Defender II is Williams Electronics’ 1981 horizontal shooter for the Atari 2600. You pilot a spacecraft over an alien-threatened landscape and must protect the humanoids stranded on the surface below. Enemy Landers descend to grab them; if a Lander carries its captive to the top of the screen it transforms into a Mutant — faster and far more aggressive. Lose every humanoid and the planet is gone, replaced by an unrelenting swarm of Mutants.
How to play
Steer your ship with the arrow keys and press Spacebar to fire. The scanner strip at the top of the screen shows the real-time positions of enemies and humanoids across the full level — check it constantly so you can react to abductions before they complete.
| Player 1 | Player 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Move | ↑ ↓ ← → | T G F H |
| Fire | Spacebar | A |
| Turbo | Del | . |
| RESET | F12 | |
| SELECT | F11 | |
| Pause | Alt + P | |
Tips
- Intercept Landers early. A Lander is easy to shoot while it is descending. Once it has grabbed a humanoid and is climbing, you have a narrow window to kill it before it clears the top of the screen and mutates — every Mutant you allow raises the difficulty of the wave.
- Use the scanner as your early-warning system. Most of the level extends beyond what is visible on screen. The scanner strip tells you where Landers are converging on humanoids; break off to intercept before an abduction completes.
- Keep moving. Hovering in one spot invites fire from multiple directions. A constant, weaving flight path makes you much harder to hit as wave difficulty increases.
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