Defender Mega-thread

[WCopeland]

Defender best gam

A great Defender player has master-level video game mechanics: a perfect blend of high-level strategy, multitasking, great control, raw speed, and endurance.

Unfortunately, it's also the game that was the most screwed over by some of TG's scoring policies.  After the recent closure of the TG website, it was confirmed that both the marathon and tournament settings WRs were fraudulent under today's rules.  The 80m Marathon world record was never verified and was accepted before strict verification procedures were put in place.  It was also scored during a time when it was acceptable to "pause" or "freeze" gameplay and take a break.  The tournament settings WR was achieved using heavy baiter hunting -- a highly illegal and controversial point-pressing tactic.  Such tactics are illegal in Defender due to there being no timer, unlike DK.

My marathon PB is ~2.39m, and my tournament settings PB is ~200,000, give or take a thousand or two.  The current WRs are:

Marathon: ~40,000,000... I have no idea who holds this, but this is the "community" accepted number.
TGTS: 274,600 - Mikael Lindholm

Here are some vids of high-level Defender play:
TGTS WR (Mikael Lindholm): Defender TGTS (arcade): 274K
Clips of my 2.39m game... I've been told this video is frontrunner for most recorded actions per minute/fastest play ~1:40: Wes Copeland Defender Z82
Paul Spriggs, 160k on the first ship: 160k defender first ship

Post here with strategies, tips, and just your general experience with Defender.

[LMDAVE]

As you can see by my avi that besides DK, Defender (and MC) are my other two favorites. Super fun /frustrating game to play. I hope to roll the game one day. 250K is about my highest. I have a cabinet, but I just don't spend much time on it since I'm still on a 1.1M DK quest.

[dimmu--borgir]

Mikael Lindholm

That name has to be 100% Swedish?! Never heard of him..

[syscrusher]

Great videos, Wes!  I fully intend to master this game after I'm done with Missile Command and get a proper control panel set up, whenever that may be.  I'm a member of the FB group "WILLIAMS DEFENDER PLAYERS UNITE" and there's some great info over there too.