Defender Revisited...

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Yesterday I was over my Mom's for a visit. Well this past X-mas I gave her a true Sunnyvale Heavy Sixer and about 6 or so games. One of the games that I gave her was Defender...which was always a favorite of hers.

 

Well, I of course have defender but with so many other games in my collection, it somehow tends to get passed over. But since she only had a small selection of games I found myself putting it in. And WOW!!!

 

Not only was I impressed that I was able to still get to wave 97...and score over 500k...but I found out something I didn't know before about the game.

 

I think I may have found either a bug, glitch, enhancement...or cheat...your call. And this maybe something that most of your already knew. But here it what I found.

 

I found out that if you blast a lander and save the human it grabs...but don't drop the human...then no other landers can pick up humans!!!

 

In other words...a Lander grabs a human...you shoot it..and save the falling humanoid...

 

Instead of landing and releasing...it you hold onto the little guy. As long as your holding a human...no landers can take any!!!

 

This little stunt really helps out with avoiding those damn Mutant waves until you get your cities back. Also if your crash into a lander that is carrying a human...the human isn't lost. Also if your still holding the human even when you blast the last guy...that human isn't lost. If your holding a human and your get blasted...that human isn't lost.

 

I don't know...maybe most of you knew all of this anyway...but it sure helped my game...and made me realize just how easy Defender is to roll the score have you the patience to stick with it and not get bored...hehe.

 

Afterall past wave 10 or so...the game doesn't really get harder.

 

Anybody else confirm?

 

[ATARIPITBULL]

That sounds weird, I never heard of that happing, I'm going to play it today and see if it does it on my game.

 

[ulikemeinoit]

It's a glitch in all defender games, because, unlike the arcade, only one can be picked up at a time. So, when you hold it, the atari counts that as the one so it can't pick up anymore.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Sounds like one more item to add to the gameplay strategy section for Defender...

 

Albert, Alex?

 

hehehe

[Scott Stilphen]

That's an old trick that was first mentioned in an issue of Atari Age.

[NE146]

Yes! That was the thing to do when playing Defender when I was a kid.

 

You figure, that's something that follows naturally if you've played the arcade game since one of the things you can do to help save your planet from being blown up is carry one of the humans with you. If you've lost 9 out of 10 people and are carrying the last one, the landers go crazy and start burping shots at you all frustrated because they want that last human! It's par for the course. But yeah if you try it out with the 2600 you'll quickly find once you hold a human, they can't pick up anymore even if it's not the last one.. so it's a nifty little trick.

 

By the way, wave 97 and a score of 500k is obviously really good, but what game variation did you play? It makes a difference in the Mutant & Baiter Speed as well as the humanoid pickup speed as well.

 

Game 1, 4, 7 = SLOW version, start at different stages

 

Game 2, 5, 8 = FAST version, start at different stages.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I played just on level 1...but that makes little difference as you only do well in the beginning...once wave 10 and above...it pretty much never gets faster...

besides...I only stopped because I was basically tired of playing...It took me well over 30min of nonstop playing to get that score.

 

And the thread wasn't about my prowess or lack thereof on Defender..it was simply to state that trick...which I never knew about until now...and I haven't seen it posted in any tips and tricks sections...DP site or here. Therefore I thought it worth mentioning.

[NE146]

And my post wasn't to attack your prowess at Defender but just to 'fyi' you about the different Defender difficulty settings. Most people play Defender on game 1 by default without knowing the faster version is only a game variation away. Stan did the same thing!

 

C'mon dude you know me better than that

[JCroniger]

Cool trick!!! I've had it for 20 years and never heard of that. I was even a member of Atari Age. Oh well. Thanks.

[Big Player]

Actually this trick is stated in the instruction manual. This is not meant as a criticism or anything, since who really needs to read it to play the game.

 

There are times when you may want to catch a Humanoid and hold

on to him instead of returning him to Earth. As long as you

hold a Humanoid, Alien Landers cannot abduct any other

Humanoids during the wave. At the end of the wave, the

Humanoid counts as a survivor and earns you 100 bonus points.

However, you are not allowed to carry him into the next wave;

the computer automatically returns him to the city. See

HELPFUL HINTS for some applications of this Humanoid

capability.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

That is funny...I actually have the manual to defender and yet...never really read that part. I just read the basics...and started blastin...course I was like 6 years old when I first got the game...so that was just over 20 years ago!!!

 

Oh well....as I said...I didn't know if it was a known trick or not...I will tell you that after all this time...that was the first time I had found it...read about it...or for that matter...utilized it...

 

[Big Player]

Actually, the only reason I knew it was that the manual was my first introduction to the game. Back in junior high my friend was the first to get the game. He brought in the manual and let me read and re-read it during study hall. Sad that I can remember something I read 20 years ago. . . and it's a video game manual.