The source code of the world's first scroll-type shooting game 'Defender' is now available
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The source code of the world's first scrolling shooter ' Defender ' released by Williams in 1981 is available on GitHub. The source code can be assembled into an executable file that can be executed on Windows or Linux, and by writing it to a ROM file, the game can be played on an emulator such as MAME.
GitHub --mwenge / defender: Defender (1981) by Eugene Jarvis and Sam Dicker
https://github.com/mwenge/defender
Williams is very well known as a pinball maker, but in the 1980s he released several arcade games. Among them, 'Defender' was a particularly big hit. The game was designed by former pinball designer Eugene Jarvis .
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'Defender' did not receive much attention when it was announced at the 1980 trade fair, but when the arcade cabinet was released in 1981, it sold more than 55,000 units and the past at that time. It earned the highest box office revenue and won the 1981 ' Game of the Year '. In Japan, Taito is the importer and distributor.
You can see what kind of game 'Defender' is by watching the following movie.
Defender (Red Label) 1980 Williams Mame Retro Arcade Games-YouTube
'Defender' is the world's first scroll-type shooting game, and it has a system that 'scrolls left and right while looping the stage'. Characterized by arbitrary scrolling in the horizontal direction, a mini-map showing the position of your own aircraft and enemies, and laser shots that extend in a straight line with the terrain, it will be used in later masterpiece shooting games such as 'Fantasy Zone ' and ' Gradius'. Has a great influence.
The rules are very simple. Aliens will appear and kidnap humanity more and more, so if you shoot down all the enemy spaceships before that, the stage will be cleared.
Of course, the game is over if you receive an enemy bullet even with one shot. The animation that your ship explodes and scatters is displayed smoothly.
The operation panel of the arcade cabinet at that time looks like this. The left lever moves up and down, 'REVERSE' is the button to change the direction of the aircraft, the right 'SMART BOMB' is the bomb that makes the whole attack, 'THRUST' is the forward acceleration, 'FIRE' is the shot, the center 'HYPERSPACE' Is a button that can be instantly warped somewhere on the stage. In addition to the operation method of 'lever for up and down, button for front and back', the operability of 'Defender' is quite unique and the difficulty is high because the movement of the own machine has inertia.
by Matt Grommes
There are four versions of 'Defender', 'White Label', 'Blue Label', 'Green Label', and 'Red Label', depending on the configuration of the IC on the board.
The source code for the game part of 'Defender' released on GitHub this time is based on the 'Red Label' version released on GitHub by Historical Source, which archives historically valuable source code. Written in assembly language for Motorola MC6809. Also, for the sound part, it seems that the source code of the audio ROM released by Historical Source is diverted.
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