Defender

Defender Description

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Cabinet Information

Game Introduction

The challenge becomes ever more intense as the action progresses. Fighter ships (Bombers) and mines will test your skills. A direct hit will destroy the mother ship (Pods) but smash it into a swarming mass of mini-ships (Swarmers) which then must be wiped out! If you do not act quickly, the cosmic Baiter will attack! Use your two escape options only if all else fails! Your "smart bomb" power is limited and "hyperspace" puts you into an unknown space warp. But beware! If all the humanoids are abducted, the entire planet will explode in a blinding flash!

Game Play

1. Avoid using hyperspace unless you are about to die. Fighting off attacks, regardless of the number of enemies will make you a better Defender player.
2. Baiters can usually be overcome by hitting the reverse button twice quickly. They will fly past you and be in range for your fire power. Do NOT try to outrun them as Baiters are faster than your ship.
3. Swarmers are easy to defeat. You can hit reverse as soon as they fly past you and fly behind them. They cannot shoot backwards so you can blast away at will.
4. At higher levels you will need to play God and even sacrifice some humanoids (by killing them yourself) to preserve the rest of the planet's population. The planet is too large for you protect and you are sparing the humanoids from a fate worst than death (mutation). Do not worry, these humanoids reproduce quickly and overpopulation has always been a constant problem. The planet will be fully populated at the start of every fifth attack wave (configurable).

Miscellaneous

Play a JAVA emulated version of the game by visiting http://web.utanet.at/nkehrer/JDefender.html

This is one of many games that has been bootlegged or copied. Some of these versions have added improvements to the game but others are direct copies. Examples of these games are Mayday!!, Defence Command, Defense Command and Mirage.

Defender was licensed to Taito for Japanese manufacture and distribution.

VAPS Arcade Census

Very Common - There are 335 known instances of Defender owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 294 of them are original dedicated machines, 6 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet, and 35 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

Of the 58,078 video games (3,431 unique) tracked by the Video Game Preservation Society, this game ranks a 88 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on ownership records.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 24 VAPS members currently looking for Defender.

For Sale - There are 24 VAPS members with Defender machines for sale. There are 24 VAPS members with extra Defender circuit boards for sale. VAPS members are totally independent of VAPS and the International Arcade Museum, and we are unable to recommend, endorce, or guarantee any person or company selling games or game parts.

Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. Some common games show up as very rare here because collectors don't want them (they are common because arcade operators might be sitting on tons of them in warehouses), while some fairly scarce games are grabbed by collectors every time they show up. Additionally, some games made in the last 5 years are still making money for operators and are thus not yet affordable to the typical collector. For a clue to value, compare how many people have this game vs. how many people want this game and then click on the eBay links to help determine an accurate price range.

Technical

Trivia

According to Midway, the geneology of the games is as follows: Defender, Stargate, Robotron:2084, Blaster.

This game was included in the "Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits" game for PCs and the PlayStation game console. The release also included Stargate (as "Defender II"), Bubbles, Joust, Sinistar and Robotron: 2084.

eBay Listings

Alternatively, check out the IAM/KLOV custom report of the hottest coin-op machines on eBay, powered by Ace.com (updated throughoutthe day).

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Legacy

1. Defender
2. Stargate
3. Strike Force

Manuals

1. Theory Of Operation  38 Pages, 3365 KB File.
2. Owner's Manual  34 Pages, 2991 KB File.
3. Owner's Manual (1)  7 Pages, 59 KB File.
4. Owner's Manual (2)  7 Pages, 59 KB File.
5. Owner's Manual (3)  7 Pages, 39 KB File.
6. Theory Of Operation (1)  38 Pages, 3309 KB File.
7. Theory Of Operation (2)  37 Pages, 2523 KB File.
8. Theory Of Operation (3)  38 Pages, 4172 KB File.

Foto-Finder™

1. The Encyclpedia of Arcade Video Games, Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256): Page: 96; Color photo;