Denial

Hi,

does anyone have a working copy of Star Defender that they can grab to a tap file?

The version in Gamebase and Elsewhere is Star Defence.prg from 1983. The version I am looking for is Star Defender from 1984.

I have a copy but am having load errors and difficulty converting it to tap. My copy show Star Defender.prg on the broken tap. All archived versions I have seen are Star Defence.prg

Nominally they play the same from memory but I am wondering of there is a difference at wave 10 where the Firebomber Showdown wave fails in Star defence, maybe Star Defender was a better or fixed version.

https://images.app.goo.gl/GRgMNXBtvvsgR31J9

I will keep trying my version for now but any help greatly appreciated.

Does anyone have the black tape version Star Defender ?

The one for sale at Retrogames seems to be a hybrid with the blue and white label

https://www.retrogames.co.uk/031801/Com ... -by-Anirog

Yes, I already emailed him. He is checking.

I have both but Star Defender is not playing ball and loading

Might have to turn monitor off and tape upside down and stand on one leg.

Vic20-Ian wrote: ↑Tue Jan 26, 2021 11:29 am Might have to turn monitor off and tape upside down and stand on one leg.

So you used to do that, too?

Have you tried leaving the room, and just peeking round the door occasionally so it doesn't see you. I'm convinced that used to work for me

I think this copy is beyond saving.

One side fails with out of memory error and the other side finds Star Defender fails to load and clicks off the tape.

The 16K game fits on a 44 tape count tape so I think it turbo loads at twice the speed. Star defence is about 92 counts iirc.

On the plus side I have found another copy for sale and purchased it.

I have grabbed wav files of the tape if anyone has tools to try and clean it up otherwise I will try the next copy.

New copy arrived today and has been archived to TAP file and working with Vice 2.4

Next steps to extract it to prg and single file if possible then compare with Star Defence.

Many thanks to Ola for his Anirog archiving program and help over the last few days.

Star Defender was archived to TAP yesterday and to PRG today and sent to Mayhem for Gamebase.

Part of a mystery that bugged me a little for 35 Years was solved tonight but more questions result....

The gameplay on Star Defender (1984) Wave 10 - Firebomber Showdown was identical to that on Star Defence (1983)

I played tonight and managed to warp from Wave 1 to Wave 4 then from Wave 6 to Wave 9 and then played through to wave 16 with lots of bonus smart bombs. Score was about 107000 at the end. What a rush!

Wave 10 Aliens were still sadly missing so I conclude that it probably is rebadged and the same game by Kingsoft.

If anybody knows the coders at Kingsoft I would be interest to speak with them about the game as it is so playable on the Vic20 even 35 years later.

If you have not played it there are lots of elements to this Defender II / Stargate clone.

@ Selects 1-4 players on the front screen
*** F5 is the best key - on the start screen it warbles or produces 3 beeps - this determines standard or hyperspeed gameplay
F1 starts the game


Q Up
Z Down
S Reverse
Del Accelerate
F1 Shoot
F3 is the Radar Map
Smart bombs on Return
Hyperspace on Spacebar
Invisibility on Shift

3 Resets the game if you have a bad start
7 adds loads of UFOs, possibly a test mode
F7 pauses, C continues

Save 4 people and warp 3 levels via the stargate is a great tip
Kill all the people and the planet explodes and you are in dark space until you clear a 5th or 10th wave and redeem yourself.

What a truly outstanding game, thank you Kingsoft and Anirog.


Disk with Star Defence, Star Defender and Star Defence hacked by Miklos.

Tap Original Star Defender

Great job! Thanks for that, very fun to play indeed.