Stargate

aka: Defender II, Stargate: The Arcade Superstar!
Moby ID: 5952

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Arcade version of Stargate appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Developer commentary

Eugene Jarvis, creator of both Defender and its sequel Stargate, says that although the gameplay and coding of Stargate is more refined, he prefers the relative simplicity of the original Defender.

[Source: Retro Gamer Magazine, Load 55]

Title

Defender II is also known as Stargate. Williams determined that the game's name infringed on an existing trademark (apparently for a board game), and the name was changed.

Despite Williams' assertions, though, the game's name was not changed immediately after the arcade release. The disc reveals that Williams programmers had to go to Atari to reprogram the title screen for the already-finished 2600 version... the problem is, the game was in release as Stargate for the 2600 later in the year - the Defender II variant didn't show up in stores until 1988. Unless the 2600 game was programmed and released at the same time as the arcade game, Williams' timeline is faulty.

Awards

  • Retro Gamer Magazine
    • (Issue 46) - #12 in a β€œTop 25 Atari 2600” Games pollInformation also contributed by Robert Morgan

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Trivia contributed by PCGamer77, Alaka, FatherJack.