Desert Defender

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Desert Defender
Desert.gif

Release type: Demo game
Release date: December 8, 1993
Levels: 1
Author: Sheldon Chase
Related games: Earth vs The Flying Saucers, Woman Warrior and the Outer Limits

Desert Defender is the meeting point of Sheldon Chase's earlier Earth vs The Flying Saucers and his later Woman Warrior series. It has the same Defender-inspired design as Earth (made all the more overt by the game's title), but transplanted onto the same tilted grid that would later form the desert in Woman Warrior and the Outer Limits.

Although in its basic mechanics Desert Defender actually plays less like its namesake than Earth -- movement is limited to the tilted plane; you're constantly moving right and can only slow down or speed up -- thematically it's right on target. As you zoom around, blasting giant ants and crystalline monoliths, you will come across the odd survivor, asking for help. Collect the survivors and drop them off at way stations.

DesertMons.gif

Although there are plenty of mechanisms and intriguing details, there is no actual object to Desert Defender, as the game consists entirely of a single level with no way out. Perhaps the idea is just to rack up as high a score as possible before game over, which is fair enough. The natural assumption is that rescuing enough hostages will open a gateway to the next mission, and it's a little disappointing that this doesn't happen. As neat as the desert landscape is, with all its surreal furniture, one can only do so many laps before asking for more.

Were there more to the game, Desert Defender would be a real classic. As it is, it's kind of neat.

Story[edit]

Desertshot.png

Rescue humans and carry them to safety.

DefenderShip.gif

Shoot flying saucers, giant ants, and monoliths.

Instructions[edit]

  • Right arrow or joystick right: Move faster right
  • Left arrow or joystick left: slow down or backup
  • Up arrow or joystick up: Move up landscape
  • Down arrow or joystick down: Move down
  • Space bar or joystick trigger: shoot

Credits[edit]

by Sheldon Chase

Created with Game-Maker by Recreational Software Designs

Availability[edit]

This game was distributed to Game-Maker Exchange members on a 3.5" floppy labeled "Gameware Disk #1" (December 30th, 1993).

It also seems to have been made available on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs. More precise details TBD.

Archive History[edit]

Desert Defender was introduced to the archive with the distribution of the December 30th 1993 floppy exchange. It was then lost in the mid-late 1990s, during repeated data migration. The game was then returned to the archive on February 24th 2011, during a discussion with Gary Acord.

Links[edit]

Downloads[edit]