Clones & Ports of Williams' Defender

This article is concerned with computer-game clones and ports of Williams' Defender coinop of 1980/81.

Defender-likes are defined by me as shoot 'em ups that feature bi-directional horizontal or vertical variable-rate scrolling anhored to the player's spaceship. And since the scrolling can usually be "pushed" at a rate of knots, Defender-likes are almost invariably super-scrollers.

In Defender-likes the player's spaceship fires only in two directions (left and right or up and down), but is capable of 2-to-8-way movement and hyperspace jumps. The spaceship can also activate a limited-use smart bomb that destroys hostiles, screen-wide. True Defender-likes feature on-screen radar and involve saving allies from capture or extermination by aliens or some other invading force.

In my estimation Defender is the King of all shoot 'em ups because Defender is about pure and unadulterated skill, not memorization. For me, Defender and its top-tier clones never get old. Ever.

Defender is the god-king of coinops.

The article is only concerned with Defender clones and ports that appeared on Western computer game machines. The clones and ports are presented chronologically.

Defender games are not the same as Scramble or Gradius games. But as with Scramble and Gradius games, Defender games do not have to scroll horizontally to be considered Defender-likes.

However, Defender-likes should scroll bi-directionally and feature largely unmemorizable attack waves and spawn-points.

The Original Defender Tech-Specs

Powered by an 8-bit Motorola 6809 microprocessor clocked at 1 MHz, the original Defender coinop runs at 60 FPS while displaying at 360x240 resolution and with 16 on-screen colors drawn from a palette range of 256. Defender consists of five dedicated circuit boards.

When assessing ports and clones of Defender, consider that some microcomputers did not have any custom chips or coprocessors, let alone five dedicated boards packed with specialized circuitry.

Defender Clones

Gorgon Apple 2 1981

Gorgon is an early Defender-like programmed in assembly language by Nasir Gebelli of Sirius Software for the Apple 2 in 1981. The impressive graphics were drawn in E-Z Draw by Michael Carroll. 4-way movement of the spaceship, not 8-way.

Protector Atari 8 bit 1981

Mike Potter coded the Defender-inspired Protector for Atari 8 bit in 1981. Protector features exacting 8-way controls and smooth variable-rate bi-directional horizontal scrolling. In terms of gameplay and audio-visuals Protector is the best shooter of 1981.

Defense Command TRS-80 1982

Bill Hogue & Jeff Konyu of Big Five Software coded Defense Command in 1982 for the TRS-80. Defense Command is highly playable Defender-like that came out a year after Williams' Defender coinop of 1981. Defense Command's machine code language seems to bang the TRS-80 harder than other shooters.

Choplifter! 1982 Apple II

Dan Gorlin's awesome Choplifter! was initially released on the Apple II in 1982 and ported to the Commodore 64 in 1983. Choplifter! features dual-playfield action and bi-directional parallax scrolling as well as sprite rotation and strafing.

In 1982-83 Choplifter! was one of the most technically advanced shoot 'em ups in terms of controls and graphics. The original Apple II version supports two-button analogue joystick for finer control of the chopper.

Choplifter Commodore 64 1983

In 1983 Choplifter! was one of the most impressive Commodore 64 shoot 'em ups in terms of controls and graphics, but unlike the Apple 2 original the C64 version supports only one-button digital joystick control. In addition, the C64 version should have featured smooth scrolling.

Protector 2 Commodore 64 1983

Ken Rose ported Mike Potter's Atari 8 bit Protector 2 of 1982 to the C64 in 1983. Protector 2 is a great Defender-like. There is no original Protector 1981 on the C64; Vic 20 only.

Jetpac ZX Spectrum 16k 1983

Coded by Chris Stamper of Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum in 1983, in controlling Jetman the object of Jetpac is to rebuild and fuel a rocket while fighting off aliens on a fixed-screen, horizontally-wrapping-around playfield. Note the vibrant colors and clarity of Speccy graphics.

Lunar Jetman ZX Spectrum 48k 1983

Lunar Jetman is Ultimate Play the Game's sequel to Jetpac, but Lunar Jetman scrolls horizontally and includes a driveable Lunar Rover. You can't ask for much more in 1983 on the Speccy.

Guardian Commodore 64 1984

Steve Evan's Guardian was the first fast and busy Defender clone on the C64. Most impressive.

Dropzone Commodore 64 1984

Archer MacLean's Dropzone on C64 left most early Defender ports and clones in the dust. Indeed, Dropzone is the one of the best Defender clones and one of the best super-scrollers in shoot 'em up history.

Iridis Alpha Commodore 64 1986

Jeff Minter of Llamasoft coded the psychedelic Defender-like and super-scroller, Iridis Alpha, for the C64 in 1986. As with all Minter's games the playability is 10/10.

Uridium Commodore 64 1986

Goldrunner Atari ST 1987

Microdeal's Goldrunner of 1987 is another great shooter to grace the Atari ST.

Running on an 8 MHz Atari ST with as little as 256 kbytes RAM, Goldrunner features:

Super-smooth, super-fast vertical scrolling
2-way variable-rate vertical scrolling
Destructible terrain / Proper tiled playing field
Tight controls / Mouse or joystick control
Well-chosen color palette
Sampled speech / Good chip-tune music

What more could Atari ST owners ask for in 1987?

Insanity Fight Amiga 1987

LINEL Switzerland released Insanity Fight for Amiga in 1987. A push-scroller and super-scroller, Insanity Fight was programmed by Christian Haller.

Task 3 Commodore 64 1987

Cybernetic Arts coded Task 3 for the Commodore 64 in 1987. Task 3 is a vertically-scrolling super-scroller.

Uridium IBM PC 1988

Skyrider Atari ST 1988

Wayne Smithson of Creation Software released Skyrider for Atari ST in 1988. Skyrider was the first horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up on the Atari ST. As such the scrolling is not smooth even though the active drawspace is only 288x112.

StarRay Amiga 1988

Coded by Erik von Hesse & Logotron in 1988, StarRay was the first good Defender-like on the Amiga.

Retrograde Commodore 64 1989

Coded by John Rowlands and Rob Ellis of Thalamus for the C64 in 1989, Retrograde is an innovative combo of Defender-like and run and gun. Indeed, Retrograde is one of the best shoot 'em ups to appear on 8 bit micros. Beating every 16 bit shooter of 1989 except Battle Squadron, Retrograde is also a C64-exclusive.

Datastorm Amiga 1989

Shifting around 128 simultaneous objects while maintaining super-smooth scrolling, Datastorm is a king-tier Defender clone that came out on the Amiga in 1989. Datastorm is really well presented: it tells you everything you need to know about the game -- in-game.

Datastorm programmed by Søren Grønbech (Sword of Sodan).

Guardian 2 Commodore 64 1990

Steve Evans of Hi-Tec coded Guardian 2: Revenge of the Mutants for the C64 in 1990. Guardian 2 is a solid shooter, but it came out too late in the C64's life-cycle.

Anarchy Amiga 1990

Coded by Wayne Smithson in 1990 for ST/Amiga, Anarchy is a slick Defender clone with four-layer parallax scrolling, 80 on-screen objects, 48 on-screen colors and 450 separate screens of graphics.

Refresh rate can be toggled in-game between 50 and 60 Hz. On Amigas 60 Hz results in approximately 20% faster gameplay than 50 Hz ( = more difficult).

Note that Anarchy's Top-50 High-score table is saveable.

Defender 2 Amiga 1990

Llamasoft released Defender 2 for the Amiga in 1990. Coded by Jeff Minter aka Yak, Defender 2 includes Defender, Defender 2 and Stargate. A great release for the Amiga in 1990.

Uridium 2 Amiga 1993

Overkill Amiga 1993

Vision Software Inc.'s Overkill AGA of 1993 is another Defender clone. Overkill features silky-smooth 50 FPS screen-scrolling and sprite-shifting. The way one enters the next level is also inventive (via rotating galaxy-map).

Defender Amiga 1994

Giles F. McArdell of Ratsoft cloned Williams' Defender coinop of 1981 to Amiga in 1994.

Apano Sin Amiga 2000

Developed by Level One Entertainment in 2000, Apano Sin is a bi-directional vertically-scrolling shoot 'em up that runs on Amiga 500s with 1 meg of RAM. Apano Sin is another technically impressive shoot 'em up that came out post-prime Amiga.

Apano Sin programmed by Alex Piko and Alexander Eberl.

Defender Ports

Defender IBM PC 1983

The legendary Williams Defender coinop of 1981 was ported to IBM PC i808x by Atarisoft in 1983 in 4-color CGA 320x200. A bi-directional horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up, Defender's 60 kbytes executable requires an IBM PC compatible with 128 kbytes RAM.

Defender supports 8-way movement and 3-button joystick or keyboard controls. It also supports the holding-down of two joystick buttons to execute the hyperspace jump.

Obvious audio-visual downgrade aside, the port's gameplay differs somewhat from the coinop as well. For example, the port features only one simultaneous abduction, no friendly fire and more generous point-rewards.

The variable-rate line-draw scrolling of the terrain is about as smooth as can be expected on i808x; that is, nowhere near the silky-smooth scrolling of the arcade-machine. That said, you can't ask for much more in 1983 on i808x.

Defender Commodore 64 1983

The legendary Williams Defender coinop of 1981 was ported to C64 by Joseph Simko of Atarisoft in 1983.

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Defender Clones and Ports (Defender-likes)