Classic of the Month - Defender Stargate

Manufacturer:	Vid Kidz/Williams
Genre:	Shoot 'em up
Board:	6809-based board
Year:	1981

Few people would refute that Williams' 1980 side-scrolling shoot 'em up, Defender, is one of the all-time classic arcade games, but it's easy to forget the following year Williams brought out a sequel. Known as Defender II, Defender Stargate or just Stargate, it was developed by Vid Kids, a small 3rd party studio formed by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar, both of whom worked on the original. And eagle-eyed Arcade Throwback followers may have even noticed it on the banner of our Facebook page and Twitter account, so   this month it's our classic in focus.

Gameplay is much the same as the original, except things get busy much more quickly, with a greater variety of enemies out to get you from the very first level. Thankfully your ship has a few more tools at its disposal this time, with the inclusion of the Invisio units, which allows you to turn invisible (and therefore evade hunters) while you keep the button held down. There are also the stargate themselves. These square portals are dotted throughout the landscape and effectively work like a fixed and more predictable hyperspace, allowing you to now only avoid danger but also deal with snatchers on the far side of the level.

Whether you can remember this sequel or not (I can't), one thing remains from its predecessor: IT'S ROCK HARD! To alleviate some of the difficult Vid Kidz added the option to pay extra at the beginning to get more lives, bombs, hyperspace jumps and Inviso units, but you'll still struggle to clear more than the first few levels.

So why is it so few of us can remember this game? It plays well enough and in many ways it's a better game than Defender -- it certainly tries harder to keep the player going. I suspect the answer is in my introduction: Defender is in the absolute top tier of arcade classics; the reputation it has the the respect fans have for it is up there with the likes of Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong. Quite simply, the original overshadowed it.

MW