Defender is a 1981 horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Williams Electronics for arcades. It was released in Japan by Taito. It is set on an unnamed planet where the player must defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting astronauts. Development was led by Eugene Jarvis, a pinball programmer at Williams; Defender was Jarvis's first video game project and drew inspiration from Space Invaders and Asteroids. Defender was demonstrated in late 1980 and was released in March 1981.
Defender was one of the most important titles of the golden age of arcade video games, selling over 55,000 units to become the company's best-selling game and one of the highest-grossing arcade games ever. Praise among critics focused on the game's audio-visuals and gameplay. It is frequently listed as one of Jarvis's best contributions to the video game industry and one of the most difficult video games. Though not the first game to scroll horizontally, it created the genre of horizontal scrolling shoot 'em ups. It inspired the development of other games and was followed by sequels and many imitations.
Ports were developed for contemporary game systems, most of them by either Atari, Inc. or its software label for non-Atari platforms, Atarisoft. The 1982 Atari 2600 version was one of the best-selling games for the system and sold over 3 million cartridges.
Gameplay
thumb|left|alt=A horizontal rectangular video game screenshot that is a digital representation of a planet surface. A white, triangular spaceship in the upper right corner battles green alien enemies. The top of the screen features a banner that displays icons, numbers, and a miniature version of the landscape.|The player flies the spaceship (upper right) above the planet surface to protect humans. The top of the screen displays game statistics and a [[Mini-map|minimap, which shows the entire world.]]
Defender is a side-view, horizontally scrolling shooter set on the surface of an unnamed planet. The player controls a spaceship flying either to the left or right. A joystick controls the ship's elevation, and five buttons control its horizontal direction and weapons. The player starts with three "smart bombs", which destroy all visible enemies. As a last resort, the "hyperspace" button works as in Asteroids: the player's ship reappears in a random—possibly unsafe—location. Players are allotted three ships at the start of the game; another ship and smart bomb are awarded every 10,000 points (adjustable per machine). Two players can alternate turns.
The object is to destroy all alien invaders, while protecting astronauts on the landscape from abduction. Landers pick up humans and attempt to carry them to the top of the screen at which point they turn into fast-moving mutants. A captured human can be freed by shooting the lander, then catching the human before it falls to its death, and dropping it off on the ground.
Defeating the aliens allows the player to progress to the next level. Failing to protect the astronauts, however, causes the planet to explode and the level to become populated with mutants. Surviving the waves of mutants results in the restoration of the planet. A ship is lost if it is hit by an enemy or its projectiles, or if a hyperspace jump goes wrong (as they randomly do). After exhausting all ships, the game ends.
Development
thumb|alt=A man with short dark hair in a pink shirt, speaking into a microphone in his right hand.|[[Eugene Jarvis, a pinball programmer at the time, headed development of Defender.]]
Defender was Williams Electronics' first attempt at developing a new video game; the company's earlier game was a Pong clone. The company chose Eugene Jarvis, who had a successful record of Williams pinball games, to head development. At the time, Williams had a small staff and the management was unfamiliar with technology used for its electronic games. As a result, the staff was afforded a large amount of creative freedom. First inspired by Space Invaders, he created a similar game with new gameplay mechanics. After spending a few weeks on the design, however, the team abandoned the idea. Development then shifted to emulating Atari's Asteroids, which displays vector graphics on a special monitor, and the team experimented with recreating the game with pixel graphics. They abandoned it because they felt it wasn't fun and lacked visual appeal. The landscape is depicted as a line only a pixel wide, primarily because the hardware was not powerful enough to generate anything more detailed. The evening before the trade show, the arcade cabinets were delivered for display. Early the next morning, the team created the final EPROM chips for the mode and installed them in a cabinet. The chips were put in backwards, causing an electrical short when the cabinet was turned on, so the team had to quickly burn a new set of EPROMs. A pack of three AA batteries provide power to save the game's settings and high scores when the machine is unplugged from an electrical outlet. The cabinet artwork is stenciled on the wooden frame.
Development started by focusing on the game's hardware. The staff first debated what type of monitor to use: black-and-white or color. They reasoned that using advanced technology would better establish them as good designers and chose a color monitor. The developers estimated that the game would require 4 colors, but instead chose hardware that could display each pixel in 16 colors. At the time, the designers believed that was more than they would ever need for a game. Video games at the time relied on hardware to animate graphics, but the developers decided to use software to handle animation and programmed the game in assembly language. It has sold 70,000 arcade units as of 2020.
Defender has been included in several multi-platform compilations: the 1995 Arcade Classic compilation by Nintendo, the 1996 Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits, the 2000 Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits, the 2003 Midway Arcade Treasures, and the 2012 Midway Arcade Origins. Many of the anthologies were created by Digital Eclipse, who used emulation to run the original source code. The company included Defender because of its high recognizability. In 2000, a web-based version of Defender, along with nine other classic arcade games, were published on Shockwave.com, Macromedia's game portal that used its Shockwave platform. Four years later, Midway Games also launched a website featuring the Shockwave versions.
Defender, along with many other Midway arcade games, appear in the 2016 Midway Arcade expansion of Lego Dimensions. The developer, Traveller's Tales, considered recreating them in Lego form but decided to present them in their original forms to maintain what they felt made the games good. Lego versions of Defender characters appear outside the emulated games in the expansion's virtual Lego world. In 2021, the game joined other classic arcade games on the Antstream Arcade gaming platform. It left the service in 2023 after the licensing agreement expired.
Reception
thumb|right|An American [[United States Marine Corps|Marine playing Defender aboard a naval ship in 1982]]
Commercial performance
The game grossed over worldwide as of 2000. In Japan, Defender was not as highly successful: it tied with Turbo and Galaxian as Japan's 18th highest-grossing arcade video game of 1981.
Six months after its release, the game was one of the top earners in the United States video game industry. and the RePlay arcade charts for most months between March and November. The annual Cash Box and RePlay arcade charts listed Defender as the second highest-grossing arcade game of 1981 in the US, below Pac-Man. The Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) later listed Defender among America's six highest-grossing arcade games of 1982.
Co-designer Larry Demar was surprised by the game's popularity. Across all home platforms, the game has sold over five million cartridges worldwide as of 2000.
Ed Driscoll reviewed the Atari 2600 version of Defender (where, due to its graphical limitations, was reformatted to a city setting rather than the planet setting of the original arcade version) in The Space Gamer No. 57. Driscoll commented that "all in all, if you want a good game for your Atari, this qualifies. Defender lovers have a few gripes, but I would recommend this one to any VCS owner". Computer and Video Games later reviewed the game, giving it a 90% rating.
In 1983, Softline readers named the port for the Atari 8-bit computers fifth on the magazine's top thirty list of Atari programs by popularity. The magazine was more critical, stating that "the game's appeal does not justify its unreasonable cost" of being shipped on ROM cartridges. David H. Ahl of Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games said that the Atari 5200 version was "a substantial challenge to the most seasoned space gamers". Computer Games magazine reviewed the IBM PC conversion, giving it a mixed review. They said the "action is very fast" but "it becomes boring after a short time."
Retrospective
In 1995, Flux magazine rated Defender 34th in its Top 100 Video Games list, calling it "the ultimate side scrolling arcade shooter." Next Generation ranked the arcade version as number 13 on their 1996 "Top 100 Games of All Time", saying that its balanced difficulty makes gamers keep coming back for more instead of giving up. In 1996, GamesMaster listed the game number five in their "Top 100 Games of All Time", they described the game as "One of the greatest shoot-'em-ups of all time." In 1999, Next Generation listed Defender as number 23 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that "despite exceptionally complicated controls, gamers fell in love at first sight. The difficulty is high but when you die, it's always your fault, and that leaves you wanting one more chance to beat the game". In 2004, Defender was inducted into GameSpot's list of the greatest games of all time. In 2008, Guinness World Records listed it as the number six arcade game in technical, creative, and cultural impact. Also in 2008, Edge ranked Defender the sixth best game from the 1980s. The editors described its design as very "elegant" despite a lack of narrative and characters.
GameSpy's David Cuciz lauded Defenders challenging gameplay, commenting that it is representative of what other games should be. He described the graphics as "beautiful", citing the varied sprites and flashing explosions. Members of the Defender development team attended the induction ceremony, including team lead Eugene Jarvis. Jeremy Saucier of The Strong Museum said "Defender’s punishing gameplay raised the level of competition in arcades, and it was among the first games to truly separate dedicated players from more casual ones."
Impact and legacy
Players have competed to obtain the highest score at the game and the longest play time on a single credit. Competitive playing for the longest play time was popularized by Mario Suarez from Atlantic City, who played Defender for over in 1982 at the Claridge Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. It was authenticated by the facility and the many witnesses that watched along with the press of Atlantic City; the media attention spurred other players to attempt the same feat. One bug, related to how the game keeps track of scoring, allows players to earn a large number of "extra lives". Players can then use the extra lives to leave the game unattended while they rest. Professor Jim Whitehead described Defender as a breakthrough title for its use of full 2D motion, multiple goals, and complex gameplay that provides players with several methods to play. James Hague of Dadgum Games called Defender a landmark title from the 1980s.
Jarvis's contributions to the game's development are often cited among his accolades. Vince considered him one of the originators of "high-action" and "reflex-based" arcade games, citing Defenders gameplay among other games designed by Jarvis. Ellis said that Jarvis established himself as an early "hard-core" designer with Defender. Williams released a Defender-themed pinball machine in 1982. Tiger Electronics released a keychain-sized electronic game adaption of Defender with a grayscale LCD screen in 1997. It has many elements from the original game: sound effects, enemies, waves, and weapons. Williams produced fewer than 400 units.
Midway's 1991 Strike Force is an update and indirect sequel to Defender. Jarvis and DeMar assisted with the game. Atari Corporation released Defender 2000 in 1995 for the Atari Jaguar. It was developed by Jeff Minter, who had previously updated Tempest as Tempest 2000. A 2002 remake, published simply as Defender, uses 3D graphics and a third-person viewpoint. and Repton (1983) Chopper Command (1982) for the Atari 2600; Protector II (1983) and Dropzone (1984) for the Atari 8-bit computers; It influenced Jeff Minter's Andes Attack for the VIC-20 home computer. StarRay (1988) was retitled Revenge of Defender in the US.