Racketboy

Emulating Defender in MAMEUI (formerly MAME32)

If emulation is more your style MAME has supported Defender since the 1990s. We recommend MAMEUI (the 32-bit Windows build of MAME, previously called MAME32). You can run whatever version of MAME you choose, but if you are new to MAME here is a quick explanation of how to make it run in MAMEUI.

Gather the necessary tools:

MAMEUI – The official home of MAMEUI
http://mameui.classicgaming.gamespy.com/

Defender ROM – You’re on your own for this bit, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to find. It’ll most likely have the name “defender.zip”

PC – For MAMEUI you’ll need a Windows-capable PC at least 10 years old (you think I’m kidding?). Older, simpler games like Defender will run on just about any computer with a solid MAME version. Linux or Mac users, you can find your respective MAME emulator and if you would like to share your emulation tips, please share them below.

Install MAMEUI. Take note of your install directory. Drop the rom file (”defender.zip”) into the “roms” folder in the MAME install directory. Run MAMEUI and you should see a screen with a three panels. On the left-hand side there is a panel that says “All Games,” “Available,” “CHDs,” etc. Open/Expand the “Available” section. In the middle panel you should see either “Pong” or nothing – either is fine. Now click on File in the menu bar (upper left of screen) and click “Audit All Games.” A box will pop up and it will run for a short time. If you installed a lot of roms and/or have a much older PC this may take some time so go get a cup of coffee. When it is done click the ok/close button and now the middle panel should have Defender as an option. Double-click on Defender and you are off.

You will likely want to change the controls, so after the legal advisement screen hit tab to pull up the system menu and adjust your controls. The two controls that most people do not change are the start buttons and the coin buttons. 1-4 are start buttons and 5-8 are coin, for players 1-4, respectively. Other than that the standard layout is arrow keys for your directions, while z x c and a s d are your two lines of keys for a standard Capcom, 6-button layout. You can set it up however you like, and it may take some testing to figure out which button controls which function. Once you’re done, you’re ready to play. Hit tab again to get back out to the game.

mame causes my comp to crash after about a min or 2 of playing, I have no idea why.

wow, what kind of comp do you have?
and what mame version your using?

I have a alienware, im pretty sure if i just restore the comp it will fix theres probally tons of spyware and shit on my comp cause of my bro but im just to lazy to restore.

I can't get it to work. I'm using Mame OS X. Does anybody have access to a working romset? Or post the the contents of their defender.zip so i can compare the files?

No matter which defender I try to use it won't run. It just says files missing.

Thanks for the clear instructions for setting up this MAME emulator. I have to say, I suck at Defender! But just like when I was a kid, I still love playing it. I'm not used to using a keyboard to play games with so many buttons so I bailed on that right quick in favor of the trusty Dualshock controller.

I'm quite excited since its my first time running Mame and this version looks very user friendly. The only problem was finding a complete defender rom because from 3 I got some were missing a decoder files or a snd file. After a few minutes what I did was take files from one zip to complete another one and voila. What is the difference between the green, red and white labels? The test screen made me think something was wrong with my pc and then after another screen found out pressing F2 to advance then get some coins in and start playing.

Never played the arcade version before and seeing the actual layout of buttons was interesting. The game is hard to play at first getting used to the trust button and reverse, so I'm hooking up my dualshock also. Hopefully I'll be playing tomorrow on ai 2600 to be able to compare both versions.

Wehey! Got it to work!

Thanks for the tip of synthesizing different rom sets.

Holy cow, this game is hard to play! It's so confusing!

It won't let me download it because the link says I need an account at fileplanet.

Download it from vg-network then.

Google is the answer, as always