Protector SE Questions

[Mendon]

Playing Protector SE at the moment and enjoying it alot, even though I'm terrible at it. Playing it raised some questions and hopefully someone can enlighten me:

 

A) Wasn't the original Protector a Synapse release? Thought I had it for the 8bit but after a quick search thru my collection to check it out I didn't find it.

 

B) Knowing Atari's fondness for suing (i.e. K.C. Munchkin), how was it that this game wasn't in trouble since it seems to be for all intents and purposes a very close duplicate of Defender? Was it because it was for the computer and Atari was more interested in protecting its video game systems?

 

C) In the manual, some of the enemies have the same names as in Defender (Baiters, etc); was this the way the were named in the original Protector game or did Carl change the names to these when he put the Jag Protector manual together?

 

D) The manual says that there is a difficulty selection in the Options menu; I didn't see this. Was it dropped from the SE version to make room for the BJL option?

 

Anyway, a great and fun game and a very nice job by Carl and all the Songbird people.

 

Thanks in advance for any responses.

 

Mendon

[oesii]

Here's some screens from the original Synapse release:

 

http://atari.games.free.fr/atarixl/game_in...rotector&lang=e

 

and you can download it here:

 

http://people.freenet.de/mrbacardi/Mastertronic5.html

 

 

That's all I know about the original, I've played Protector 2 on the C64 for a bit but never really got into the Atari port, yet

 

edit: actually those first screen don't look like the Atari 8bit port of the game, it really came out for all the popular systems at the time, C64, Atari, Speccy ZX, etc.

[oesii]

whoops, that's the Masteronic game Protector with a 1989 release

 

Here's the original Synapse game (attached)

protecter__1981__synapse__osb_.zip

[atarifan49]

Protector for the Jaguar only happens to share a title name with the Atari 8bit version. The two games are different and not related AFAIK.

 

Atari did license the game from Midway / Williams (Defender 2000). But I don't know if they were working on an old license that was contracted during the Warner days of Atari or if they re-licensed the game for the Jaguar and allowed 3rd party Jaguar developers to use the license too.

 

Kinda weird relationship they also had with Atari Games with the agreement they had to share game titles and such.

 

Glenn

[Songbird]

A. Protector was originally an 8-bit game many years back. Bethesda Softworks (now ZeniMax?) purchased the company,and thus rights to games such as Protector, about ten years ago IIRC. So Protector is related to the original game -- in fact, the little guys running around are the exact same animation!

 

B. No idea, except from what I've heard the original Protector had several differences, like rescuing humanoids and dropping them off at bases, new enemies, bosses, etc. But obviously very close in theme.

 

C. Believe it or not, I didn't realize any of the names corresponded to Defender names! So call it accidental.

 

D. Correct, the Difficulty option was dropped for the SE release.

 

Thanks for the kind words, and I'm glad so many people have enjoyed Protector!

[atarifan49]

A. Protector was originally an 8-bit game many years back. Bethesda Softworks (now ZeniMax?) purchased the company,and thus rights to games such as Protector, about ten years ago IIRC. So Protector is related to the original game -- in fact, the little guys running around are the exact same animation!

 

B. No idea, except from what I've heard the original Protector had several differences, like rescuing humanoids and dropping them off at bases, new enemies, bosses, etc. But obviously very close in theme.

 

C. Believe it or not, I didn't realize any of the names corresponded to Defender names! So call it accidental.

 

D. Correct, the Difficulty option was dropped for the SE release.

 

Thanks for the kind words, and I'm glad so many people have enjoyed Protector!

 

 

Carl, thank you for clarifying that. I stand corrected.

 

Had no idea that they bought the rights to the old Synapse game (or was it done by a third party and Synpapse was only the publisher). Never really did play the 8bit Protector (or Protector II) much.

 

And thank you for acquiring this version and saving it from extinction. It's good to have a more playable version of Defender.

 

Glenn

[Mendon]

Thank You very much for the info, Carl!!! Much appreciated!

 

Out of curiosity, from the time you obtained the rights to Protector until its release, how long did it take to finish the game? What was the hardest part of it?

 

The only programming I've ever done is Atari 8bit type-in programs from Antic & Analog , but I've always been interested in reading/learning how others do it.

 

Thanks again for the info and the GREAT game, Carl!

 

Mendon

[Songbird]

I acquired the game sometime late in 1998, then it took me a full year to finish it. Then in early 2001 I decided there were many things I needed to fix or improve in Protector, especially the gameplay difficulty -- I didn't realize how hard Protector would be for the typical game player!

 

What was the hardest part? Just learning the game itself! It's incredibly challenging to take someone else's code you've never seen, and learn it from top to bottom. I had to fix several bugs in the game, both in 68k and GPU code, so I understood pretty much the entire game engine by the time I was done with the original Protector updates.

 

Making new levels was probably the easiest, thanks to a nice scripting process. But still very time consuming...

 

BTW, I did a full interview on Protector/SE for Jungle Guide #1, and this article also contains all the cheats and hidden pics available in Prot SE, except for one which shall currently remain secret.

[Mendon]

Again, Thanks for the reply, Carl!! Very interesting reading.

 

I'll have to dig out my Jungle Guide again and re-read the interview to refresh my memory on this. I read #1 on the flight back from CGE-03 and enjoyed it immensely. Looking forward to Jungle Guide #2.

 

Any upcoming Jag releases coming from Songbird?

 

Mendon

[Songbird]

Yes, but nothing I can speak of currently. And probably nothing for the next 4-5 months, that's just how busy life is for me these days... although I could mention that Jungle Guide 2 is progressing nicely, and could be available as early as March. We'll see.

[Mendon]

Anyone have any tips for the Meteorites? I just saw them on my screen for the first time (only had two lives) and they took me out pretty fast.

 

Any hints / tips?

 

Mendon

[Mendon]

Yes, but nothing I can speak of currently. And probably nothing for the next 4-5 months, that's just how busy life is for me these days... although I could mention that Jungle Guide 2 is progressing nicely, and could be available as early as March. We'll see.

 

Please post when JG #2 is ready, Carl as I'll be ordering one up.

 

Thanks!

 

Mendon

[kevincal]

Anyone have any tips for the Meteorites? I just saw them on my screen for the first time (only had two lives) and they took me out pretty fast.

 

Any hints / tips?

 

Mendon

 

Yes, save about 3 shields atleast to use in that part, and also watch the radar to see where the asteroids arent falling, and warping a lot helps.

[Mendon]

Thanks much for the info, Kev!! I'll give it a shot and see if I can make it past this stage.

 

Didn't even know this part of the game was coming; took me totally by surprise. At first I tried to shoot them and lost one of my two lives in the misguided attempt. So I got back to them and tried just avoiding them but they hit me quickly anyhoot. Last life gone.

 

Thanks again!

 

Mendon

[kevincal]

Thanks much for the info, Kev!! I'll give it a shot and see if I can make it past this stage.

 

Didn't even know this part of the game was coming; took me totally by surprise. At first I tried to shoot them and lost one of my two lives in the misguided attempt. So I got back to them and tried just avoiding them but they hit me quickly anyhoot. Last life gone.

 

Thanks again!

 

Mendon

 

No problem man. I got pummeled as well the first few times I reached the asteroids. Just wait until you get to levels 20-30... I'm currently in the 30's where the enemies blend in with the environment. It's tough but quite the adrenaline rush.