Defender was created by a company that was, up to that time, much more known for its pinball machines than electronic arcade machines. In 1974, Williams released its first arcade game, Paddle-Ball, and acquired Magnavox’s Magnetic Corporation of America. The Pong craze proved to be a flash in the pan, and the company abandoned video games shortly thereafter. Williams prospered in the the exploding electronic pinball market of the 1970’s. However, when video game mania hit with the release of Space Invaders in 1978 and Asteroids in ‘79, it was clear that the future of the arcade was with video games, and pinball’s star would fade.
For more about Defender, please read my FAQ at: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/arcade/584162-de- fender/faqs/25139
I had the honor and privilege of talking to Eugene Jarvis, the creator and programmer of Defender.
Old School Gamer (OSG): How did you first get involved with computers?
Eugene Jarvis (EJ): I grew up in Silicon Valley. As a kid, I was into chess, Stratego, pinball and the early video games like Pong. I also liked to ride my bike over to Stanford. I would check out the AI lab and play what was the first arcade video game at the student Union.
It was called the Galaxy Game which was a derivative of Spacewar!. The Galaxy Game was the first commercial arcade video game and it was in its own cool space-age cabinet. This was back in 1971. It was also during this me, in high school, that I had my first exposure to FORTRAN – to continue reading click here
