Defender is one of the four games that was ever made for the rare Adventure
Vision Tabletop gaming machine. I'm making it my personal quest to cover all
four games. Defender is the first game I'm covering in this quest. Defender is
a classic game which retains its traditional gameplay on the Adventure Vision
so the game will play familiar to those games. This guide will introduce the
object of the game, the enemies, the controls and some basic strategy so anyone
can finish the game.
Defender is a horizontal scrolling shooter where you control a small spaceship
above a long, mountainous landscape that is inhabited by humans. Above this
landscape enemies start to appear that have to be defeated. Aside from the
enemies, there are no obstacles to overcome. For instance, you can fly through
the mountains. This means you only need to watch out for the enemies. It is
also important to note the levels don't have an end. The levels wrap around so
at the end, you start again from the beginning of the level without noticing
it. This means you can keep playing the same level until you die.
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2.1- Object of the game [A201]
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The object of the game is to score as many points as possible by defending the
Earth from the evil invaders that are attacking the planet. You get to use a
modern spaceship to defend the Earth. The primary enemy force is a Lander that
is used to abduct humans. The human will be transported to the top of the
screen where the Lander and Human will transform into a mutant that is harder
to defeat. This means it is important to defeat Landers before they have the
chance to abduct humans. Certainly because the game ends if all humans are
taken away. If this happens, you'll end up in space in a hopeless situation.
The Entex Adventure Vision has six different input buttons, but not all buttons
are needed to play the game so don't be surprised when you push a button and
nothing happens (Button 4) or the Sound is turned off (Sound Button). Only the
following buttons have a significant function within the game.
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|
Joystick | Pushing the joystick up causes your ship to go up, pushing down
| causes your ship to go down. Pushing right makes your ship go faster
| to the right while pushing left makes your ship go fast to the left.
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|
Button 1 | Button 1 releases a Smart Bomb which destroys all visible aliens.
| Your supply is limited to five at the start of the level but you
| gain one Smart Bomb for every 10.000 points you collect.
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|
Button 2 | Button 2 lets you jump into Hyperspace which is briefly free from
| aliens. It isn't a good idea to use this button too much. Going into
| hyperspace can cause your ship to explode.
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|
Button 3 | Button 3 fires a simple laser blast which destroys any life it
| touches. It will be your most important weapon against the aliens,
| but watch out: you can hurt humans with this weapon.
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The point in Defender is to score as many points as possible and to score, you
need to defeat enemies. Each enemy is worth a certain amount of points and you
receive these points at the moment you destroy them. You can also gain 500
points by rescuing humans. In this table you can see how many points each enemy
is worth.
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|
Lander | The Lander is the basic enemy, their primary mission is to destroy
| you and to abduct humans. They are worth 150 points each.
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|
Mutant | The Mutant is a transformed Lander which is harder to defeat. The
| Mutant has one objective: destroying you. It is worth 150 points.
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|
Pod | This enemy is worth 1000 points and is relatively harmless. It does
| release a random number of dangerous Swarmers after being destroyed.
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|
Swarmer | The Swarmer is an intelligent enemy which tries to destroy you. It
| is very dangerous and worth 200 points.
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|
Bomber | The Bomber doesn't attack you directly, but it lays bombs with the
| intent of destroying you. It is worth 600 points.
_________|_____________________________________________________________________
The enemies follow a simple pattern. Each wave contains a limited number of
aliens which have to be defeated for the next wave to appear. The first wave
only contains Landers, but subsequent waves can contain pods, swarmers and
bombers. It is best to take out the Landers first by staying close to the
ground. This way you can avoid the abduction of humans. You can also let the
Landers abduct the humans so you can rescue them and score extra points. This
works better with a controlled number of ships. After taking out the Landers,
you should focus on the Swarmers and the Bombers. Keep the pods for last and
take them out one by one. Always destroys the swarmers of one pod before moving
on to the next. Alternatively, you could use a smart bomb to destroy all pods
and then use on to destroy all Swarmers. Avoid using hyperspace at all costs
because it can be dangerous. Aside from that, just pay attention
The player has six defender ships at the start of the game. At the moment the
six ships are destroyed, the game is over. The game doesn't have a formal
ending except for this screen. Pushing Button 3 restarts the game so you can
try and improve your score.
