Defender is a 1981 horizontally scrolling shooter developed and published by Williams Electronics as an arcade video game. 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. It was distributed in Japan by Taito.
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
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.[9][10][11][12]
Development
Defender was Williams Electronics' first attempt at developing a new video game; the company's earlier game was a Pong clone.[9] The popularity of coin-operated arcade games in 1979 spurred the company to shift its focus from pinball games to arcade games.[13] The company chose Eugene Jarvis, who had a successful record of Williams pinball games, to head development.[9]Larry DeMar, Sam Dicker, and Paul Dussault assisted Jarvis.[14] 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.[13]
Initial development
Space was a popular setting for video games at the time, and Jarvis felt the abstract setting would help obscure simple graphics.[9] Initially, Jarvis spent 3–4 months developing color variations of Taito's Space Invaders and Atari, Inc.'s Asteroids.[15] 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.
Believing their first attempts to be too derivative, the developers held brainstorming sessions. During a session, they agreed that one of Asteroids's favorable elements was its wraparound. They felt a game that allowed the player to fly off the screen would be exciting and decided to create a game world larger than the screen displayed. The game's environment was made longer than the screen and scrolled horizontally.[9] Expanding on the idea, they envisioned a version of Space Invaders rotated 90 degrees. By changing the orientation of Space Invaders' design, the ship moved up and down while flying horizontally. Large asteroids, an element from Asteroids, were added to the game world, but later removed. Jarvis intended the screen to scroll only from left to right; fellow Williams employee Steve Ritchie, however, convinced him the game should be able to scroll in either direction.[9]
After six months of development, the team felt the game had not made enough progress. They examined other games and concluded that survival was a necessary component to implement. To achieve this, they devised enemies to present a threat, the first of which was the "Lander". Jarvis enjoyed violent, action entertainment, and wanted the game to have those elements, but felt the action should have a reasonable objective. Inspired by the 1960s television show The Defenders, Jarvis titled the game Defender, reasoning that the title helped justify the violence.[9] He added astronauts to expand on the space theme and give players something to defend while they shot enemies.[9] The element of flying over a planetscape was added after a brainstorming session between Jarvis and Ritchie.[16] The landscape is depicted as a line only a pixel wide, primarily because the hardware was not powerful enough to generate anything more detailed.
Later development
By July, development was behind schedule and Jarvis's superior began to pressure him to finish the game in time for a then-upcoming trade show, the AMOA, in September. Jarvis spent several weeks creating the astronauts, which his boss felt should be omitted if the process didn't speed up. The pressure frustrated him to the point he considered resigning. Around that time, a new programmer named Sam Dicker was hired.[9] He assisted in programming the game and added visual and audio effects.[9] Dicker implemented a particle effect algorithm to generate unique explosions for destroyed enemies.The new elements re-invigorated Jarvis, who felt the project began to show promise.[9]
Development then shifted focus to the enemies. Landers were given the ability to capture humans, and a new enemy was devised from the mechanic: "Mutants", captured humans that had turned hostile. The Mutants added a rescue element to the game that Jarvis believed made it more interesting to players and encouraged them to continue playing. The element of making a "comeback" from a dire situation was applied to the planet as well. Jarvis felt it mimicked the ups and downs of real life. "Bombers", enemies which release floating bombs on the screen, were added next. More enemies were added to create different gameplay elements. "Swarmers" and "Pods" were designed to attack the spaceship as opposed to the astronauts. "Baiters" were included to add pressure to the player by preventing them from lingering.
Hardware
The game features amplified monaural sound and pixel graphics on a CRT monitor.A Motorola 6809central processing unit handles the graphics and gameplay, while a Motorola 6800 microprocessor handles the audio.[19] 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.[20]
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.[9] The monitor's resolution is 320×256, an expansion from the then-industry standard of 256×256.The staff believed that the wider screen provided a better aspect ratio and would improve the game's presentation.[21]
Release
The game was slow to gain popularity,[10] not attracting much attention at the 1980 AMOA show.[9][14][17] In retrospect, Jarvis believed many passersby were intimidated by its complexity.The game was well received in arcades, and crowds gathered around the cabinet during its first nights of play testing.[12] The success spurred Williams to release a cocktail version as well.[15] Defender eventually became Williams' best-selling arcade game, with over 55,000 units sold worldwide,[9][15][20] and it became one of the highest grossing arcade games ever, earning over US$1 billion.[17][22] It has sold 70,000 arcade units as of 2020.[23]
Defender has been included in several multi-platform compilations: 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.[24][25][26][27][28][29] 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.[30] In 2000, a web-based version of Defender, along with nine other classic arcade games, were published on
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.[34] In 2021, the game joined other classic arcade games on the Antstream Arcade gaming platform.[35] It left the service in 2023 after the licensing agreement expired.[36]
Reception
Commercial performance
The game grossed over US$1.5 billion worldwide as of 2000.[37] 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.[38]
Six months after its release, the game was one of the top earners in the United States video game industry.[15] On the 1981 arcade game charts, it topped the Play Meter arcade chart in August,[39] and the RePlay arcade charts for most months between March and November.[40][41][42][43] 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.[44] The Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) later listed Defender among America's six highest-grossing arcade games of 1982.[45]
Co-designer Larry Demar was surprised by the game's popularity.[9] At the time of its release, Stan Jarocki, director of marketing at then-competitor Midway Manufacturing, described the game as "amazing".[15]
The Atari VCS port sold over 3 million copies, becoming the second best-selling Atari home video game of 1982 (just below the Atari version of Pac-Man).However, at least 68,993 copies of Defender were returned in 1983 due to the 1983 video game crash.[46] Across all home platforms, the game has sold over five million cartridges worldwide as of 2000.[37]
Reviews
In 1983, Softline wrote that Defender "remains one of the hardest arcade games ever developed. Initial attempts lasting less than ten seconds are not uncommon for novices".In his 1981 video game guide How to Master the Video Games, Tom Hirschfeld reported "Mastering DEFENDER requires some perserverance, but most players find the effort worthwhile".[47]
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.[48] 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".[48] The port won the "Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Videogame" category in the 1983 Arcade Awards.[49]Computer and Video Games later reviewed the game, giving it a 90% rating.[50]
Retrospective
In 1995, Flux magazine rated Defender 34th in its Top 100 Video Games list, calling it "the ultimate side scrolling arcade shooter."[55]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.[56] 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."[57] 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 fair—when you die, it's always your fault, and that leaves you wanting one more chance to beat the game".[58] In 2004, Defender was inducted into GameSpot's list of the greatest games of all time.[59]
Impact and legacy
Players have competed to obtain the highest score at the game and the longest play time on a single credit.[12][64][65] Competitive playing for the longest play time was popularized by Mario Suarez from Atlantic City, who played Defender for over 211/undefined hours in 1982 at the Claridge Casino Hotel in Atlantic City.[12][66] 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.[12] Expert players exploited software bugs to extend the length of their play time.Defender was the focus of the first Twin Galaxies video game contest. Players in 32 cities simultaneously competed on the weekend of April 3–4, 1982. Rick Smith was the victor with a score of 33,013,200 which took 38 hours.[67][68] 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.[15] Other bugs allow the ship to avoid damage from the enemies, also prolonging the length of play.[21]
Defender is considered the first side-scrollingshoot 'em up, predating Scramble by two months.[69] 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.[70] James Hague of Dadgum Games called Defender a landmark title from the 1980s.[13] Stearny said that the game's use of scrolling helped remove design limitations associated with the screen.[11] Cuciz stated that Defender's use of scrolling introduced the "first true 'gaming environment'".He further said that though the game's mini-map feature had been introduced before, Defender integrated it into the gameplay in a more essential manner.[17] Stearny described it as the most important space game in the early 1980s.He commented that its realism and technological advances pushed developers to create more popular games, citing Gorf and Phoenix as examples.[11]
Jarvis's contributions to the game's development are often cited among his accolades.[72][73] Vince considered him one of the originators of "high-action" and "reflex-based" arcade games, citing Defender's gameplay among other games designed by Jarvis.[74] Ellis said that Jarvis established himself as an early "hard-core" designer with Defender.[20] In 2007, IGN listed Eugene Jarvis as a top game designer whose titles (Defender, Robotron: 2084 and Smash TV) have influenced the video game industry.[73] Barton and Loguidice stated that the game helped establish Williams and Jarvis as key figures in the arcade game industry.[14] Sellers echoed similar comments.[12] After the success of Defender, Williams expanded their business by building a new facility and hired more employees.
Remakes and sequels
The success of Defender prompted Williams to approach Vid Kidz, who originally wanted to create a new game. DeMar, however, suggested creating an enhanced version of Defender to meet Williams' four-month deadline. Vid Kidz titled the game Stargate and developed it as a sequel to Defender.It features new elements and improved the original's performance.[13] Some home ports of Stargate were released under the title Defender II.[75] Williams released a Defender-themed pinball machine in 1982.[15][76]Tiger Electronics released a keychain-sized electronic game adaption of Defender with a grayscale LCD screen in 1997.[77]
32.Williams Electronics went public in 1987 as WMS Industries, and after purchasing Midway in 1988, later transferred its games to a new Midway Games subsidiary.^
The enemies quickly follow the spaceship to collide with it, and were based on a similar enemy in Asteroids.
By September, the game was still unfinished, and almost every Williams programmer assisted in meeting the deadline for the AMOA trade show.[9][17] The evening before the trade show, the arcade cabinets were delivered for display.[15] The developers, however, forgot to create an attract mode (an automated sequence designed to entice an audience to play) and high score system for the game, and began working on them that night.DeMar coded the attract mode, Dussault and Dicker created the high score table, and Jarvis playtested and fixed bugs.[18] 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.[18] Once the attract mode was operational, Jarvis and the team returned to their homes to prepare for the show.[12] After the show, the developers expanded the game to allow users to play indefinitely. The display model included five levels, which the team felt was more than enough because of the game's difficulty. Most Williams employees could not progress past the third level and Jarvis's score of 60,000 points seemed unbeatable to them. The developers decided it was best to be prepared for players that might exceed their expectations and added more levels that repeated.[15]
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
The game's control scheme uses a two-way joystick and five buttons. Jarvis designed the controls to emulate both Space Invaders and Asteroids simultaneously. The player's left hand manipulates the joystick similar to Space Invaders and the right hand pushes buttons similar to Asteroids. The button functions to shoot projectiles and accelerate use a similar layout to Asteroids. Jarvis reasoned that players were accustomed to the control schemes of past games and felt altering past designs would prove difficult for them.[21]
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.[51] The magazine was more critical, stating that "the game's appeal does not justify its unreasonable cost" of being shipped on ROM cartridges.[52]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".[53] 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."[54]
ranked Defender the sixth best game from the 1980s.
The editors described its design as very "elegant" despite a lack of narrative and characters.[61]
GameSpy's David Cuciz lauded Defender's 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.[17] Matt Barton and Bill Loguidice of Gamasutra stated the audio-visuals and gameplay's depth balanced the excessive difficulty.They praised the game's "catch and rescue" feature, as well as the mini-map.[14] Cuciz also praised the mini-map, stating that the game is impossible without it and that it allows players to plan strategies.[17] Author John Sellers praised the audio-visuals and the connection between the game's plot and gameplay.[12]
Author Steven L. Kent called it "one of the toughest games in arcade history".He also stated that novice players typically are able to play only a few seconds, and that enthusiasts saw proficiency at the game as a "badge of honor".[9] David Cuciz echoed similar comments.[17] Sellers described Defender's difficulty as "humbling", saying that few could play it with proficiency.He further stated that players would continue to play despite the difficulty.[12] Author David Ellis attributes the game's success to its challenging design.[20] Its difficulty is often attributed to its complex control scheme.[10][12][14] Edge magazine called Defender "one of the most difficult-to-master" games, describing its controls as "daunting".[61]
In 2025, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted Defender into its World Video Game Hall of Fame.[62] 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."[63]
Author John Vince listed the game as a classic title that introduced new technology, specifically scrolling.
Ellis stated that prior to Defender, companies designed video games to have a balanced challenge.
They believed games should be easy enough to attract players but difficult enough to limit play time to a few minutes; anything too challenging would dissuade players.[20] Loguidice and Barton commented that Defender's success, along with Robotron: 2084, illustrated that video game enthusiasts were ready for more difficult games, which spurred developers to create more complex game designs.[14][71]
Before the expansion, Jarvis could work in isolation.
But the influx of people created an environment he was unhappy with.
He left Williams along with DeMar to found their own development company, Vid Kidz.[13] The company served as a consulting firm to Williams and developed two games for them.[14]
It has many elements from the original game: sound effects, enemies, waves, and weapons.
Williams produced fewer than 400 units.[76] The 1988 computer game StarRay was renamed and released as Revenge of Defender by Epyx in 1989.[78]
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.[79] It was developed by Jeff Minter, who had previously updated Tempest as Tempest 2000.[80] A 2002 remake, published simply as Defender, uses 3D graphics and a third-person viewpoint.[79]
Influenced games and clones
Home games that copied Defender's design include Gorgon (1981)[81] and Repton (1983)[79] for the Apple II; Alien Defense (1981) for the TRS 80 Model III;[82]Chopper Command (1982) for the Atari 2600; Protector II (1983) and Dropzone (1984) for the Atari 8-bit computers;[79] and, for the BBC Micro, Defender (1982) was renamed to Planetoid (1984) to avoid litigation.[83] It influenced Jeff Minter's Andes Attack for the VIC-20 home computer.[84]StarRay (1988) was retitled Revenge of Defender in the US.[79] Some games, such as The Tail of Beta Lyrae (1983) and R-Type (1987), were influenced more by Defender side-scrolling action than the gameplay itself.[79] Later games influenced by Defender include Datastorm (1989) for the Amiga and Fantasy Zone (1986) for arcades and a variety of home consoles.[85]
