Defender

[hansolo77]

Mame Offender - 53,275 (link)

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Defender Leaderboard

 

POSITION	USER NAME	TOTAL SCORE
1	Mame Offender	53,275
2	hansolo77	48,500
3	Cynicaster	36,950
4	patrickfx	33,200
5	ExedExes	25,125
6	rtkiii	15,500
7	Luigimaker	8,625

Last Updated by hansolo77: 02-24-2018

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Please use these settings when submitting a hi-score for Defender:

ROMSet: Defender
Starting ships: 5
Number of ships is game adjustment 09 [set to 5]
Bonus ship level is game adjustment 08 [set to 0]
All other game adjustments should be default.
Special Rules: None

Special Note - Feel free to set up your control panel in whatever layout is best for you.  The original control panel layout is most likely not how yours is set up.  As long as you can play the game, We'll not be concerned with the controls..

 

*As this game does NOT have any kind of dip switches, the ability to change the settings requires software modification.  Please confirm you've made the above adjustments to the number of ships available and on the bonus, so that we know you're using strict TG's rules.  A detailed walkthrough of performing these adjustments is given to us thanks to Cynicaster here [link].  Entries not matching these rules will not be accepted.

 

The green coloured default values match the Twin Galaxies settings.
The red coloured values need to be changed!

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# you can change your Mame dip switch settings by following this guide:
# you can make a printscreen of your hi-score screen by following this guide:
# general rules for submitting you hi-score:

 

[hansolo77]

Defender is an arcade video game developed and released by Williams Electronics in February 1981.^[1] A horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up, 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' first video game project and drew inspiration from Space Invaders and Asteroids.

Defender was one of the most important titles of the Golden Age of Video Arcade Games, selling over 55,000 units to become the company's best selling game and one of the highest-grossing arcade games ever. Praise among critics focused on the game's audio-visuals and gameplay. It is frequently listed as one of Jarvis' best contributions to the video game industry, as well as one of the most difficult video games. Though not the first game to scroll horizontally, it created the genre of purely horizontal scrolling shooters. It inspired the development of other games and was followed by sequels and many imitations.

There were many ports to contemporary systems, most of them by either Atari, Inc. or its software label for non-Atari platforms, Atarisoft.

- Quote from Wikipedia
 

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It should be noted, that in order to actually START this game, I had to press F3.  The need to change the dip switches in unavailable, as they're software controlled rather than hardware.  When you first start the game, that programmable software is displayed.  Then you can change the various aspects of the game.  Since I was only interested at discovering what the default settings are, I didn't make any changes to mine.  After pressing F3, I was unable to figure out how to get back into the system to make the necessary changes.  To that end, I'm perfectly satisfied if you don't make any changes.  This game is already going to cause a lot issues with controls.  If we get any submissions at all, it'll be a miracle.  Happy gaming!

[Mame Offender]

Cmon guys, don't be afraid of this one!  

It is sooo much fun once you get the hang of it.  

So come one, come all.  Play Defender and have a ball!

I'll grace the boards with a score sometime today.....

[Mame Offender]

I play the Red Label Defender.

Default Dips:

Starting Ships: 3

Bonus Ship:  every 10,000 points

I remember playing this in a past tournament.  Twin Galaxies requests that you start with 5 ships, but no bonus ships after scoring 10000.   That,to me, is suicide.  Even the pro gamers were topping out at around 150k, so what does that tell you?

I agree, this is one of the toughest video games in existence!  For example, it took me about 300 hours of playing time just to reach 100k!!  This game will rob you of your sanity if you let it!!

 

 

 

 

 

MO

  

[Mame Offender]

Oh, one more thing:

Do yourself a favour and DO NoT use Hyperspace on this game.  The pros never use it, and anyone that is good at Defender says the same thing.  It only gets you in trouble.

So mapping the controls just got a bit easier:

 

Up - up

Down - down

Button 1 - fire

Button 2 - thrust 

Button 3 - reverse

Button 4 - Smart Bomb

 

Good luck guys!!!

 

[hansolo77]

Thanks for the enthusiasm MO.  Looking forward to this new year of gaming and a slew of new high scores!

[Mame Offender]

MODERATOR EDIT - THIS ENTRY HAS BEEN DEEMED DISQUALIFIED

 

Let's get the New Year kicked off the right way!

 

119,800

MAM

Starting Ships ---- 3

Free man ----- every 10000

Looks like a good score, but for the amount of time I've spent on this hectic horizontal shooter, that score should be way higher.  

 

MO

Edited January 7, 2017 by hansolo77
Disqualifiied entry per Competition Rules

[hansolo77]

Way to set the bar high!  Good job MO!

Updated OP, DB, RSS

-->Also a quick heads up.  I sent Adultery an email asking about the DBM program.  I'm getting a couple of errors, so the input I've added may not actually save.  This means access to the high scores from within GameEx may not be fully updated (like, Defender may be missing from the list, and the updated leaderboard may be "out of date").  Hopefully I'll hear back from Adultery soon and this will all be resolved quickly!

[patrickfx]

OK Hansolo, I think we need to make a strategy.  MO is raise the bar too high at the beggining, like for ms pac man

From what I remember of Defender, it's a f_c_i_g hard game and frustrating game.  But because I like competition, I will make a try but not sure if I will be on board !

In 70's, we had a kind of defender game which can be play with cable box and phone.  To move the ship you had to press 2, 4, 6 and 8 on the phone.  I search the web but can't find it !!!  I lives in quebec, canada

 

[rtkiii]

I'll give it a try sometime this week.  Family is heading to Indy after my Son's Varsity BBall game tonight.  So I should have two nights at home with nothing else to do but play video games!

[Cynicaster]

I think there is some ambiguity here on the correct game settings.  If I’m reading Han’s opening post correctly—and I believe I am—then the game should be set up to give you 5 lives to start, with no free lives.  I assume that’s the TGTS (Twin Galaxies Tournament Settings).  If that’s the case then MO’s score is invalid, and he’ll have to crush everybody using the correct settings instead. 

Han, can you confirm this was the intent?

As stated earlier, the standard Tab menu -> Dip switch method does not work in this game to change game settings.  Here is how to do it:

 

- Load the game

- Press F1 + F2 together until the service mode comes up

- When it does, you will be presented with a crude “settings” screen, which shows only one item at a time.  You need to cycle through the settings to get to the ones you want to change.  There are many settings, but you only need to change (2) of them (lives and bonus level as described in opening post).

- Cycle forward through the settings by pressing F2

- Cycle in reverse through the settings by pressing F1 + F2

- When you get to the setting you want to change, cycle through the various available options with the ‘9’ key

- Once you have correctly set the 2 settings, cycle forward through the list of settings (I think there are 30-40 of them) until the game title screen reappears

 

Having set up the game like this, my weak submission: 24,550

[the eagle-eyed might notice that our beloved MO holds the top score in the “all time” list at the right of my screen shot—probably achieved a few years ago before his skills had reached their current heights.  Either that, or he was trying to take it easy on me during one of our friendly competitions.]

 

 

[hansolo77]

Thanks for the information Cyn.  The settings bit was a complete bust for me because I couldn't figure out how to get back in there and check them to make sure if they needed changed or not.  We definitely need to change settings to match TG's.  When I have a free moment, I'll try and make the changes here and see what needs fixed.

So before I accept your score, I just want to make sure that you DO have the settings set to match TG now?

[Cynicaster]

That's cool.  I have set mine to 5 lives, no free lives, which is TGTS I believe. 

As a side note, for anybody up for some light reading, I found the following link from some Defender enthusiast who wrote a strategy guide back in the 80s but could not find a publisher at the time.  A few years ago he published his guide online for all to read.  Some good tips in there:

http://mahugh.com/defender-the-last-word/

 

 

 

[Mame Offender]

I am in agreement, I think you should take that score down.

I will try to get a Defender version set up to Twin Galaxies standards that only allows 5 lives.  Cyn has it step by step pretty good and it should be no problem to do.

For the others that may find doing all that too daunting of a task, may I suggest that you just "count out" your deaths; you be the counter.  That is what I did for the Yo's in 2015.

 

 

 

 

MO

[hansolo77]

Thanks for the approval MO, and thanks for being a good sport.  I updated the board to show Cynicaster now holds the only entry, and I've updated YOUR entry to show it's been disqualified.  I've also updated the board to show a link to the recommended instructions for getting the correct settings.

Updated OP, DB, RSS

[Cynicaster]

33,925

I played credit after credit and just could not improve my score on this punishingly difficult game. 

I know my score isn't much to write home about, but believe me, in the midst of learning Defender there is a big difference between scoring 20k and 30k.

I was about to throw in the towel when I figured out one of the main things I was doing wrong: hanging out in a single area of the planet for too long trying to kill groups of enemies.  Instead, you need to keep moving in one direction (I find right to be easier) and pick off the landers as quickly as you can as they enter the screen.  You're not going to get all of them, but that's OK.  If your shots miss, keep going anyway, and get them on the next pass.  Before figuring this out, I would have 3-4 landers enter the screen, I'd hit 1 or 2 of them quickly but miss the others.  Then, I'd hit reverse and chase after the ones I missed, often firing several missed shots and wasting all kinds of time.  Sometimes, I'd still not hit those targets and even end up getting shot myself.  While distracted in this way, dozens of landers all across the planet are descending in an intergalactic free-for-all to pick up humanoids and turn into mutants, which is pretty much certain doom for a novice Defender player.     

 

[Mame Offender]

That's a good score for the up and coming player, Matt.  

I am in the middle of reading that link you provided earlier.  You're right, it's a great read.

I advise you to not give up on this one.  It's too rewarding when you get on a roll.  Getting to 50 k will be a challenge for most on TG settings, so 34k isn't too bad.

 

Hoping to get a good session of Defender in on Sunday.

 

 

 

 

MO

[hansolo77]

Yeah I need to get back and change my settings so i can submit a score.  I thought maybe I could change the controller layout to mimic my Atari way (stick controls up and down, thrust, and turning the other way reverses automatically) but I don't know how I can do that, since mapping a button to a stick axis is probably not a possible option in MAME. 

The problem I always have with this game, is I get anxiety when I start hearing the "cry for help" from the humans being picked up, and I start blasting blindly, and end up killing most of them outright. 

Updated OP, DB, RSS

[patrickfx]

Me, i map left and right for thrust.  will see if it s good

[hansolo77]

Mapping it to just left and right isn't enough though, that's why I'm not sure it'll work.  You need to have it reverse too.

[Cynicaster]

It’s possible in MAME to map “buttons” to “directions” and vice versa, but I can’t think of a good way to do it such that it mimics the home console type control scheme.  The home consoles kind of combine thrust and reverse into one control input (pressing left or right), whereas in arcade/MAME, flying direction is “toggled” back and forth using a single button.   

In theory you could fake it by mapping “reverse” to both left and right joystick movements, but it would get confusing and probably wouldn’t be very usable.  If your ship is facing left and you hit right on the joystick, the ship would turn around and face right as you want it to, but if you accidentally press right while your ship is already facing right, it will still flip and face the other way. 

[patrickfx]

So, until now with left or right for thrust isn't too bad.  the reverse still on one button.  not sure if possible to get all with left and right .   Well, anything is possible with time and program but i mean easily.   See what you will do !

Could we imagine this pattern ?

If right press = press reverse then always thrust.  if release right and right again, then just thrust.

If left press = press reverse then always thrust.  if trkase left and left agsin, then just thrust.

Then, another button to reset it in case change the level  or use hyperspace

Did you understand my pseudo language ?

 

[hansolo77]

Yeah, my point exactly.  It would be nice, but I think it's better to just leave the controls the way they are and just learn the proper way. 

[Mame Offender]

On 1/1/2017 at 10:47 AM, hansolo77 said:

Special Note - Feel free to set up your control panel in whatever layout is best for you.  The original control panel layout is most likely not how yours is set up.  As long as you can play the game, We'll not be concerned with the controls..

So yeah, map it anyway you want.  This is one of the hardest games we have in our list of games.  Give yourself a decent chance.  

[Cynicaster]

Yeah, never mind trying to work around the controls, just spend your time learning them as they are. 

If you survey retro gaming forums where this game is discussed, I'm willing to bet that over 75% of the messages will be from people dismissing the game because its control scheme is too complicated.  But it's really not that bad with just a little bit of getting-used-to.  And I can assure you, simplifying the controls is not going to simplify the game.  Controls don't make Defender difficult, Defender makes Defender difficult.