My Thoughts on Defender

Playing this game for the first time can be comparable to trying a double black diamond ski hill. I guarantee you, the first attempt on either will be disastrous. It takes a tremendous amount of practice, keen eye hand co-ordination, the ability to operate many buttons simultaneously, the ability to pick up on enemies weaknesses, bullit dodging, and much more. Action is what this classic most definitely does not lack. The time for the average player to complete a game of Defender is under a minute.

When Defender was released, they predicted it would be a big flop. They were worried people would stay away from it because of intimidation. The rivalling game at the time, Rally X, was expected to take all the fame. Moreover, a programmer in the design crew had accidently plugged something on the game backwards, resulting in a fried board! This put a lot of added pressure on the design crew. The general consensus was that too many people at that time went for the simpler controller layouts, such as PacMan. Well, the skeptics snacked on their words. Defender ended up being a huge hit and raked in tons of money, despite it's extreme difficulty.

The only way to make this game easier is to discover weaknesses in the attacking enemies. You will find that once you discover these weaknesses, the game is not as excruiciating as it first appears to be. I will attempt to expose every trick that I am aware of, and welcome any feedback on this subject with open arms!

There are 3 known controller/button layouts: the 5 button with an up/down joystick, the simplified 3 button layout with a 4 way joystick and the 7 button layout in which 2 buttons control the up and down. The 5 button layout has FIRE, THRUST, SMART BOMB, HYPERSPACE AND REVERSE. The 3 button layout was brought in to simplify the controls, but seems to be less efficient as the game gets harder. It uses buttons for FIRE, SMART BOMB AND HYPERSPACE, while making thrust and reverse both possible by pushing LEFT or RIGHT on the joystick. Personally, I prefer the 5 button with the joystick.

There will be 6 different enemies that will be attacking you in Defender: LANDERS, MUTANTS, SWARMERS, PODS, BOMBERS and BAITERS.

The first thing I am going to touch on is the 'International Date Lines'. These are defined as spots on the board where, once crossed with your ship, the enemy in question will suddenly quickly reverse their direction. This comes in very handy, especially when things start speeding up and you want to get them off your ass. Only two enemies pertain to the date lines: The Mutants and the Swarmers. Mutants are the creatures formed when a Lander snatches a humanoid from the planet's surface and smashes into the top of the screen with the humanoid. Swarmers come from the explosion of the Pods.

For instance, if you are flying towards the appropriate 'date line' and the Mutants are behind you and coming at you, when you cross the date line, the Mutants will abruptly turn their direction and start heading in the opposite direction. If you go back over the line, they switch direction again. The date line for the Mutants is located a little to the left of the "Big Mountain", while the date line for the Swarmers is approximately at the start point of your ship.

The next trick is referred to as my "Triangulation Theory". At the beginning of every board, you are going to see multiple 'starlike' characters that are slowly floating around. These are called Pods. It is a very good idea to wipe out as many as you can with one smart bomb at the beginning of each level. What you need to realize here is the Pods can actually increase the intensity of the Smart bomb. The idea is to try to be an equal distance away from each Pod and have a minimum of 3 Pods on the playing screen while you drop your Smart bomb. If done correctly, you can take out 4 Pods all at once! Also, when you wipe out more than one Pod via the smart bomb, you will put the game in slow motion for a brief moment, making it easier to attack when flying into heavy traffic. The one thing you DO NOT want to do is drop a Smart Bomb on ONE Pod only. It is a waste of a Smart bomb. The Pod will transform into the Swarmers every time, no matter what. Also, you will not be awarded your slow down time.

Having ten humans to protect at once can be quite a daunting task. In the later boards, it can seem next to impossible. That is a good reason to use the "Blast all but one or two Humanoids" trick. Attack Wave 1 begins with ten humanoids. The population gets replenished on Attack Wave 5, then Wave 10, then 14, 18 and so on. When you reach the boards that restock the humans, try purposely blasting all but one or two humans at the beginning of the board. Then, patiently wait for a Lander to abduct a Humanoid. The deeper you are in the game the less you have to wait. Once the abduction takes place, fly just above him and at him while blasting as fast as you can. You kill the Lander, fly over and grab the free falling Humanoid, but don't resurface the Humanoid. Instead, hang on to him until just before the end of the board. If you feel it is safe to land the Humanoid at the end to get your 500 points, then do so. Using this trick will prevent the Mutants from forming at all, making it much easier to play. You won't need to worry about getting killed while transporting the last Humanoid because it will automatically resurface when you start playing again.

The next trick in the bag is sort of a point scrubber trick. This will be easiest to perform if you wipe out all the Pods at the start of the board. Then immediately attack and eliminate all the bombers. Providing there are no mutants formed, there will be only one type of enemy in which you have to contend with until the Baiters start showing up. Pick up as many Humanoids as possible as soon as you can. Resurface the one or two humans, hover just outside of the area where the human is being picked up, then blast the Lander to catch the human again. Repeat this as long as you can stay alive. This free for all won't last forever, the Baiters will move in after a certain amount of time.

The Bombers fly in sort of a "sine wave" pattern. At different elevations, the height of the sine wave changes. I have picked up on a weakness the Bombers fall victim to. I find that if you approach the Bombers at about a third elevation, there sine wave pattern will be at its smallest. This will make it easier to fly up behind a cluster of two or three Bombers and blast them. You can also try flying past them, quickly turning around firing without thrusting, then turn around again as soon as you have disposed of them.

Out of all the enemies, the Landers have the most predictable flight pattern. They will always appear from the top of the screen, usually 4 or 5 at a time, and descend to a little above the mountain tops. One thing to note is the horizontal movement will always be constant. For example, if a Lander has zero horizontal movement, it will be standing still when it gets to the surface. It is a good idea to stay out of sight of the Lander when it is abducting the Humanoids mainly because it will fire a flurry of bullits during this time. Instead, wait for the Lander to be about a third of his way to the top with the human attached, then attack him.

The Mutants will fly at a constant elevation when charging at you until they just pass you. When they pass, they will promptly change direction and fly in your direction. The key to these buggers is to position your ship as high as the screen allows you. Fly slowly at them and blast while slightly going up and down. This will take some practice and still won't always work, but it is your best bet at killing them when you go at them head on.

The last trick is the "fly in same direction while changing speeds" trick. The Baiters will arrive if you take too long to kill all the other enemies. They appear in random spots on the screen and fire an immense amount of bullit in your direction. You want to be going fairly fast when you first see them, then change your flying speed while dodging the projectiles from them. Your first instinct is to constantly change your direction, but this will only get you killed. Stay flying in the same direction, as sooner or later the Baiter will fly right into your path of fire.

I hope this article has encouraged you to at least give this amazing '80's gem another whirl. Defender provides you with a truly rewarding experience when you start getting the hang of it.

Go ahead. Be the best Defender you can be!!

Here's the same thing with a more normal font for those who are allergic to Lucida Console:

Playing this game for the first time can be comparable to trying a double black diamond ski hill. I guarantee you, the first attempt on either will be disastrous. It takes a tremendous amount of practice, keen eye hand co-ordination, the ability to operate many buttons simultaneously, the ability to pick up on enemies weaknesses, bullit dodging, and much more. Action is what this classic most definitely does not lack. The time for the average player to complete a game of Defender is under a minute.

When Defender was released, they predicted it would be a big flop. They were worried people would stay away from it because of intimidation. The rivaling game at the time, Rally X, was expected to take all the fame. Moreover, a programmer in the design crew had accidentally plugged something on the game backwards, resulting in a fried board! This put a lot of added pressure on the design crew. The general consensus was that too many people at that time went for the simpler controller layouts, such as Pac-Man. Well, the skeptics snacked on their words. Defender ended up being a huge hit and raked in tons of money, despite it's extreme difficulty.

The only way to make this game easier is to discover weaknesses in the attacking enemies. You will find that once you discover these weaknesses, the game is not as excruciating as it first appears to be. I will attempt to expose every trick that I am aware of, and welcome any feedback on this subject with open arms!

There are 3 known controller/button layouts: the 5 button with an up/down joystick, the simplified 3 button layout with a 4 way joystick and the 7 button layout in which 2 buttons control the up and down. The 5 button layout has FIRE, THRUST, SMART BOMB, HYPERSPACE AND REVERSE. The 3 button layout was brought in to simplify the controls, but seems to be less efficient as the game gets harder. It uses buttons for FIRE, SMART BOMB AND HYPERSPACE, while making thrust and reverse both possible by pushing LEFT or RIGHT on the joystick. Personally, I prefer the 5 button with the joystick.

There will be 6 different enemies that will be attacking you in Defender: LANDERS, MUTANTS, SWARMERS, PODS, BOMBERS and BAITERS.

The first thing I am going to touch on is the 'International Date Lines'. These are defined as spots on the board where, once crossed with your ship, the enemy in question will suddenly quickly reverse their direction. This comes in very handy, especially when things start speeding up and you want to get them off your ass. Only two enemies pertain to the date lines: The Mutants and the Swarmers. Mutants are the creatures formed when a Lander snatches a humanoid from the planet's surface and smashes into the top of the screen with the humanoid. Swarmers come from the explosion of the Pods.

For instance, if you are flying towards the appropriate 'date line' and the Mutants are behind you and coming at you, when you cross the date line, the Mutants will abruptly turn their direction and start heading in the opposite direction. If you go back over the line, they switch direction again. The date line for the Mutants is located a little to the left of the "Big Mountain", while the date line for the Swarmers is approximately at the start point of your ship.

The next trick is referred to as my "Triangulation Theory". At the beginning of every board, you are going to see multiple 'starlike' characters that are slowly floating around. These are called Pods. It is a very good idea to wipe out as many as you can with one smart bomb at the beginning of each level. What you need to realize here is the Pods can actually increase the intensity of the Smart bomb. The idea is to try to be an equal distance away from each Pod and have a minimum of 3 Pods on the playing screen while you drop your Smart bomb. If done correctly, you can take out 4 Pods all at once! Also, when you wipe out more than one Pod via the smart bomb, you will put the game in slow motion for a brief moment, making it easier to attack when flying into heavy traffic. The one thing you DO NOT want to do is drop a Smart Bomb on ONE Pod only. It is a waste of a Smart bomb. The Pod will transform into the Swarmers every time, no matter what. Also, you will not be awarded your slow down time.

Having ten humans to protect at once can be quite a daunting task. In the later boards, it can seem next to impossible. That is a good reason to use the "Blast all but one or two Humanoids" trick. Attack Wave 1 begins with ten humanoids. The population gets replenished on Attack Wave 5, then Wave 10, then 14, 18 and so on. When you reach the boards that restock the humans, try purposely blasting all but one or two humans at the beginning of the board. Then, patiently wait for a Lander to abduct a Humanoid. The deeper you are in the game the less you have to wait. Once the abduction takes place, fly just above him and at him while blasting as fast as you can. You kill the Lander, fly over and grab the free falling Humanoid, but don't resurface the Humanoid. Instead, hang on to him until just before the end of the board. If you feel it is safe to land the Humanoid at the end to get your 500 points, then do so. Using this trick will prevent the Mutants from forming at all, making it much easier to play. You won't need to worry about getting killed while transporting the last Humanoid because it will automatically resurface when you start playing again.

The next trick in the bag is sort of a point scrubber trick. This will be easiest to perform if you wipe out all the Pods at the start of the board. Then immediately attack and eliminate all the bombers. Providing there are no mutants formed, there will be only one type of enemy in which you have to contend with until the Baiters start showing up. Pick up as many Humanoids as possible as soon as you can. Resurface the one or two humans, hover just outside of the area where the human is being picked up, then blast the Lander to catch the human again. Repeat this as long as you can stay alive. This free for all won't last forever, the Baiters will move in after a certain amount of time.

The Bombers fly in sort of a "sine wave" pattern. At different elevations, the height of the sine wave changes. I have picked up on a weakness the Bombers fall victim to. I find that if you approach the Bombers at about a third elevation, there sine wave pattern will be at its smallest. This will make it easier to fly up behind a cluster of two or three Bombers and blast them. You can also try flying past them, quickly turning around firing without thrusting, then turn around again as soon as you have disposed of them.

Out of all the enemies, the Landers have the most predictable flight pattern. They will always appear from the top of the screen, usually 4 or 5 at a time, and descend to a little above the mountain tops. One thing to note is the horizontal movement will always be constant. For example, if a Lander has zero horizontal movement, it will be standing still when it gets to the surface. It is a good idea to stay out of sight of the Lander when it is abducting the Humanoids mainly because it will fire a flurry of bullets during this time. Instead, wait for the Lander to be about a third of his way to the top with the human attached, then attack him.

The Mutants will fly at a constant elevation when charging at you until they just pass you. When they pass, they will promptly change direction and fly in your direction. The key to these buggers is to position your ship as high as the screen allows you. Fly slowly at them and blast while slightly going up and down. This will take some practice and still won't always work, but it is your best bet at killing them when you go at them head on.

The last trick is the "fly in same direction while changing speeds" trick. The Baiters will arrive if you take too long to kill all the other enemies. They appear in random spots on the screen and fire an immense amount of bullit in your direction. You want to be going fairly fast when you first see them, then change your flying speed while dodging the projectiles from them. Your first instinct is to constantly change your direction, but this will only get you killed. Stay flying in the same direction, as sooner or later the Baiter will fly right into your path of fire.

I hope this article has encouraged you to at least give this amazing '80's gem another whirl. Defender provides you with a truly rewarding experience when you start getting the hang of it.

Go ahead. Be the best Defender you can be!!