Defender

Defender put players in charge of a ship sent to protect mankind from wave after wave of attacking alien forces. Armed with smart bombs and the ability to use hyperspace to move quickly around the planet, the player ship must fight against Bombers, Pods, Swarmers, Baiters, and Landers - that can capture the humanoids and transform them into deadly and relentless Mutants. Fail to save the humanoids from freefall or Mutant transformation, and the planet is destroyed. Defender is a port with modern enhancements of the original 1981 arcade title released on Xbox Live Arcade on November 15th, 2006. On February 17th, 2010 Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb announced on Twitter that nine Midway Games had been removed from Xbox Live “due to publisher evolving rights and permissions”.

Defender is an updated version of the classic arcade game of the same name. The Manti bugs have invaded earth and the remaining human survivors now live in colonies throughout the solar system. As more swarms of Manti arrive, even the colonies are now in danger of being wiped out. You've been enlisted to help save the remaining colonists and destroy the Manti bugs! There are a total of six different ships to fly, each with its own flight characteristics and special weapons. Weapon and shield power-ups can also be found throughout the various missions. As in the original version of Defender, the Manti will try to capture any humans they can find to change them into mutants to increase their attack force. To increase chances of success you will need to rescue captured humans before this happens and bring them to a safe landing zone. Saving colonists will also earn you some credits, which can later be used to buy improved weapons or shields for your ship. Also included are several video extras detailing the historical perspective of and the making of Defender.

Game Boy Color port of Defender, released alongside Joust.

A keychain port of Defender.

Game Boy port of Defender, released alongside Joust.

Defender is a 1981 horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed by Williams Electronics for arcades. The game is set on either an unnamed planet or city (depending on platform) where the player must defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting astronauts. Development was led by Eugene Jarvis, a pinball programmer at Williams; Defender was Jarvis's first video game project and drew inspiration from Space Invaders and Asteroids. Defender was demonstrated in late 1980 and was released in March 1981. It was distributed in Japan by Taito. Defender was one of the most important titles of the golden age of arcade video games, selling over 55,000 units to become the company's best-selling game and one of the highest-grossing arcade games ever. Praise among critics focused on the game's audio-visuals and gameplay. It is frequently listed as one of Jarvis's best contributions to the video game industry and one of the most difficult video games. Though not the first game to scroll horizontally, it created the genre of horizontal scrolling shoot 'em ups. It inspired the development of other games and was followed by sequels and many imitations. Ports were developed for contemporary game systems, most of them by either Atari, Inc. or its software label for non-Atari platforms, Atarisoft. The 1982 Atari 2600 version was one of the best-selling games for the system and sold over 3 million cartridges. source: Wikipedia