[HN Gopher] Defender (1981) by Eugene Jarvis and Sam Dicker
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       Defender (1981) by Eugene Jarvis and Sam Dicker
        
       Author : mwenge
       Score  : 53 points
       Date   : 2021-07-12 19:57 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | detaro wrote:
       | Very cool.
       | 
       | I'm curious, how did the source become public? Did the creators
       | release it, was it found somewhere, ...?
        
         | mwcremer wrote:
         | The README states the source came from
         | https://github.com/historicalsource/defender. "A collection of
         | historical source files, for education and perusal." Which begs
         | the question, where did Historical Source get it? Alas, there
         | is no indication.
        
       | hermitcrab wrote:
       | Defender was head and shoulders above every other arcade game
       | when it was released. It consumed quite a bit of my pocket money.
        
       | louthy wrote:
       | Truly one of the great games of the era. The pace and slickness
       | of the movement felt head and shoulders above the rest. I lost
       | many hours!
        
         | Kaibeezy wrote:
         | Agree, it was special in multiple ways:                 - The
         | idea that you were orbiting the planet, somehow more than 2D,
         | yet not 3D.        - Not just shooting but also rescuing.
         | - The speed, fluid movement and quick reverses.        - Color
         | and sound crucial to situational awareness.
         | 
         | I sometimes imagine it as a first-person game, true 3D, view
         | from the cockpit. Wouldn't that be something!
        
           | louthy wrote:
           | The first title I worked on in the games industry was a game
           | called Lunatik, which was billed as a 3D Defender (for PS1,
           | Saturn, and PC). It never worked.
           | 
           | I wrote some comments on this article [1] about why it
           | failed, if you're interested.
           | 
           | [1] https://www.unseen64.net/2020/11/16/lunatik-pure-
           | entertainme...
        
       | mrlonglong wrote:
       | This was also known as Planetoid on the old 8 bit BBC B micro and
       | was sold by Acornsoft. It wa a fantastic frenetic game back then!
        
       | Damogran6 wrote:
       | I received a broken Defender cab for free. Two memory chips, a
       | better ground strap, and a powersupply and it was back in
       | business. My 6 year old twins and I played it for several
       | years...I realized that no matter how much practice I got, I was
       | never going to get any better at it. It then helped fund
       | christmas one year.
        
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       (page generated 2021-07-12 23:00 UTC)