quarterstringer, do you have any tips or tricks you can offer up? BTW, your name reminds me of a guy who used to use those greek coins with the hole in the middle to get himself free credits on this pacman machine we used to play. Any similarities?
I was in high school when Asteroids came out and it was the first game that started my addiction. Asteroids had the circular coin slots, so my friend and I used to tape thread to a quarter to rack up credits. I have an Asteroids coin door for my cabinet, but I haven't tried quarterstringing it yet.
We tried a lot of tricks to get free games back then, shuffling feet on the carpet and striking the coin door with a quarter, flipping pennies up the coin return and stringing quarters. I remember that we could get 40 games on Tempest if you ended the game on a certain score.
As for defender, I put a lot of quarters in that game. Tcleary has a great list of tips. The most important skill is to learn how to save the humans when the landers pick them up. Practice it on the first level.
This is how a I play -
On the first level, shoot some landers and let the others pick up the humans and save them for 500 and set them down for another 500.
On the 2nd level, shoot the pod first then follow the swarmers. I use the strategy of defending only one or two humans. So I kill all but two humans while shooting landers. With this strategy there shouldn't be any landers turning into mutants.
On the 3rd and higher levels, first smart bomb the pods then defend one or two humans. I try to catch the first human caught by a lander and then set that human down next to the last human and hover around protecting them. Usually a lander will try to pick up a human and if it's safe, I let pick up the human to get the 1000 points.
On every 5th level when the humans reload, I try to kill 8 humans after smart bombing the pods.
Some general tips -
Focus on your ship, check the radar when there are few enemies around your ship.
Fire and thrust while moving the joystick up and down.
Kill the landers first.
Follow the orange swarmers.
Get in front of the purple bombers.
Fight the mutants last and kill them while at the top of the screen.
Kill the baiter as soon as it comes out.
Use the hyperspace when baiters are out and you need to kill one or two last enemies.
I used to be able to turn this game over, so Defender is still frustrating to me. My skills haven't come back on this game.