Stargate / Defender II (Arcade & Atari 2600) - Let's Play 1001 Games - Episode 576
14Journey back to the arcades of 1981
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I'm Gaming Jay: Youtube gamer, let's player, fan of retro games, and determined optimist... Join me in this series while I try out EACH of the video games in the book 1001 VIDEO GAMES YOU MUST PLAY BEFORE YOU DIE, before I die. The game review for each game will focus on the question of whether you MUST play this game before you die. But to be honest, the game review parts are just for fun, and are not meant to be definitive, in depth reviews; this series is more about the YouTube gamer journey itself. From Mario games to the Halo series, from arcade games to Commodore 64, PC games to the NES and Sega Genesis, Playstation to the Xbox, let's play those classic retro games that we grew up with, have fond memories of, or heard of but never got a chance to try! And with that said, the game review for today is...
Stargate / Defender II
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_(video_game)
Stargate (also known as Defender II) is a horizontally scrolling shooter released in arcades in 1981 by Williams Electronics. Created by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar, it is a sequel to Defender which was released earlier in the year. It was the first of only three productions from Vid Kidz, an independent development house formed by Jarvis and DeMar.
This sequel adds new ships to the alien fleet, including Firebombers, Yllabian Space Guppies, Dynamos, Phreds, Big Reds, Munchies and Space Hums. The Defender ship is now equipped with an Inviso cloaking device, which renders the ship invulnerable when activated, but has a limited charge. A Stargate transports the ship to any humanoid in trouble. There are two special stages: the Yllabian Dogfight, first appearing at wave 5 and recurring every 10 waves; and the Firebomber Showdown, first appearing at wave 10 and also recurring every 10 waves.
The Defender II name was used in some home releases, due to legal issues (according to the bonus material for Midway Arcade Treasures, Williams wanted to "make sure they could own the trademark" on the Defender name). The name Defender II has been used on many home ports and game compilation appearances, but not in arcades. The Atari 2600 port was originally sold as Stargate, but was renamed to Defender II for a later re-release.[1]
Stargate adds several new enemies to the lineup originally introduced in Defender. The names of most of the new creations are based on inside jokes.
The alien race that is fought is known as the "Irata", being the name of Williams competitor Atari spelled backwards. One of the other new enemies is also named after a competitor, "Yllabian Space Guppies"; Bally Midway was a major competitor with Williams in both the video game and pinball markets. Another new enemy is the "Dynamo," which breaks into several small "Space Hums"; this is in homage to the song Dinah-Moe Humm by Frank Zappa. Three new arrivals, "Phreds", "Big Reds", and "Munchies", vaguely resemble Pac-Man, a game released in the U.S. by Bally.
The Immortals on the High Scores page has factory defaults that are demonstrative of various information. The #1 high score is held by the fictitious "Phred Williams" with 102181 points, indicative of the game's release date of October 21, 1981. The #2 and #3 high scores are held by "VID" and "KID" respectively, the Vid Kidz software development studio. The #6 high score is held by "LED", Vid Kidz co-founder Lawrence E. DeMar. The #9 high score is held by "EPJ", Vid Kidz co-founder Eugene Jarvis. Spot #13 is held by "SSR", pinball designer Steve Ritchie, who had helped with Defender. Other Immortal scores include other developers on the project, such as "SAM" at #7 for Sam Dicker, and "PGD" at #12 for Paul Dussault.
In July 2000, Midway licensed Defender II, along with other Williams Electronics games, to Shockwave for use in an online applet to demonstrate the power of the Shockwave web content platform, entitled Shockwave Arcade Collection. The conversion was created by Digital Eclipse. It is currently not freely available to be played within the shockwave web applet. As Defender II, the game is included in the 2012 compilation Midway Arcade Origins.[4]
A Stargate machine is featured in the 3rd-season episode "Arcade" of the TV comedy series NewsRadio, in which it was referred to as "Stargate Defender". Eugene Jarvis, the game's creator, had a cameo role on the episode as "Delivery Guy #3". Stargate and its predecessor Defender are featured as plot points in the podcast Rabbits. Stargate also appeared in the 1983 movie Strange Invaders.