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Defender Thread (was 5/2/08: The Day I No Longer Suck!)
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wbassett:
As was mentioned, using the radar is also a big key.  My son would get destroyed almost instantly until I told him to watch the radar out of the corner of his eye.  That way you can lay down a barrage of fire right as the target enters the screen.

I also told him the landers can't go through the land and have to follow the contors of the mountains.  Knowing that let's you know what direction the lander will be moving in before it moves... which also lets you lay down a blast of fire power that would make Jesse Ventura proud!

I'm slowly shaking the 20 plus years of rust off and getting back into decent form, but nowhere near my old competing form.  I think part of it has to do with using an 8 way stick with that has a bit longer throw.

I too use the 'flutter fire' technique which impressed the hell out of my son.  He couldn't believe how fast his old man could lay down a blanket of shots!  One of the things I used to love doing and am finally getting the skill back is the quick double reverse and fire method.  I could take out some targets in front of me, reverse, take out a mutant or something else, and hit reverse and flip back to the normal direction I was flying without even missing a beat.  First time my son saw that trick I got a Keanu Reeves style 'Whoa!' :)

I remember when I was a kid and once a few of us got to where we could roll the counter on Defender, the game did lose some interest as someone else mentioned.  Here's what we did...

One variant would be to start off on level one and shoot all the humans except 1, and then... as the name of the game goes... Defend them!

Another thing that came about from boredom was to just kill all the humans and immediately go into the 'waste lands' and then fight your way out.  After level 4 (and I think every four levels after that) you get all ten humans back again.  We'd kill them off again and fight our way out.  Talk about hard!  Still back then we could rack up well over 100K playing that way.

Yet again another boredom version would be to use all your smart bombs right away so you have to shoot everything yourself.  As soon as you get another ship and smart bomb, waste that one too and keep going.

Last crazy thing I can remember was to blow up all your ships but 1 at level one and then see who could recover and last the longest.

It was crazy, but fun and impressive.  I remember my friend and I would usually have a crowd around us.

I'm pretty sure there is a difficuly setting isn't there?  Reason I ask is because when the guy came around to empty the coin box he started noticing there wasn't nearly as many quarters as there used to be, but he knew the game was getting played.  After he'd leave it would be harder, but we quickly adapted. 
TOK:
Defender has difficulty settings, and they can be adjusted in MAME, but they're a bit cryptic...

BOOKKEEPING AND EVALUATION TOTALS (Functions 1-7)
=================================================
1. In game over mode, set switch to AUTO-UP and depress ADVANCE. The CRT
   indicates Function 1 and total left chute coins.
2. Record audit totals and depress ADVANCE for functions 1-7. To review a
   total that has been advanced past, set switch to MANUAL-DOWN and depress
   ADVANCE. Functions are displayed one at a time as follows:-

      Function    Total    Description
      --------------------------------
         1          0      (Total) COINS LEFT
         2          0      (Total) COINS CENTER
         3          0      (Total) COINS RIGHT
         4          0      TOTAL PAID (Games)
         5          0      (Total Bonus) SHIPS WON
         6          0      TOTAL (Play) TIME (Minutes)
         7          0      TOTAL SHIPS (Played)
         
3. Operate ADVANCE to display Function 28, SPECIAL FUNCTION. From Function
   28 you can return to game over or zero audit totals and return to game
   over.
4. With switch set to AUTO-UP, perform a. or b. as desired.
      a. To return to game over depress ADVANCE.
      b. To zero audit totals and return to game over, operate HIGH SCORE
         RESET to indicate "35" on CRT Function 28 and then depress ADVANCE.

GAME ADJUSTMENTS (Functions 8-27)
=================================
1. In game over mode set switch to AUTO_UP and then depress ADVANCE. The CRT
   indicates Function 1 and total left chute coins.
2. To raise Function number on CRT, operate ADVANCE pushbutton with switch
   set to AUTO-UP. To lower Function number operate ADVANCE with it set to
   MANUAL-DOWN.
3. With desired Function indicated, raise adjustment value by operating HIGH
   SCORE RESET with switch set to AUTO-UP; lower value by operating HIGH
   SCORE RESET with it set to MANUAL-DOWN. Value left on CRT is new setting.
   For values, see below and, for pricing, Table 1.

      Function   Factory Setting   Description
      ----------------------------------------
         08           10000        BONUS SHIP LEVEL (0=No Bonus Ships)
         09               3        SHIPS PER GAME
         10               3        COINAGE SELECT
         11               1        LEFT COIN MULT
         12               4        CENTER COIN MULT
         13               1        RIGHT COIN MULT
         14               1        COINS FOR CREDIT
         15               0        COINS FOR BONUS
         16               0        MINIMUM COINS
         17               0        FREE PLAY (Set to 1 for Free Play)
         18               0        STARTING DIFFICULTY (0=LIB; 1=MOD; 2=CONS)
         19              10        PROGRESSIVE WAVE DIFFICULTY LIMIT (4-25)
                                   e.g. 5-LIB; 10=MOD; 15=CONS;
         20               1        BACKGROUND SOUND (0=OFF; 1=ON)
         21               5        PLANET RESTORE WAVE NUMBER
         22               0        NOT USED
         23               0        NOT USED
         24               0        NOT USED
         25               0        NOT USED
         26               0        NOT USED
         27               0        NOT USED

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all desired adjustments have been made.
5. Operate ADVANCE until 28 0 SPECIAL FUNCTION is indicated on CRT. From
   Function 28 you can return to game over or restore factory settings.
   Perform step 6 or 7 as desired.
6. To return to game over, depress ADVANCE with switch set to AUTO-UP.
7. To restore factory settings and zero audit totals:
   a. Operate HIGH SCRORE RESET in AUTO-UP to indicate "45" on CRT Function
      28.
   b. Depress ADVANCE. The game returns to audit Function 1.
   c. Set switch to MANUAL-DOWN and depress ADVANCE to indicate Function 28
      on the CRT.
   d. Set switch to AUTO-UP and depress ADVANCE.
wbassett:
Okay then he was changing the settings.  We'd have to leave the area when he was opening the machines and collecting the quarters so I never saw what he was doing, but he definitely did something!

It was somewhat amusing watching the newbs toss a quarter in and then get swarmed almost immediately and it'd be game over in a minute!  Then we'd step up and play for an hour or two on one quarter and we were doing some of the crazy stuff I mentioned above too.
francmusic:
Congratulations ! Great job!
I love this game. The best arcade game for me. My best score is only 30000  :o
Here, in Poland it is not easy to buy  Williams Defender working so first I decided to build control panel "Defender Station" to play Defender with mame.
http://www.francmuz.webd.pl/panel/final2.JPG

Now I finish my mame cabinet (in universal Zaccaria cab) for Defender game.
I thinked about Williams Arcade Classic for PC (see picture http://www.francmuz.webd.pl/zaccaria/2/DSC06513.jpg) but now I use mame version.

Congratulations again.
TOK:
Very nice... I started to build a stand alone panel for Defender. I built the box and top, but never painted it or got the overlay for it. I'll get a pic next time I'm working in the garage.
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