Defender Geneology

1980 - Defender - Protect the world from alien invaders who want to do more than just kill the world's inhabitants.

1981 - Stargate - This quickly-introduced arcade sequel features more aliens and even more challenging gameplay, but also offers a few new tricks to players in their fight against the invasion. Stargate is also known as Defender II.

1989 - Revenge of Defender - Created by Epyx, this non-arcade sequel put several new spins on the Defender story. Different levels include defending a computer against a virus attack, defending a forest against an infestation of insects, and of course, more aliens.

1995 - Defender 2000 - Jeff Minter followed his critically acclaimed Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar with this, another quasi-sequel, quasi-remake with a "2000" in the title. The game was not as well-received as Tempest 2000, but Defender 2000 does have its share of fans.

2002 - Defender - Defender was late to the 3D remake party, but it got there eventually. This update for the Nintendo Game Cube, Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft XBox offers the predictable 3D treatment, and also adds a first-person perspective.