I. QUICK START
==============
Press F1 to start a 1 player game.
Press F2 to start a 2 player game.
Keyboard controls are:
UP D FIRE L
DOWN C SMART BOMB S
THRUST M REVERSE SPACE
HYPERSPACE F
Joystick and Joypad (Jagpad compatible) controllers may be used, if
configured via the setup (F4) menu.
II. PLAYING DEFENDER
====================
DEFENDER
--------
The aim of the game is to defend the ASTRONAUTS on the planet surface.
LANDERs will try to pick them up, and if a LANDER gets to the top of
the screen with an ASTRONAUT, the LANDER will transform into a MUTANT
and aggressively attack you.
If you kill a LANDER carrying an ASTRONAUT, the ASTRONAUT will fall.
An ASTRONAUT can survive a short fall, but will die from a high fall. You
can catch an ASTRONAUT as it falls, and place them safely back on
the ground.
If all ASTRONAUTS are lost, the planet explodes and all LANDERs transform
into MUTANTS and attack you.
BOMBers plant MINES as they fly by, but do not shoot. Avoid the MINES!
PODs are benign until shot, at which point they burst a flock of SWARMERs,
which will attack you.
Work quickly to kill all the aliens, as if you take too long, UFOs will
spawn and attack.
SHIP CONTROLS
-------------
The arcade controls for your ship are UP and DOWN, THRUST to move forward,
and REVERSE to change direction.
With a joystick or joypad, LEFT and RIGHT are used instead of THRUST
and REVERSE, and your ship will turn to face the direction you move
the joystick.
If you find yourself overwhelmed and need to escape, you can use the
HYPERSPACE key, which will transport you away to another part of the
planet. HYPERSPACE is dangerous, and there is a chance that your ship
will explode when you use it. It is a last resort!
OFFENSE
-------
Your primary weapon is your LASER, fired using the FIRE control. The
LASER will take care of an enemy in your ship's line-of-sight.
A limited number of SMART BOMBs are provided, which will destroy all
enemies on the screen. Use them wisely.
SCORING AND BONUSES
-------------------
Point are scored for killing enemies, and 250 or 500 point bonuses are
awarded for saving captured ASTRONAUTS.
Every 10,000 points you earn a new ship and a new SMART BOMB.
HIGH SCORES
-----------
Two high score tables are maintained:
"Today's Greatest" shows the best scores since the program was loaded.
"All Time Greatest" shows the best scores recorded on the game disk.
If a new high score is good enough to make it onto the All Time list,
then the new high score table may be saved to the game disk. This can
be done via the SETUP menus, or, if configured, automatically as soon
as the high-score is entered.
III. CONFIGURATION
==================
The SETUP screen is entered using the F4 key. The following configuration
menu tree is presented:
1. Configure Settings
1. Configure Controls
1. Change Controller
2. Change Key Bindings
3. Restore Defaults
2. Configure Options
1. Auto-Save High Scores
2. Setup Menu Font
3. Change Directory
4. Save Config
5. Load Config
6. Reset All Config
2. Manage High Scores
1. Save High Scores
2. Load High Scores
3. Reset High Scores
1. Configure Settings
---------------------
Game controls and settings may be modified using these menus.
1.1. Configure Controls
-----------------------
The game may be played with:
- Keyboard
- Joystick
- Jagpad or compatible (if avail.)
The available controller options are cycled using:
1. Change Controller
Once a controller is selected, the key bindings will be shown on the
screen, and can be changed using:
2. Change Key Bindings
Once Change Key Bindings has been selected, you will be prompted to
press a key (or joypad button) for each available control input.
To restore the default key bindings for the currently selected controller,
use:
3. Restore Defaults
1.2. Configure Options
----------------------
When a new high score is entered, the high-score table can be
automatically saved to disk using the Auto-Save High Scores option,
which is toggled using:
1. Auto-Save High Scores
The default for this is OFF. When OFF, high scores may be manually saved
using the Save High Scores menu item under the Manage High Scores menu.
Menus are displayed in the original Defender font. This can be a little
hard to read, so another font - the Atari 8-Bit font, may be selected
using the Setup Menu Font toggle:
2. Setup Menu Font
3. Change Directory
-------------------
The current TOS drive/directory can be changed using this option. This
can be useful for copying the config or high-score files from another
disk or directory.
4. Save Config
5. Load Config
--------------
Configuration changes may be saved to disk, or re-loaded from disk using
these options.
Files are loaded and saved from the current GEMDOS drive/folder, under
the filename DEFENDER.CFG
6. Reset All Config
-------------------
All configuration, including controller and key bindings, may be reset
back to default with this option.
2. Manage High Scores
---------------------
These menus let you load, save, and reset the High Score Table.
The high score table may be saved to disk using:
1. Save High Scores
The current GEMDOS drive/directory is used, with the filename
DEFENDER.HST.
The high score table may be loaded using:
2. Load High Scores
Finally, the high score table may be reset back to defaults using:
3. Reset High Scores
Note: Upon selecting Reset High Scores, the new high score table is not
automatically saved to disk even if auto-saving has been enabled in the
Configure Settings menu.