Defender 
--------


By Alan Bond.



What it can do 
--------------

Moving forward whilst shooting,without loosing speed. Always the same ammount of
bullets shot, regardless of scrolling or moving up or down.

Move up  and down,  and still  face the  last left  or right direction you where
facing. So if you are  facing left then move up  and shoot, it will shoot  left.
This is the key to the whole game really, and couldn't be done without it.

Waves of Landers, 6 per wave on level  1, each level adds 5 Landers to the  kill
count.  They  warp-in  in  the  middle  of  the  screen  without  effecting your
movement (much). Later levels add Pods, more Landers and more Pods after that!

Landers will hunt for  men, then it will  go through the cycle  of: Lander finds
man and  descends, Lander  grabs man  and takes  him to  the top  of the screen,
Lander eats man and turns  into a Mutant. The man  can be saved by shooting  the
Lander. You can also shoot the man whilst he's kidnapped, so be careful.

Loose all  the 10  men, and  you will  loose your  planet! All  Landers turn  to
Mutants!

The 10 men are refreshed every 5 levels, just like the arcade.

Pods and Swarmers.

3 Lives, a working score and extra lives.

Real 70's artwork from  the arcade cabinet, and all the  graphics and sound  was
ripped from the original arcade game (Mame).

Mad effects like smooth diagonal  shrapnel, screen flashes and one  bloody large
explosion! :-)


What it can't do 
----------------

Scanner. No way, forget it. To be honest I never even attempted it.

No  wrap  scrolling.  I tried  to  do  this with  teleporters...  but  it proved
impossible when I needed  the Landers/bullets to wrap  around.  Can it be  done?

No Bombers.  I could do it.. but  it interferes with Landers too much.  For  the
record  the Bombers  move in  a diagonal,  and they  wrap around  the play  area
vertically.

I had the Saucers early on, but they made it WAY too hard. Also Lander bullets
aren't in, they could only shoot up really, so it was pointless.

No "proper" level quota. When ever I make a version of Defender for a system  (I
have done  a few),  the quotas  always give  me hassle.....like  killing all the
Landers  and  not moving  to  the next  level  because one  Lander  mysteriously
disappeared in play. The chances of  this happening in R&D is pretty  much 100%,
so I skipped it.  Just kill the  level's amount of Landers and you will  warp to
the next, even if there are Landers left!

Can't carry men, it's just  way too much to do.  In theory you can carry  all 10
men (If you're a good Defender player). There's no way can I do this in R&Ds?

Smart bomb......  I ran  out of  keys!  I  recall the  old Atari 2600 version of
Defender used one button and  had a smart bomb (you  pressed fire at the top  of
the screen), a bad way to do it I thought, even back then.

Diagonals.  Well they are possible but look jerky. Not much I can do about this,
but at least you can move diagonally and fire. ;-)


Bugs 
----

Sometimes, you will loose  the ability to fire!   Sorry about that.  It  happens
when pushing down on  a man or a  Lander warping in.  I  made a quick fix  which
works 75% of the time.  If you loose the bullets  just move right or left  for a
few seconds (without moving up & down) You weapon will return!

The inevitable "Lander  won't die when  you shoot it"  bug.  It happens  now and
then, even when I put loads more checks in then NetWars(tm)

Once I saw a man stuck on the ceiling! Don't shoot him (he's safe), he will fall
to the floor when the level is over.

You can sometimes eat a Lander or  warp-in if you turn left-right very close  to
it. No problem just one less Lander ;-)

If you loose a life just as you kill the last Lander, problems occur. If it's
your last life then you will be in an empty game.

You get 900 or so points just for finishing the game (because of infinate time),
so everybody can get a good score. :-\

Very short first level, a lazy bug.... kind of.

Tips 
---- 
I guarantee it's going to be a short  first go! You only have to touch an  enemy
and you die,  in fact your  first problem might  be running into  Landers coming
your way. The bottom of the screen is pretty much safe from Landers.

It's a good idea to get rid of the Pods and Swarmers first, you don't want to
shoot them whilst your surrounded by Mutants! 

You can hammer away at the fire button  if you like. But if you want to  use the
auto fire you must start  it off after changing direction.. IE: You  are  moving
right and holding fire down, you  see  a Lander above you.. let go  of  the fire
push up and hold the fire button again, this will lay down a wall of  laser  for
the poor Lander!

If you have your stereo speakers set  up (or headphones), you can hear  the man
getting kidnapped from the left or right. It helps a bit!

You are safe for a few seconds after dying. Mutants and Swarmers will run away,
(this is so they don't trap you in the safe start area)

You get bonus points for saving kidnapped men.

Push up when you see the game over (this is a hidden exit).

If you loose your planet  and are in "Mutant mode",  go to the edge of  the play
area. Now you can defend yourself "Alamo" style, it makes it very easy!

Have Fun!

Alan.

