Defender (1980)

Defender was released in 1980 by Williams entertainment and was developed by Eugene Jarvis, who thought up the gameplay in a dream. In this side-scrolling arcade shooter, the player controlled a small spaceship navigating a mountainous landscape.

Like most games of this era, the basis of the game is an alien attack. Unlike Space Invaders, which only allowed side-to-side motion, the player had complete control of the ship. Also, along with the obvious objective of eliminating the alien threat, the player was also responsible for rescuing humans on the ground.



The player is armed with a beam cannon, which can be fired rapidly, and a limited supply of smart bombs (three when the game starts), which eliminate all enemies on the screen. There is also a hyperspace button which transports the player to a random position on the level. At the top of the screen is a radar-like scanner display, showing the positions of enemies and stray humans. There are six different types of aliens, each possessing a particular skill.

Defender was first run on Intel's 8080, and was also made available on multiple early home video game consoles, including Atari 2600, Atari 5200, CalecoVision, and Commodore 64. It can also be found in compilations of classic arcade games.