That's an extremely uneven frame rate on the CoCo version! Nice catch on how different each version of the game is; I've seen that happen across 2 or 3 versions of a game before, but never for 5 platforms at once. Being able to scroll left or right freely and having people (or at least something) to rescue are the key aspects of a Defender-style game in my opinon, so I guess only the impressive TRS-80 version totally fits the bill. But I guess avoiding lawsuits is what motivated the other versions straying further from the original inspiration.
The original TRS80 version is the most Defender like game, the others seem to mash Defender with other games...except the Apple 2 version, not sure what was going on there! I believe if you do the high speed POKE on the CoCo version it smooths it out a little bit.
Yeah, the uneveness on the Coco version is the CPU busy doing sound effects (some of the tricks of using double interrupt HSYNC's, etc. hadn't been discovered yet. The Coco version also suffers from some bad hit detection. I side with both of you that the Model 1/3 version is the best of them, playwise - even though the play is quite different.
Thanks for posting this video. I have a nice TRS-80 model 4p with included speaker. Gonna play this game. Cheers ! greetings from the Netherlands. I found your video thanks to Coco Nation mail list.
Watching that was painful...
Just updated the wiki page for Alternate Reality today to add the CoCo version it was missing.
That's an extremely uneven frame rate on the CoCo version! Nice catch on how different each version of the game is; I've seen that happen across 2 or 3 versions of a game before, but never for 5 platforms at once. Being able to scroll left or right freely and having people (or at least something) to rescue are the key aspects of a Defender-style game in my opinon, so I guess only the impressive TRS-80 version totally fits the bill. But I guess avoiding lawsuits is what motivated the other versions straying further from the original inspiration.
The original TRS80 version is the most Defender like game, the others seem to mash Defender with other games...except the Apple 2 version, not sure what was going on there! I believe if you do the high speed POKE on the CoCo version it smooths it out a little bit.
Yeah, the uneveness on the Coco version is the CPU busy doing sound effects (some of the tricks of using double interrupt HSYNC's, etc. hadn't been discovered yet. The Coco version also suffers from some bad hit detection. I side with both of you that the Model 1/3 version is the best of them, playwise - even though the play is quite different.
This subject made me immediately think of Jurassic Park which has at least 5 completely different games, all with the same name, more or less.
I haven't tried any of the Jurassic Park games, now I want to!
“Eliminator in name only”
Thanks for posting this video. I have a nice TRS-80 model 4p with included speaker. Gonna play this game. Cheers ! greetings from the Netherlands. I found your video thanks to Coco Nation mail list.
It has become one of my favorite games for the Original TRS80 computers.
I have only played it on the CoCo but I like it.
It is a decent game on all the systems.
But Ken, how can you be sure there aren't 6 versions? :)
Very true! How about 5 that I know of?