Defender (Red Label) 1980 Williams Mame Retro Arcade Games 

I am 52 years old.......and just the sound brings me to tears.

No matter how old I get, there will always be a place in my heart for Defender

Just the sound of this game teleports me back to the early 1980's. Great game, great memories.

I remember being a kid at the arcade and being amazed while watching people play this. This game seemed so much more epic, fast and intimidating than the other games.

One of my favorite games from that period. Going to the arcade, exchanging dollar bills for tokens, seeing your friends from school. It was a social event.

A walk down to memory lane of the '80s growing up. Hard but addicting game. One of the best of the '80s

One of the greatest arcade games ever. Thank you for bringing back good memories from our childhood

The sound designer on this game is a genius

Hours, and hours in front of this. Plus spending so many quarters. To have bragging rights. That is my score up there. Thank you from a 54 year kid. Good time back then.

I’m 54 from uk. Always struggled to get through wave 3 but watched a master at work one day in arcade on Bournemouth pier who seemed invincible! People crowded round machine in awe. Days of my youth 😌

This game was ahead of his time in graphic and sound quality. But it was very difficult to play.

The sounds alone give me chills. End of line

I was hopeless at this game, but it probably remains my favorite game ever. Spent allot of time (and coins) trying to master it - never did. Love it.

A very difficult game and very difficult controls. I spent countless quarters on this.

Arguably the first video game that required you to employ complicated tactics. An all-time classic, Top 5.

The sounds are so amazing! This and Tempest were some of my favorite games!

Thanks for the memories. This was the coolest arcade game EVER!! It was so complex, and had the best sound effects. There was a pecking order at the arcade I went to, and the older dudes would not let me play until they ran out of money. By then, it was usually about closing time, so I rarely got to play it. I must have one of these some day...

Playing Defender at the local disco in 1980 must've been so awesome.

one of the best games ever made..sound effects bar none..

Man I was 14 years old when this came out and boy was I obsessed with it or what.You can’t beat a classic like this one.

The sounds have sent my brain spinning into a bizarre nostalgia trance.

Before I even finished attack wave 2 I had already used up all my smart bombs lol.....the most exciting game I ever played, helluva fun!

Born in 1970 and this is my all time favorite arcade game, my left🕹️thumb used to be so sore from playing....😀

Just that first sound,when the game came on, I feel like a teen again, all the memories of the heart pumping thrills surrounding these games, comes flooding back to my body.🤔👍💥💥💥💥💖💥💥💖💥💖💥💓💓💓💓💓💓

Still one of the coolest games out of the 80's

Watching this video made me realize how much I really sucked at playing Defender as a kid.

I am 58 years old and I haven't heard these sounds since the 80's. Defender was my favorite game and I'm sure I put thousands of dollars worth of quarters in that game. Oh my, just the sounds are making me get younger. I am ready to jump back in right now. So many wonderful memories.... This is just great. Thank you for posting this....

Wow....I have gone back in time....Southport 1982/83 bunking off school to play this and other classics....the sounds and graphics bring it all back....life was so much easier then....thank you for the upload...

That's my childhood all over again, I wanna go back.

This is such an early 80s arcade game, you can picture this being in Flynn's arcade in Tron, the midnight black environment with the neon objects and minimalist terrains.

I spent my whole childhood trying to master this game hahah what a brilliant game

This was the game that broke me from video games. I did Battle Zone the previous year at university and when I returned from vacation it had been replaced with Defender. Two guys had already been back a week and were already competent, so I watched them instead of playing. A UK engineering course doesn't have the spare time for game playing anyway. The two Allans were expert at running the game up to 999995 and dying before it rolled over. One of them failed the year and was kicked out, the hours he spent playing can't have helped.

Beautiful. Thank you. When I played this as a young ‘un I usually ended up in awe at the graphics and the sounds and didn’t play very well at all. It’s amazing to watch someone else playing and seeing and hearing even more of this classic design, and watch a master into the bargain.

I remember when I first saw this game... James E. Strates shows, Seaside Park, Bridgeport, CT, summer 1980... it was unlike any other video game I had ever seen, even at 11 years old.....

I'm 60 and I remember the times my friends and I competed on this machine, many of those friends are now dead but it was sure a great memory maker seeing this.

This game had some of the coolest sound effects of all time

This is awesome! I played this game from 1980 to 1984. Those were fun days! Thanks for posting!

Best sound effects in an Arcade !

I remember how blown away I was by the graphics on this game.

Loved this game growing up. Some bully punk challenged me when I was 12yrs old. He was beating me and laughed at his friend half way through. I ended up having my best game ever and scored over 400K and crushed him. He walked away before the game was over mad and didn't say anything. Felt great!

Good memories. Hate to brag, but I mastered this game and had the high score in the 3 machines in our town (an Al Bundy-like boast). Once I mastered, it's the best value for 25 cents I've ever had. Of course, that was only after spending a couple hundred to get good.

The sound effects to this game are music to my ears. Love it. Lol classic but tough game to master! :-)

I was so obsessed with this game, I bought a Stargate in 1985. Still have it in my basement.

I'm 55 and feel like i've gone back in time when i see and hear this game

This game has the best sound of any game ever!

Omg.. bring me to tears... im 53 i always look whit respect a boy who can play good this difficult game.

This game gobbled up my coins. LOVED the sounds. Golden days.

999,999 was the top score. One point over and you start over. You had to die with your last life ending the game with 999,999 perfect points. The game runs were 1 or 5 hours. I could feel the game again watching the video. I knew the player was toast when he used the smart bombs too much. Once I went over 999,999 and kicked the bottom corner of the machine and the screen exploded. Mr. Nam from Vietnam was not happy, ex South Vietnamese officer. He had some good stories in the early morning hours at the 7-ELEVEN.

Wow, good memories! My middle finger was so tightly gripped to that non-ergonomic red ball of a joystick, that it got a blister! It got so bad that I had to bring one glove to the arcade, and had a scar for years after I stopped playing.

This was so awesome to watch - I felt like a teenager again.

I never could play it more than 40 seconds. Very hard to play !

this video never ever gets old! I love it to the core!

Great Well Done, Brought Back some memories of me playing this when I was 11, I am now 51, I was 11 in 1980, Wow, This was my Favourite Game, Along with Space Invaders and Pac Man, Great Playing, well done. !!!

One of the hardest games of all time some people died 30-40 sec when started playing

The visual effects of this game were well ahead of it's time. The laser from the ship.. I'm an electrical engineer now, and doing this with the memory available of the day, couldn't have been trivial and I doubt it was cheap.

One of my all time faves, hard as hell to play yet so addictive.

40 years later, and I still think this is an amazing game (Atari 800 owner).

My first game i ever bought with the atari 2600.......pure magic..... 😉

best 2D action game ever created.

Wow flashback awesome I was just a kid again for a few minutes thanks

Great memories. Great game. Fantastic sound effects. After level#6 it gets pretty difficult, with all those mutated aliens hopping about. I notice OP had to hit the "hyperspace" button a lot to get out of those swarms.

This was such a badass game

Watching this on big screen! My god, back in the day who would have thought it? Absolutely Brilliant!

This game has one of the best death explosion sounds ever.

Hearing the sound makes me smile. I spent a lot of quarters on this

I was once lauded as the Sensai master of; Tron, Lady Bug, Bomb Jack, Space invaders (most variants) then later, Descent. But I stood in awe of those few beings that could play this to an even modest level. i just crapped myself whenever those berserker attacks came at you. Too frenetic, too strategic, too darned tough. But i loved it. The sounds are just brilliant. thx to the team behind this.

OMG! Has it really been 40+ years?!? I remember binge playing this game on the Ocean City, New Jersey boardwalk during summer break from college! The sound effects are fantastic! They sound really good in this video on high-def headphones! 👍👾

one of the finest and hardest games ever!

I'm 55 y.o. ....this was the coolest arcade game when it came out...the sounds were out of this world...I used to play in the arcade room lower level at NYC Pennsylvania Station....ah what memories

3:55 Always LOVED the sound of getting a new ship at the end of a wave, what a trip!

The intro gives me chills! 😳

You played a great game. And that was an excellent strategy as well!!

An all time classic!

I played this game exclusively at Midtown Bowl in LA ! Beyond hooked on Defender by Williams !

Outstanding, you sir are a master of your craft, very happy memories.

Its been 40 years since l played Defenders. Rico's Pizza Parlor Elkhorn Blvd Foothill Farms CA. One of the greatest arcade games EVER!

the full size cab of this was bright and very impressive to look at, and fun play even though it was much older than the other systems by 1990

6:00 that saucer thing won’t stop getting you.🛸

My wife just came in to ask why I was yelling "Smart Bomb, Smart Bomb"

I couldn't remember the name of this game but I found it here on RU-vid. It's one of my favorite arcade games as a kid!👍👍😊

8:14 It was right about here I would start abusing the game.... This is one hell of a player..

Love this game. There are few things this player didn't do like use a smart bomb on those cluster bombs at the beginning and not dropping the people down on a planet when you only have a few more enemies to kill. Those will net you a lot of points that will almost give you an extra player and a smart bomb each time. I need to get me one of these game one day and relive my childhood.

Loved this game. 11 in 1980 perfect time to go to arcades and spend 25 cents a game. This player was patient and good pilot. The smart bomb is your friend.

Loved this game, used to watch the local hoodlums play it all day with 2 quarters. I sucked at it. Sounds bring back lots of great memories. This upload is very high quality, thanks for posting.

when in doubt SMARTBOMB!!!

I didn't play this much back in the day -- it was far too difficult and I never felt as though I was getting my "10p's worth" compared with other games like Phoenix or Moon Cresta that I could play for longer. But those sound effects! The bass thump as the Landers explode, and the drawn-out fade of the player ship's demise still sound amazing.

The Holy grail of Arcade video games

Man, I love the 80's Williams Electronics arcade games. This and Robotron:2084 were always kicking the crap out of me as a kid, but I loved them anyway.

love this game i am 56 played this after school............

The sound is just so beautiful. 80's on 8 (Sirius XM plays this between songs on occasion.

Every Friday night at the Dream Machine at the mall 1981 1982 somewhere around there, it was the best time to be a teen. Times were so laid back no computers no cellphones and some of the best music.

the best sound design of any game, ever.

I shudder to think of the hundreds of dollars worth of quarters I shoved into that freakin' game back when I was in high school. There was a Defender machine at a restaurant across the street from my Dad's shop and I would go there every chance I would get to play that game during the summer when I would help him out at the shop. SMH....memories...

The times we had no.ps4 xbox man those were the best times miss my old Atari 🎮🕹

That sound at 1.19 just sends be back to high school. God I loved this game.

This looks way better than the home console. I’ve never seen it like this. Awesome.

One of my favorites when I was young. Never could get good at it, though. Nice to see someone who is.

Greatest game of all time ! ! !...

Oh the sound gives me goosebumps and transports me back to 80s 🤪

Wow, great memories of my teen years clocking this game at my local arcade and the owner pulling the plug because he thought I was cheating.