? In Defender, it=EDs you and the Humanoids against an evil empire of aliens: Landers (dumb green octopi with an appetite for Humanoids) Mutants (unholy union of a Lander and a Humanoid) Baiters (speedy little saucers that chase you if you take too long on a wave) Pods (pretty purple stars that don=EDt worry you until you shoot them and they release Swarmers) Swarmers (little red nasties that chase you, come from Pods) Bombers (blue, boring, bombing boxes) In Defender II/Stargate, the zoo is slightly different: Landers Mutants Munchers (space Pac-Men that bother you if you take too long on a wave) Pods Swarmers Space Hum Yllabian Space Guppy Pinwheel The Atari Jaguar=EDs Defender 2000 adds even more to the mix. You=EDll h= ave to discover them for yourself, but be prepared for Pointy Fingers and camels ... On which systems can I play Defender? Naturally, if you can find the original cabinet machine in an arcade, pizza shop or Defender addict=EDs house, that=EDs the ideal system -- especially if the volume is turned up to maximum. Next best are the emulators which run the original code of the arcade machine on PC monitors or television screens, sound effects, bugs, and all -- the only thing missing is the old knobby control panel. Distant third are the =ECports=EE which attempt to recreate the Defender experien= ce, but sometimes fall short because of inferior hardware. Virtually every computer or video game system released since 1980 has either a licensed version of Defender or a lookalike that will provide approximately the same look and feel.=20 What are Defender clones? If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Defender should be full of itself by now. There are loads of Defender =ECclones=EE that try to h= it upon the success of the original, often with mixed results. Clones may or may not have everything the Defender has. Generally, clones that were contemporaries of Defender usually borrowed its side-scrolling shooting action at the expense of strategy and resource management. For example, Freedom Fighters on the Odyssey2 resembles a spacefaring Defender because of its fiery explosions and captured astronauts to rescue. There is no scanner, however, so the finite universe of Defender is not adequately recaptured. Nemesis on the Macintosh uses the scanner, but is primarily a side-scrolling shooter with no people to rescue. A much closer rip-off is Activision=EDs Chopper Command on the Atari 2600, in which requires the player to defend a convoy of trucks from bombing attacks. =20 Other clones are too numerous to list, but they=EDre easy to pick out if you=EDve ever played, seen, or just heard of Defender. Which are the best versions of Defender? If there isn=EDt an arcade near you that has old games, you=EDll have to spring for a home version. This game has appeared on many different systems, old and new, so there=EDs really no excuse for not owning a copy of the game if you=EDre even remotely interested in what all the Defender hype is about. You can run the game on anything from a five-dollar Atari 2600 to a multi-thousand-dollar multimedia PC, and a number of systems in between. Given the choice, a true Defenderaholic will choose their fix from the following, in descending order of desirability (subject to debate, of course): Arcade coin-operated stand-up machine with original controls=20 Licensed Defender emulator running original ROMs (Mac, PC, or Playstation) Defender 2000 on the Atari Jaguar (includes ported original as well as interesting variations) Atari 5200 port of Defender with weird non-centering joystick Atari 2600 port of Stargate/Defender II (only if you like the sequel as much as the original) 8-bit computer versions Atari 2600 version, one of the most common cartridges you can find for this system It=EDs testament to Defender=EDs longevity that current crop of machines play this classic much better than the versions of the early 1980=EDs. I= f you don=EDt have access to an arcade machine, there are versions for Macintosh (Digital Arcade: Defender, distributed by Digital Eclipse), IBM-compatible PC (Williams Arcade Classics, distributed by GT Interactive), and the Sony Playstation (Williams Arcade=EDs Greatest Hits= , distributed by Williams). =20 For machines that lack the horsepower to emulate classic hardware, there are plenty of =ECported=EE versions around, which approximate the arcade game. Port versions of the Sony Playstation game are now out for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. The Atari Jaguar=EDs Defender 2000 features two great all-new games as well as a very pretty version of Defender =ECClassic,=EE all of which capture the essence of the original.= A portable version of the game is available for the black and white Gameboy, but the feel is off. Another portable version is expected for the Atari Lynx in 1997 in the form of a homegrown port. There=EDs a version for the Nintendo Entertainment System, but it=EDs really not wort= h trying, since it plays as if the programmers never tried the game for more than a few minutes. =ECClassic=EE machines (the kind you can find at flea markets and thrift stores) have Defender covered in spades. The Atari 5200 version is the best of the lot, with big, fast, arcade-like graphics on the plus side, but strange controls. The Colecovision version holds its own, especially considering that scrolling games are a major weakness of this platform. Atari 2600 conversions are a mixed bag: the port of Stargate (a.k.a. Defender II) is one of the best games available for the system, but the extremely common Defender cartridge is less than a shadow of its namesake and shouldn=EDt be considered the same game. It=EDs not terribl= e for what it is (was), though. Who are Eugene Jarvis, Jeff Minter, etc? Eugene Jarvis is the creator of Defender. He still works at Williams and is behind such projects as Cruisin=ED USA. Jeff Minter is the founder of Llamasoft, which began as a shareware operation coding sprite-intensive games for Atari home computers (some of his work, like Revenge of the Mutant Camels and Llamatron have been ported over to the PC). His psychedelic work on the Atari Jaguar has been very well-received by fans of classics and includes Tempest 2000, Defender 2000, and Virtual Light Machine. Tempest 2000 and Defender 2000 are even better than their namesakes thanks to their huge, screen-filling explosions, blistering action, pulsing techno soundtracks, and trippy melting colors. He is currently working on a mystery project that he expects will please his fans. The guy who coded the explosion effects for Defender is WHAT=EDS HIS NAME= ? Who owns the rights to Defender? Williams Electronics, Inc. owns the rights to Defender. Atari has licensed the concept and name for its home systems, but contrary to popular belief, the game doesn=EDt belong to them. What is Stargate? Is it the same as Defender II? Stargate is the sequel to Defender, and was released in 1981. It features a new crew of enemies, juicier special effects, and a few new features. The Stargate, which is a =ECdimensional warp=EE which, when entered, takes the player=EDs ship to the site of a Humanoid abduction or to the other side of the planet. The player is given a new weapon, Inviso, which works like a cloaking device. Every fifth wave is a Yllabian Dogfight, which adds a new rhythm to the game. This game is a lot harder than Defender, and the player is given the option to buy 7 ships instead of 3 at the beginning of a game for an extra quarter. Defender II is the current =ECofficial=EE name for the game. You=EDve ne= ver seen it in the arcade because it was never shipped with this marquee.=20 Why did they changed a perfectly good name? Details are a bit vague, but have to do with keeping the game covered by copyright protection.=20 According to the Digital Eclipse interviews, when Atari re-released Stargate as Defender II for the 2600 in new packaging, they had to approach Williams to program the title screen for them. Atari was not developing original titles for the 2600 at the time, but was recycling their back catalog and acquiring titles from other companies. The movie called Stargate featuring James Spader has nothing to do with the game. Thank God. What is the Digital Eclipse emulator? How does it work? At MacHack in 1992 (CHECK DATE), an Apple-sponsored innovative coding contest, one of the best entries was a working Stargate arcade emulator. This little hack made it possible to play the old Williams 64K arcade games on a Macintosh personal computer. Like any hardware emulator, it enabled a modern processor to take on the functions of the old 6802 chip that ran the arcade machine. After getting the go-ahead (and likely a licensing agreement) from Williams, Digital Eclipse went public with the emulator and made three classic games available for Mac users for about $30 each: Joust, Robotron, and Defender. The technical and commercial success prompted the 1996 release of a CD-ROM for IBM-compatible personal computers called Williams Arcade Classics. WAC featured six games on one disc (Joust, Robotron, Bubbles, Sinistar, Defender, Defender II/Stargate) as well as interviews with the creators and pre-production art. This collection was also released for the Sony Playstation under the name Williams Arcade=EDs Greatest Hits in 1996. There are minor differences in the implementation of the emulator which are particularly important to Defender. Since the arcade machine used a Thrust and a Reverse button to control the player=EDs ship, it would be impossible to use a gamepad or joystick device to control the ship without using separate buttons for these functions without rewriting the joystick driver. The Macintosh version only supports keyboard control, so although keys can be mapped to a device like the Gravis Game Pad, thrust and reverse must be accessed independently. The PC and Sony versions of the emulator have rewritten the control scheme so that you can use a joystick or pad instead of buttons or keys to maneuver your ship if you prefer. Another difference between the emulated versions of Defender and Defender II/Stargate is the screen driver. On a PC or a Mac, the screen resolution is very sharp, more so than the arcade game. On a Sony Playstation=EDs television monitor, the resolution is fuzzier (because of the TV) and every (HOW MANY) scan lines are missing so that it can fit on a standard display. No one knows why Williams didn=EDt just clip a fe= w lines off the top and bottom, but the end result is a slightly distorted display. The effect is most visible in the high score table and when a sprite moves vertically and gets distorted on the way. This effect bothers some arcade purists, but to all but the most anal-retentive (you know who you are), it=EDs a minor imperfection. What do the switches in the arcade game mean? (GET THE LIST) Help! I really suck at this game. Can you give me some pointers? Reverse is the most powerful weapon you have, and it never runs out.=20 You can fake out enemies (particularly Baiters and Mutants) by doing a quick switch on them. Use the Scanner at the top of the screen and plan your route. Avoid running head-on into large clusters of enemies unless you=EDre quick with the reverse key. To survive, keep moving! The enemies love a sitting duck. Your Smart Bombs don=EDt destroy the enemy=EDs shots, so be careful when = you use them. They=EDre powerful, but not infallible. Go for the Landers first; they=EDre the only ones that can really wreck your planet by destroying all the Humanoids. Save the bombers for last; they=EDre not going anywhere. Be careful when dealing with a Pod -- you=EDll be overcome with Swarmers if you=EDre too close when you open it. Carrying Humanoids around with you is one sure way to ensure their survival, except you=EDll miss out on the points you=EDd get for putting them down. This advice goes for other versions of the game, too: in Defender II/Stargate, you can warp ahead and skip levels by carrying four humanoids into the Stargate. On the Atari 2600 Defender, the Landers won=EDt take any more Humanoids as long as you=EDre carrying one already. On the Atari Jaguar=EDs Defender 2000, the Humanoids are a powerful ally -- they shoot bad guys as they hang from your ship! You can always Hyperspace out of danger, but since you have a good chance of exploding on re-entry, only use this as a last resort. (Note -- First seen in Atari=EDs =ECAsteroids,=EE Hyperspace is a hallmark of e= arly 80=EDs videogames, the closest analogue to jiggling a pinball machine without getting the dreaded =EBtilt.=ED I=EDd like to see the button ret= urn in some modern game ...) Help! I=EDm too good at the game, and keep rolling the score table! Congratulations! Now seek out a crowded arcade and play the hell out of a machine in public. Then leave the maxed-out machine to some overawed little kid. Better still, try to master another great Williams game, like Stargate (Defender II) or Robotron. What are some hidden features or =ECeaster eggs=EE in the game? Free play combos: [from the disc.] A certain combination of moves must be entered in sequence without blowing up your ship. The Williams engineers could use these combos to tell if a machine had been bootlegged! Unfortunately, they had to go and create a whole game based on stupid joystick combinations (Killer Instinct -- yuck!). Scoring bug in wave 99 Jaguar Defender 2000: =20 -Enter =ECNOLAN=EE in the high score table and play Plazma Pong! =20 -Enter =ECOVINE=EE in the high score table and play Defender Plus as Flos= sie by pressing A to start instead of B! =20 -Enter =ECBEEEST=EE in the high score table, and cheat at Defender 2000 b= y pressing 3 on the pad to go into warp, and 6 to finish a wave! Defender for Atari 2600: Turn all of the enemies into programmer=EDs initials by going to wave (WHICH WAVE) and sitting on scan line (WHICH ONE?) Where can I look for more information about Defender and other classic games? Internet resources: rec.games.video.classic is a great newsgroup for discussing, buying, and selling pre-Nintendo video games. Emulator information can be found at --