Main > Main Forum

Defender Thread (was 5/2/08: The Day I No Longer Suck!)

Pages: << < (16/18) > >>

DrBunsen:

Several posts back I'd said that I was wanting to record some of my playtime so that you could get some pointers/tips on how I play.  Kind of like how I got a lot better quickly after I saw someone else play who was good.  So I was reading your last post and thinking that I wish I had some recordings already, and I had an "AHA!" moment - check YouTube.  Sure enough, there are recordings there of guys playing some pretty good games.  No one plays exactly alike so I found myself squirming and thinking "no, go THERE; faster Faster FASTER; you should've gone back the other way!" and the like.

In any case, since you're at the point where you've got the movements down, being able to see someone good play should help at least a bit, and possibly a lot.


Very good Defender player, playing on hard difficulty.  He doesn't fly as fast as I like to, but he shoots like I do (and how I tried to describe a few posts ago).



Good Stargate player, levels 18-22.  Again, this guy flies slower than I prefer.  However he does use a technique that is effective that I'd seen a lot of good players use - gather the humans, hover over them and pick up points by letting them get picked up over and over.  I tried it for a while but preferred to just fly and blast, though when things got down to just a few landers I'd do it for some easy points.  The bad thing about this technique is that he ended up too quickly with just a few people on the planet, so it wasn't as effective as it would be if he could keep several more people available from wave to wave.  Also, if this guy shot like the Defender player above he'd do a bit better.


Bunsen

TOK:

I also found that 50,000 on first guy Defender link when I was searching Youtube for stuff and I've watched it a few times. What I thought was odd is that the guy is really good at avoiding stuff, but then does goofy stuff like using smart bombs on single Baiters and letting everyone get picked up by the third level killing his bonus.
My end of level 3 score is usually about 10,000 above his, though I've usually lost a life by then.

I did really start improving my score when I started flying slower and stopped racing for every single humanoid getting picked up though.


DrBunsen:

Yeah, I agree that he could conserve the Smartbombs a bit better.  A bigger thing in my mind is that 90% of the time he files left to right only.  I kept thinking "go back, go back!" but he'd keep flying.  I want to think that I don't mind which way I fly (and BOY does that sound bad...) but it may be that I have a preferred direction as well.  Recording games and evaluating them later may be a cool tool to get the skills hones quicker.


Bunsen

TOK:

I had a mad rush of retro-hysteria today. This 130XE was bought new as a replacement for a dead 800XL. It has traveled with me through multiple addresses since I left my parents home. I don't think I've physically powered it up since the early 90's. I pulled the box out of the closet, dragged it down to the garage, shoved all the crap on the workbench aside and...

Fire in the hole!


OK, so there's a crusty old Atari computer, but might be wondering whats the point. Ta-da!


I still contend this was the best home port of Defender (excluding newer emulated XBox type stuff), but it wasn't quite as faithful as I remembered. I never noticed the incredible amount of screen flicker and other oddities about these games back then.


I guess this is proof the overall play is pretty faithful. After a few games my computer score is right in the range of my actual Defender score. The Atari computer version uses spacebar for smartbomb and regular keys for hyperspace, so it's not crippled from lack of input like the 2600 version.


A stowaway I found in the box with the computer (I also have my C64 in there). I used to play this in English class.
I don't be thinking that ever dood me any harm.


Family reunion.



DrBunsen:

Just from the few screenshots it looks like some things got changed when they ported it (or is that just me?).  Does the timing of the game-play feel right?

Kudos to the mad skillz of the MAME programmers - being able to do the hardware emulation so exactly that the real code can be run is such a nice thing.


Bunsen

Pages: << < (16/18) > >>

Go to full version