Stargate (video game)
Encyclopedia
Stargate is an arcade game
released in 1981 by Williams Electronics. Created by Eugene Jarvis
, it is a sequel to the 1980 game Defender, and was the first of only three productions from Vid Kidz
, an independent development house formed by Jarvis and Larry DeMar
. This video game has no connection to the subsequent Stargate
franchise that began 13 years later.
, Williams wanted to "make sure they could own the trademark" on the Defender name). The name Defender II has been used on all of its home ports, and game compilation appearances, however there were never any Defender II arcade units. To complicate matters, the Atari 2600
port was originally sold under the Stargate moniker but was renamed to Defender II for a later re-release.
This sequel adds new enemy ships to the alien fleet such as firebombers, Yllabian Space Guppies (note that Yllabian is based on "Yllab", the word "Bally" spelled backwards, a friendly poke at Williams' then-competitor, Bally Midway), Dynamos and Space Hums. The Defender ship is now equipped with an Inviso cloaking device, which renders the ship invulnerable when activated, but has a limited charge. A Stargate will transport the ship to any humanoid in trouble. There are now two special stages, the Firebomber Showdown and the Yllabian Dogfight, that occur every fifth and tenth wave. As in the first game, if all the humans are captured the planet explodes and turns all the landers into mutants.
The game is much harder than its predecessor, though world-class players such as Wes Simonds, Bill Fye, and Charles Warrell are all known to have scored over five million under strictly-controlled tournament conditions. Under in-the-field conditions, it was observed that a Gary Treistman of Woodstock, NY achieved a score of 12 million+ after 6.5 hours of play, at the New Paltz SUNY College in 1983 as part of a $20 bet.
above a long, mountain
ous landscape. The land is inhabited by a small number of human
oids. The landscape wraps around
, so flying constantly in one direction will eventually bring the player back to their starting point. The players ship can fly through the landscape without being destroyed.
A number of enemy ships fly over the landscape. The player's responsibilities are twofold:
The player is armed with a beam-like weapon which can be fired rapidly in a long horizontal line ahead of the spaceship, and also has a limited supply of smart bomb
s, which can destroy every enemy on the screen. The player also has a limited supply of "Inviso" cloaking energy, which makes the ship invisible, and able to destroy any ships it comes in contact with.
At the top of the screen is a radar
-like scanner, which displays the positions of all aliens and humans on the landscape.
There are fifteen types of aliens in total:
Once all aliens (except Space Hums, Baiters, Phreds, Big Reds and Munchies) are destroyed, the player progresses to the next level.
To rescue a Humanoid from capture, the player must kill the Lander holding it while it is in the air, causing the Humanoid to drop. At low height Humanoids can survive the drop on their own, but if the Lander is killed at too high an altitude, the player must catch the Humanoid with their ship and return him to the ground, otherwise he will not survive the drop. A player's ship can carry as many Humanoids as are alive on that level.
The Humanoids can be killed by the player's weapon just as easily as the aliens can, so careful aim is required when firing near them.
If all Humanoids are killed, the entire planet explodes, leaving the player in empty space. This also has the unfortunate effect of turning every Lander into a Mutant, making the player's job very difficult.
Every time the player completes 5 waves of enemies (i.e. at wave 6, 11, 16 and so forth), the planet (and all its 10 Humanoids) is restored.
By default, the player receives an extra life, smart bomb, and Inviso energy every 10,000 points. This amount can be overridden when the machine is in maintenance mode.
arcade game. It has a joystick to move up and down, a 'Reverse' button to toggle the player's horizontal direction, and a 'Thrust' button to move in that direction. There is also a Fire button for shooting, a button to activate a smart bomb, a button to turn on the Inviso cloaking device, and a hyperspace
button which teleports
the player to a random position in the level, at a risk of either exploding upon rematerialization, or materializing onto an enemy or enemy projectile.
If a Lander is in the process of abducting a Humanoid, flying into the Stargate will teleport the ship to where the Humanoid is under attack. If more than one Humanoid is being captured, the ship will be taken to the Lander that is closest to the top of the screen. Otherwise, entering the Stargate will teleport the ship to the opposite side of the planet.
If the ship is carrying at least four humanoids, entering the Stargate will "warp" the game ahead a number of levels. This allows more advanced players to skip the easier lower levels and also get a great number of points, extra lives, smart bombs and inviso energy. Warping is only allowed in the first 10 levels and can be avoided (if desired) by flying into the Stargate in reverse so a player can instead continue in the current level.
The original enemies are now known as "The Irata." Irata is the name of Williams competitor Atari
spelled backwards. One of the other new enemies is also named after a competitor, "Yllabian Space Guppies." Bally Midway was a major competitor with Williams in both the videogame and pinball markets. Another new enemy is the "Dynamo," which breaks into several small "Space Hums." This is in homage to the song Dinah-Moe Humm by Frank Zappa
. Three new arrivals, "Phreds," "Big Reds," and "Munchies," vaguely resemble Pac-Man
, a game released in the U.S. by Bally.
The Immortals on the High Scores page has factory defaults that are demonstrative of various information. The #1 high score is held by the fictitious "Phred Williams" with 102181 points, indicative of the game's release date of October 21, 1981. The #2 and #3 high scores are held by "VID" and "KID" respectively, indicative of the Vid Kidz
software development studio. The #6 high score is held by "LED", indicative of Vid Kidz co-founder Lawrence E. DeMar
. The #9 high score is held by "EPJ", indicative of Vid Kidz co-founder Eugene Jarvis
. Other high scores include other developers on the project, such as "SAM" at #7 for Sam Dicker, and "PGD" at #12 for Paul Dussault.
licensed Defender II, along with other Williams Electronics games, to Shockwave for use in an online applet to demonstrate the power of the Shockwave web content platform, entitled Shockwave Arcade Collection. The conversion was created by Digital Eclipse. It is currently not freely available to be played within the shockwave web applet.
It also should be noted that the music from Punchout (1987) for the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System
, borrowed some music and sound effects from the 1983 Famicom version of Stargate (later released as Defender II in 1988 by Hal for the Nintendo Entertainment System). For example, the music played when the game begins is a longer version of the entrance music of the Little Mac's opponents. Also, after completing a stage, during the intermission screen between waves, the music played is the same as the screen after Mac loses a match.
, in which it was referred to as "Stargate Defender". Eugene Jarvis, the game's creator, had a role on the episode as "Delivery Guy #3".
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
released in 1981 by Williams Electronics. Created by Eugene Jarvis
Eugene Jarvis
Eugene Peyton Jarvis is a game designer and programmer, known for producing pinball machines for Atari and video games for Williams Electronics. Most notable amongst his works are the seminal arcade video games Defender and Robotron: 2084 in the early 1980s, and the Cruis'n series of driving games...
, it is a sequel to the 1980 game Defender, and was the first of only three productions from Vid Kidz
Vid Kidz
Vid Kidz was a video game developer formed in February 1981 by Defender programmers Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar, following their departure from Williams Electronics. Eventually, Williams made a deal with Vid Kidz to design games for them....
, an independent development house formed by Jarvis and Larry DeMar
Larry DeMar
Lawrence E. DeMar is a video game and pinball designer and software programmer. He is known as one of the co-designers of the classic arcade game Defender ....
. This video game has no connection to the subsequent Stargate
Stargate
Stargate is a adventure military science fiction franchise, initially conceived by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The first film in the franchise was simply titled Stargate. It was originally released on October 28, 1994, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco, and became a hit, grossing nearly...
franchise that began 13 years later.
Legal issues
The game is also known as Defender Stargate and Defender II. The latter name was used in home video game releases, due to legal issues (according to the bonus material for Midway Arcade TreasuresMidway Arcade Treasures
Midway Arcade Treasures is a collection of 24 arcade games developed by Digital Eclipse and released by Midway for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC....
, Williams wanted to "make sure they could own the trademark" on the Defender name). The name Defender II has been used on all of its home ports, and game compilation appearances, however there were never any Defender II arcade units. To complicate matters, the Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
port was originally sold under the Stargate moniker but was renamed to Defender II for a later re-release.
This sequel adds new enemy ships to the alien fleet such as firebombers, Yllabian Space Guppies (note that Yllabian is based on "Yllab", the word "Bally" spelled backwards, a friendly poke at Williams' then-competitor, Bally Midway), Dynamos and Space Hums. The Defender ship is now equipped with an Inviso cloaking device, which renders the ship invulnerable when activated, but has a limited charge. A Stargate will transport the ship to any humanoid in trouble. There are now two special stages, the Firebomber Showdown and the Yllabian Dogfight, that occur every fifth and tenth wave. As in the first game, if all the humans are captured the planet explodes and turns all the landers into mutants.
The game is much harder than its predecessor, though world-class players such as Wes Simonds, Bill Fye, and Charles Warrell are all known to have scored over five million under strictly-controlled tournament conditions. Under in-the-field conditions, it was observed that a Gary Treistman of Woodstock, NY achieved a score of 12 million+ after 6.5 hours of play, at the New Paltz SUNY College in 1983 as part of a $20 bet.
Gameplay
The player flies a small spaceshipSpacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
above a long, mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
ous landscape. The land is inhabited by a small number of human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
oids. The landscape wraps around
Wraparound (Video Games)
Wraparound, in video games, is a gameplay variation on the single-screen in which space is finite but unbounded; objects leaving one side of the screen immediately reappear on the opposite side, maintaining speed and trajectory...
, so flying constantly in one direction will eventually bring the player back to their starting point. The players ship can fly through the landscape without being destroyed.
A number of enemy ships fly over the landscape. The player's responsibilities are twofold:
- Destroy all aliens
- Protect the humans from being captured
The player is armed with a beam-like weapon which can be fired rapidly in a long horizontal line ahead of the spaceship, and also has a limited supply of smart bomb
Smart bomb
Smart bomb has several meanings:* In weapons, a smart bomb is a precision-guided munition* Smart Bomb Interactive, a video game development studio based in Salt Lake City, Utah...
s, which can destroy every enemy on the screen. The player also has a limited supply of "Inviso" cloaking energy, which makes the ship invisible, and able to destroy any ships it comes in contact with.
At the top of the screen is a radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
-like scanner, which displays the positions of all aliens and humans on the landscape.
Aliens
- Lander - The primary enemy on every level. Landers teleport into the level in staggered waves, and attempt to capture humanoids by descending upon them and dragging them into the air; if they make it to the top of the screen with a human, the two fuse together into a more dangerous Mutant. Landers can fire projectiles at the player.
- Mutant - A mutated Lander. Mutants home in on the player at constant speed, firing projectiles. They move erratically, making them difficult to shoot.
- Baiter - A flat, iridescent spacecraft that teleports in if the player is taking too long to complete a level. Homes in on the player and attempts to match their speed, whilst firing accurate projectiles. A difficult opponent due to its unbeatable speed and tiny horizontal cross-section, which makes it very hard to shoot.
- Bomber - A box-shaped alien that lays stationary mineNaval mineA naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...
s in the air. - Pod - A star-like alien that bursts into a number of Swarmers when shot.
- Swarmer - A tiny teardrop-shaped alien that moves very quickly in an undulating fashion. Difficult to shoot.
- Firebomber - A rotating variation on the Bomber, which shoots high speed Fireballs at the player.
- Yllabian Space Guppie - An undulating attacker, which attacks in swarms and homes in on the ship.
- Phreds and Big Reds - Square aliens which look like they are constantly opening and closing their mouths. Similar to the Firebombers, they launch tiny versions of themselves called Munchies.
- Dynamos - Diamond shaped ships composed of clusters of Space Hums, which periodically break off to attack the ship independently.
Once all aliens (except Space Hums, Baiters, Phreds, Big Reds and Munchies) are destroyed, the player progresses to the next level.
Humanoids
The game starts with ten Humanoids inhabiting the planet. Landers will attempt to capture and fuse with them during play.To rescue a Humanoid from capture, the player must kill the Lander holding it while it is in the air, causing the Humanoid to drop. At low height Humanoids can survive the drop on their own, but if the Lander is killed at too high an altitude, the player must catch the Humanoid with their ship and return him to the ground, otherwise he will not survive the drop. A player's ship can carry as many Humanoids as are alive on that level.
The Humanoids can be killed by the player's weapon just as easily as the aliens can, so careful aim is required when firing near them.
If all Humanoids are killed, the entire planet explodes, leaving the player in empty space. This also has the unfortunate effect of turning every Lander into a Mutant, making the player's job very difficult.
Every time the player completes 5 waves of enemies (i.e. at wave 6, 11, 16 and so forth), the planet (and all its 10 Humanoids) is restored.
Scoring
As well as the points gained by killing aliens, scores are also awarded for the following:- Humanoid falling back to the ground without dying: 250 points
- Catching a falling humanoid: 500, 1000, 1500, and 2000 points, depending on number of humanoids carried at the time.
- Returning a humanoid to the ground: 500 points
- Humanoid surviving the level: 100 points per humanoid for 1st wave, 200 per humanoid on 2nd wave up to a maximum of 500 points from 5th wave onwards
- End-of-wave humanoid bonus: If all enemies are destroyed and a humanoid is falling to the ground, the player receives a 2,000 point bonus if the ship is positioned at ground level directly under the humanoid so as to simultaneously catch the humanoid and place it back on the ground. If the player simply catches the humanoid in mid-air while above the ground, the wave ends with the player only receiving the 500 points for catching the humanoid.
By default, the player receives an extra life, smart bomb, and Inviso energy every 10,000 points. This amount can be overridden when the machine is in maintenance mode.
Controls
The control system of Stargate expands on that of the DefenderDefender (game)
Defender is an arcade video game developed released by Williams Electronics in 1980. A shooting game featuring two-dimensional graphics, the game is set on a fictional planet where the player must defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting astronauts...
arcade game. It has a joystick to move up and down, a 'Reverse' button to toggle the player's horizontal direction, and a 'Thrust' button to move in that direction. There is also a Fire button for shooting, a button to activate a smart bomb, a button to turn on the Inviso cloaking device, and a hyperspace
Hyperspace (science fiction)
Hyperspace is a plot device sometimes used in science fiction. It is typically described as an alternative region of space co-existing with our own universe which may be entered using an energy field or other device...
button which teleports
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
the player to a random position in the level, at a risk of either exploding upon rematerialization, or materializing onto an enemy or enemy projectile.
The Stargate
A central feature of the gamefield is the Stargate itself, represented by a series of concentric rectangles. The operation of the Stargate depends on the current game conditions.If a Lander is in the process of abducting a Humanoid, flying into the Stargate will teleport the ship to where the Humanoid is under attack. If more than one Humanoid is being captured, the ship will be taken to the Lander that is closest to the top of the screen. Otherwise, entering the Stargate will teleport the ship to the opposite side of the planet.
If the ship is carrying at least four humanoids, entering the Stargate will "warp" the game ahead a number of levels. This allows more advanced players to skip the easier lower levels and also get a great number of points, extra lives, smart bombs and inviso energy. Warping is only allowed in the first 10 levels and can be avoided (if desired) by flying into the Stargate in reverse so a player can instead continue in the current level.
Inside jokes
Stargate adds several new enemies to the lineup originally introduced in Defender. The names of most of the new creations are based on inside jokes.The original enemies are now known as "The Irata." Irata is the name of Williams competitor Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
spelled backwards. One of the other new enemies is also named after a competitor, "Yllabian Space Guppies." Bally Midway was a major competitor with Williams in both the videogame and pinball markets. Another new enemy is the "Dynamo," which breaks into several small "Space Hums." This is in homage to the song Dinah-Moe Humm by Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
. Three new arrivals, "Phreds," "Big Reds," and "Munchies," vaguely resemble Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
, a game released in the U.S. by Bally.
The Immortals on the High Scores page has factory defaults that are demonstrative of various information. The #1 high score is held by the fictitious "Phred Williams" with 102181 points, indicative of the game's release date of October 21, 1981. The #2 and #3 high scores are held by "VID" and "KID" respectively, indicative of the Vid Kidz
Vid Kidz
Vid Kidz was a video game developer formed in February 1981 by Defender programmers Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar, following their departure from Williams Electronics. Eventually, Williams made a deal with Vid Kidz to design games for them....
software development studio. The #6 high score is held by "LED", indicative of Vid Kidz co-founder Lawrence E. DeMar
Larry DeMar
Lawrence E. DeMar is a video game and pinball designer and software programmer. He is known as one of the co-designers of the classic arcade game Defender ....
. The #9 high score is held by "EPJ", indicative of Vid Kidz co-founder Eugene Jarvis
Eugene Jarvis
Eugene Peyton Jarvis is a game designer and programmer, known for producing pinball machines for Atari and video games for Williams Electronics. Most notable amongst his works are the seminal arcade video games Defender and Robotron: 2084 in the early 1980s, and the Cruis'n series of driving games...
. Other high scores include other developers on the project, such as "SAM" at #7 for Sam Dicker, and "PGD" at #12 for Paul Dussault.
Ports
In July 2000, MidwayMidway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
licensed Defender II, along with other Williams Electronics games, to Shockwave for use in an online applet to demonstrate the power of the Shockwave web content platform, entitled Shockwave Arcade Collection. The conversion was created by Digital Eclipse. It is currently not freely available to be played within the shockwave web applet.
It also should be noted that the music from Punchout (1987) for the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
, borrowed some music and sound effects from the 1983 Famicom version of Stargate (later released as Defender II in 1988 by Hal for the Nintendo Entertainment System). For example, the music played when the game begins is a longer version of the entrance music of the Little Mac's opponents. Also, after completing a stage, during the intermission screen between waves, the music played is the same as the screen after Mac loses a match.
Sitcom appearance
A Stargate machine is featured in an episode of the TV comedy series NewsRadioNewsRadio
NewsRadio is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from 1995 to 1999. The series was created by executive producer Paul Simms, and was filmed in front of a studio audience at CBS Studio Center and Sunset Gower Studios...
, in which it was referred to as "Stargate Defender". Eugene Jarvis, the game's creator, had a role on the episode as "Delivery Guy #3".