Defender

Defender is an arcade video game developed released by Williams Electronics in 1980. A shooting game featuring two-dimensional (2D) graphics, the game is set on a fictional 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. Williams planned to display the game at the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) trade show, though development delays resulted in the team working on the game up until the show started.

Defender was commercially successful, selling over 55,000 units to become the company's best selling arcade game. 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, as well as one of the most difficult video games. Defender was ported to numerous platforms, inspired the development of other games, and was followed by sequels and many imitations.

Stargate

Arcade shooter where you protect humans from being captured by aliens. Created by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar, it is a sequel to Defender which was released earlier in the year. Some home ports of Stargate were renamed to Defender II for legal reasons.

Defender 2000

You whomped the aliens from the Alpha Proximian Empire in classic Defender and sent them home to cry. Now they want the planets that Earth is mining for desperately needed, life-sustaining minerals. Your job is to protect the space miners as they perform their vital work. The aliens will try to capture them and use their life-energy to turn their ships into hyper-fast mutants. Rescure the captives and destroy the aliens or Earth is history!

Defender II

Revenge of Defender

In this classic sideways scrolling shooter you have to defend your colonies from attacking aliens. The game was released as StarRay in most of Europe.

Defender is an updated version of the classic arcade game of the same name. The Manti bugs have invaded earth and the remaining human survivors now live in colonies throughout the solar system. As more swarms of Manti arrive, even the colonies are now in danger of being wiped out. You've been enlisted to help save the remaining colonists and destroy the Manti bugs! There are a total of six different ships to fly, each with its own flight characteristics and special weapons. Weapon and shield power-ups can also be found throughout the various missions. As in the original version of Defender, the Manti will try to capture any humans they can find to change them into mutants to increase their attack force. To increase chances of success you will need to rescue captured humans before this happens and bring them to a safe landing zone. Saving colonists will also earn you some credits, which can later be used to buy improved weapons or shields for your ship. Also included are several video extras detailing the historical perspective of and the making of Defender.

Defender put players in charge of a ship sent to protect mankind from wave after wave of attacking alien forces.

Armed with smart bombs and the ability to use hyperspace to move quickly around the planet, the player ship must fight against Bombers, Pods, Swarmers, Baiters, and Landers - that can capture the humanoids and transform them into deadly and relentless Mutants. Fail to save the humanoids from freefall or Mutant transformation, and the planet is destroyed.

Defender is a port with modern enhancements of the original 1981 arcade title released on Xbox Live Arcade on November 15th, 2006.

On February 17th, 2010 Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb announced on Twitter that nine Midway Games had been removed from Xbox Live “due to publisher evolving rights and permissions”.

Single player

Shooter

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