Game:

Defender (1981)

Duration: 0:00

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2

Defender (c) Atari 1982
Defender (c) Michael W. Coburn 1982 (unreleased version)

Both for the Atari 8 bit line of computers.

A legendary classic, which I unfortunately always sucked at, even at EASY level, and thus was never able to truly enjoy it - and I'm afraid not much has changed. However, I fully acknowledge the game has its appeal, as the semi-frantic pace is really immersive, the controls are very good and the challenge the game presents is intriguing. Its mechanics work rather well, for the style of gameplay, though the speed seems to be a bit of a detriment. Anyway, I ocassionally played the infinte lives chaet version, as it was the only one where I could get further - as can be seen in one of this video's segment.

The unreleased version is a bit of a mixed bag, at least for me - it's not bad, but lacks that "polish" the official Atari releases usually got. It feels a bit easier as well. All in all, it's a nice, interesting and fortunately, fully functional take on the Defender game.

LbnL has anyone noticed that the CPU is cheating in demo mode?

Using the Atari800Win PLus emulator (http://www.a800win.atari-area.prv.pl/) with standard Atari 800XL settings (XL/XE / 64kB RAM / PAL mode).

00:00 Demo mode
02:25 Regular playthrough (score of 19700)
04:34 Cheated playthrough (score of 68175)
09:16 Unreleased version 1st playthrough (score of 7450)
11:17 Unreleased version 2nd playthrough (score of 21600)