#12: Defender (1980, Williams Electronics)

Games began to become more complicated in the 1980s, as we saw with Battle Zone and its 3D environment. But Williams knew they could step it up even further. Gamers were ready for more challenge. They were ready for more buttons. They were ready to be able to fire more than one shot at a time...thank God for that.

And so we got Defender, another one of those games most people have played and loved. Defender holds the distinction of being both one of the first really complex games and for being hard as hell. For once, you're not just blasting enemies - you've got a job to do. Defending the people of your planet successfully earns you more rewards than just going on a murderous rampage. What's more, if you fail to keep the planet safe the game punishes you by making it more difficult to reach high scores and by bombarding you with difficult enemies.

Defender is one of those games that still stands up today. The controls are a little archaic and take some getting used to - the fact that you have to push a button to turn around is really irritating as a modern gamer, for instance - but the game itself is still plenty of fun. Defender spawned a variety of sequels, most notably Stargate (or Defender II) and even a PS2 remake.

The version of Defender I played was emulated in MAME.