Defender Arcade Machine is a side-scrolling shooter video game. Developed by Williams Electronics in 1980, Defender Arcade Machine was released for arcades in 1981.
Object:
- To destroy all alien invaders, while protecting astronauts on the landscape from abduction.
Game Play:
- The game is set on either an unnamed planet or city where the player must defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting astronauts.
- The player controls a spaceship flying either to the left or right.
- A joystick controls the ship’s elevation, and five buttons control its horizontal direction and weapons.
- The player starts with three “smart bombs,” which destroy all visible enemies.
- “Hyperspace” button causes player’s ship to reappear in a random – possibly unsafe – location.
- Landers pick up humans and attempt to carry them to the top of the screen at which point they turn into fast-moving mutants.
- A captured human can be freed by shooting the lander, then catching the human before it falls to its death, and dropping it off on the ground.
- Defeat the aliens to progress to the next level.
- Fail to protect the astronauts, the planet will explode and the level will become populated with mutants.
- Survive the waves of mutants to restore the planet.
- The game ends when all ships have been hit by an enemy or projectiles.
