For use with joystick controllers
The arcade version of Defender appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Game creator Eugene Jarvis cites Space Invaders (1978) and Asteroids (1979) as major influences on the design of Defender.
In 1983, Entex adapted this video game into a board game.
Eugene Jarvis, creator of both Defender and its sequel Stargate (1981), says that although the gameplay and coding of Stargate is more refined, he prefers the relative simplicity of the original Defender.