The Williams Defender Machine!

This 1980's machine took video arcades around the world by storm. It was a complicated and challenging game with long-lasting appeal. It was also one of my favourite video games ever. I confess that I and my friends became very adept at playing for an hour or more on a single coin.

Alas you never see these games in video arcades any more - pushed aside by photo-realistic graphical gun-fests spun off from every movie licence under the Sun. Games don't have the originality and long-lasting appeal of those early 1980's games, and Defender in particular. Sigh.

For years I have been meaning to own a Defender machine before they vanish forever. I could, but they are very expensive to buy and trickier to repair and maintain... well for me anyway. There are folks out there with the electronics skills to renovate these machines.

So I decided to do the next best thing. I decided to make my own Defender machine! These pages are the story of how I intend to do so, and will document my progress. Enjoy!