It’s no secret that the Atari 2600 port of Defender sucks. Thankfully, though, the 2600 has a saviour in form of Defender II, the much better sequel.

Programmed by Bob Polaro and first published by Atari, Inc. in 1981, Defender is a classic side-scrolling shooter – one of the earliest of its type – and one that certainly ignited arcades when it first came out. The Atari 2600 version is a flickery mess, with gameplay that barely resembles the arcade original.

So, yeah – if you want a half-decent version of Defender on the 2600, go for Defender II instead. Or look for a more recent homebrew remake.

More: Defender on Wikipedia