As a kid at that time, I remember seeing Defender appear at the local pizza place. At one point, that little corner arcade had a Defender, Asteroids, PAC Man, and eventually a Star Wars cabinet.

Defender was a stand out experience. At that time, there was nothing like it.

Needless to say, getting pizza was amazing! We, friends and I, would wolf it down and run off to dump the money we saved and whatever we could mooch from the always intrigued, and somewhat confused adults at the table.

Curiously, one remarked to the effect of the pizza being a side show with the real money going into beer and games. I do not recall them playing much, content to drink and enjoy our antics.

The very first time I saw Defender, a friend and I had been studying the games, reading about graphics, and thought it was something special just from attract mode. Good resolution for the time, color cycling, 16 colors, and the motion spoke to something intense.

Of course it totally was!

Those sounds pumped out of a respectable amp, lots of bass, and bang on clarity were the kind of experience one does not forget. Same goes for the visuals. That particular cabinet was not totally new. It has seen some love.

All combined, little bits of dust on the CRT, great, worked in controls, other artifacts one would see from a machine seeing consistent and aggressive plays, the only way I can describe our impressions was like that of a powerful sports car, idling after a pro worked it in on the track, and then... our turn.

I say, we, our... because the first few runs was a two player experience. One would be watching, trying to understand all the baddies, flow, what happens, when, why, all while the other is staying in game, blasting away, hoping to clear the level.

We would alternate too. Play every other level, whatever made sense as we gained the skill needed to play through.

But the real show was an older kid who showed up one day able to play for a considerable time. Game difficulty ramps for a while. New players have no real idea what is to come, and the moment they do, they crave it again and again. A person can get into flow just watching someone play this game.

Raw games like this, and by that I mean having really solid basics along with slowdowns, and such that would normally take one out of the experience, ended up taking one deeper into it all. Soon, those are known, expected, a sign of mastery.

For an example, see the original "Star Raiders" on Atari 8 bit computers. It is similarly raw, with similar slowdowns. Years later that game was fixed with highly optimized particle computations and would run at a solid 50 / 60hz depending on whatever region it was played.

Some appreciated it, but a surprising number of people, myself included, found it more sterile. It just is not the same.

Stargate is kind of like that, but is also a different game, so it does not detract like the fix to Star Raiders did.

And through all this, I just wanted to convey how those early experiences went. This game is remarkable, and for many, again myself included, an experience worth having anytime. This title gets a player into flow, the zone, whatever people call it, rapidly.

Demands it.