Defender Atari 2600 FAQ/Strategy Guide Version: 1.0 Author: Larcen Tyler Last Revision Date: 10/31/06 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This document is electronically published work Copyrighted ©2005-2006 by Rob 'Larcen Tyler' Adair. Permission is granted to make a copy _ONLY_ as a personal reference copy, in which case the document _MUST_ remain in its original, unedited form. Any other reproduction is strictly prohibited. This document may not be used as a promotional item or for profitable means of any kind (even if no profit is intended to be gained.) This document is only allowed to appear on the GameFAQs website and no other website whatsoever, nor may any part of this document appear on any website for any reason whatsoever. Defender is a registered trademark of Midway Games. Atari 2600 Video Computer System and any accessories mentioned within are registered trademarks and/or copyrighted materials owned by Atari Games. GameFAQs is a registered trademark and copyrighted 1995-2006 by Jeff 'CJayC' Veasey. Any other names mentioned within not mentioned within this section are registered trademarks and/or copyrighted materials of their respective owners. Larcen Tyler is in no way affiliated with any of the companies listed above, or their affiliates in any way. No affiliation should be assumed for any reason whatsoever. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. REVISION HISTORY 2. HOW TO PLAY THE GAME 3. SCORING INFORMATION 4. TIPS 5. CONTACT INFORMATIOn 6. CREDITS =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 1. REVISION HISTORY Version 1.0: 11/26/05: Out of boredom, decided to write a guide for this game since it doesn't have one. 10/31/06: Updated contact information. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 2. HOW TO PLAY THE GAME Red alert! Evil aliens from space have invaded the Earth! They're capturing people left and right and turning them into vile mutants. The landers come from the sky and touch down on the city, sucking helpless people into their tractor beam, before carrying them away from the city and doing their dirty work! You are the last hope for civilization. As the pilot of the Universal Space Ship Defender (hereafter referred to as Defender,) you have the ability to stop these extraterrestrial beings from destroying the Earth. Armed with your laser cannon and smart bombs, you must fly above the city, attacking all of the hostile beings and rescuing humans. BEGINNING THE MISSION: To begin the mission, first set up your Atari 2600 or Atari 7800 according to your owner's manual. Plug a joystick into the left jack, and a second one if you are playing with a friend. Insert the cartridge into your system, and power up. You should see a demonstration of the game start. For a slow moving Defender, set your difficulty switch to A (left position.) For a faster moving Defender, set it to B. There are twenty different game selections, with ten variations of gameplay for one or two players. Variations 1-10 are for one player, and variations 11-20 are for two players. The different variations are listed below as follows, with the one player variation first and then the two player variation: Game 1/Game 11 Normal Speed Starting Wave: 1 Game 2/12 Fast Speed Starting Wave: 1 Game 3/13 Hyper Speed Mutant Training* Starting Wave: 1 Game 4/14 Normal Speed Starting Wave: 3 Game 5/15 Fast Speed Starting Wave: 3 Game 6/16 Hyper Speed Mutant Training* Starting Wave: 3 Game 7/17 Normal Speed Starting Wave: 5 Game 8/18 Fast Speed Starting Wave: 5 Game 9/19 Hyper Speed Mutant Training* Starting Wave: 5 Game 10/20 Slow Speed Starting Wave: 1 (Children's Version) *See below for more details on Mutant Training GAMEPLAY: Once you have selected your game variation, press the reset switch or the fire button. You will hear an air-raid siren, signalling that the invasion has begun! Defender starts out facing to the right, but can be moved left or right to patrol the area while you seek out the enemy invaders. To accelerate the Defender left or right, simply press and hold the joystick in that direction. You can move the ship vertically by moving the joystick up or down. To fire a laser shot, press the button on your joystick. You have unlimited shots, but only one shot can be on screen at a time. If you press the button while a shot is flying across the screen, that one will disappear and a new one will be fired. You start with three smart bombs, which can destroy all enemies on screen at once. In order to use a smart bomb, you must first dive into the city for cover, and once the Defender is completely in the city, press the fire button to detonate the bomb. The Defender is also equipped with a hyperwarp function, which requires the Defender to be at a high altitude to use. To do this, move the Defender to the top of the screen, untill it disappears, then press the button to warp to a random location. THE CIVILIANS AND THE ENEMIES: The primary goal of Defender is to protect the innocent people of the city from the Landers that are attempting to capture them and turn them into mutants. These people are represented by little 'blips' on the bottom of the screen, and you will start each game with five of them. Landers are triangle-shaped ships with a circle on top that are trying to capture the people. If a Lander successfully manages to land in the city, it will begin to capture a person with its tractor beam. When this happens, a high pitched noise like a chipmunk chattering will be heard. When you hear this sound, use your scanner to locate the Lander that is kidnapping a human (it should appear as two blips, one atop the other, on your scanner.) If you are able to destroy the Lander while its tractor beam is still on, the person will safely return to the city surface. However, if the Lander has captured the person, do not give up just yet, as you still have a chance to save them. Simply shoot the lander and then fly your ship into the person to catch them. After that, try to return them to the city streets below by flying Defender into the city. You'll know they are safe in the city again when you hear a short tune play. If you do not catch a person, they will plummet to the city and meet a rather untimely demise by hitting the surface hard. You will hear a 'crash' sound, and you will receive no bonus points. If the Lander wasn't too far from the city, however, there is a chance the person may still survive. In the event that you are unable to save a person, you will hear a noise and the Lander will change into a mutant, a brown flying alien creature that is very fast and chases you persistently. Mutants are harder to hit and are very dangerous, so you must work hard to prevent the Landers from kidnapping people. In addition to the Landers, you must also look out for Bombers, light blue squares that fly from the bottom to the top of the screen laying out mines that will destroy the Defender upon contact. These enemies are not too hard as long as you time your shots correctly. Pods look like small suns that float onscreen and shoot occasionally at your ship. Shooting one will release Swarmers, four large circles in a small clump that fly after your ship in an effort to ram it and destroy it. Baiters are oval shapes that pursue your ship in a quick manner while shooting at it. They are also trying to draw your attention away from the Landers while they continue to capture persons from the city. MUTANT TAKEOVER: If all five civilians in the city are either transformed into mutants or killed, the entire city will explode and disappear. From that point on, you will be taking on countless mutants in the blackness of space instead of the various enemies you encountered previously. The city remains destroyed untill the next wave that is a multiple of five (e.g. 5, 10, 15, 20, etc.) If you wish to practice fighting in a situation like this, you can play on a variation that involves Mutant Training, which will have the city gone and mutants in every wave. END OF A WAVE: When all enemies are defeated, the wave is completed, and the number of the wave just completed will flash onscreen while a short tune plays. Each wave will get more and more difficult, with the aliens moving faster and the tractor beams taking less time to beam up people. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 3. SCORING INFORMATION Points are awarded as follows: Destroy Pod: 1000 Points Destroy Swarmer: 500 Points Destroy Bomber: 250 Points Destroy Baiter: 200 Points Destroy Lander: 150 Points Destroy Mutant: 150 Points Person Survives Fall From Lander: 250 Points Catch Person Without Returning Them: 500 Points Return Person To City: 1000 Points Survivng People At End Of Wave: 100 Points per Person You start with three lives and three smart bombs. For every 10,000 points earned, you will receive an extra Defender and an extra smart bomb. While you will only see three of each displayed onscreen, the computer will keep track of extras you have earned, and there is no limit to how many of each you can have. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 4. TIPS -Pay attention to the sound. If you hear the high pitched distress signal of a person being kidnapped, check your scanner immediately and head toward the person in distress. -The hyperwarp is totally random in terms of where you will be teleported to, so while it can be useful in a tight situation, there's no guarantee that you will be taken to a safer spot. -Conserve smart bombs for extreme situations, like when you're outnumbered, or when a person is being kidnapped and you don't have time to reach them and shoot the Lander that's kidnapping them. -Make sudden reversals to confuse enemies, and while they're getting back on track, you can either retreat or destroy them. -And lastly, but never ever least, HAVE FUN! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 5. CONTACT INFORMATION READ THIS BEFORE YOU SEND ME ANY E-MAIL! The following types of E-Mail I will _NOT_ accept under any circumstances: -Mail that contains flaming (insults) or offensive content within. If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything! -Spam/Advertisements of any kind. This is against the law, and will not be taken lightly. -Asking if you can use this on your website/in your FAQ/Magazine/anything like that will not be tolerated. In case you missed it, I specifically stated that I won't allow it in the disclaimer section at the beginning. -Asking where to find this game in a ROM format, or any other illegal software requests will be ignored. -Asking me where to find this cartridge. (Honestly, I wish I knew where to find Atari games, but I have as much of a hard time finding them as you probably do! Your best bet is to check online.) The following types of E-Mail I will accept: -Suggestions and/or constructive criticism. -Strategies of your own. -Any information I may have left out in this version. -Generally, anything that will help me improve this guide in future revisions! (Make sure you put "Defender Guide" as your subject line.) You can reach me at: LarcenTyler7650 (AT) Yahoo (DOT) com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 6. CREDITS Sure I wrote this, but there are many people who made it possible, so here they are: -My mother, for buying the Atari 2600 and passing her love for it onto me. -Bob Polaro, for his programming of this game. -Alan Murphy, for designing the graphics for the game. -Jeff 'CJayC' Veasey, for providing us writers with a place to share our work. -Atari, for putting out the Atari 2600 as well as distributing this cartridge in large quantities, so collectors could easily find it in this day. -AtariAge (www.AtariAge.com) for all the information I needed to confirm while I was writing this. -And now, the most important person of all, the one who makes it worth my while, it's none other than YOU for reading my guide! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ©2005-2006 Rob 'Larcen Tyler' Adair All rights reserved.