Defender

Defender (Arcade, 1981) has an official source code release, mwenge/defender, and 5 other public projects, including a static recompilation and an open-source reimplementation. An agent environment already wraps it.

Data checked 2026-10-13 · unbaked registry

Projects

mwenge/defender (buildable original source)

Source release6809 assembler toolchain (built under wine), make643 starspushed 2023-03-19no license

Defender(1981) by Eugene Jarvis and Sam Dicker

Original Red Label source reorganized to assemble into the 11 ROM files byte-identically; also historicalsource/defender and defender-1

historicalsource/defender

Source releaseoriginal assembler sources (Atari 6502 / Williams 6809 / Midway TMS34…141 starspushed 2021-01-08no license

A shooting, moving, people-saving, ship-exploding game

Original developer source listings archived by historicalsource (2021 coin-op drops); no license

Defender-Recomp

Static recomp0 starspushed 2026-03-02no license

guardian

Reimplementation0 starspushed 2026-07-20no licenserelease v1.1.2

A modern, endless remake of the classic arcade game Defender

dropped from awesome-decomp-games: awesome-game-remakes-only, <

Defendguin

ReimplementationSDL

development complete; status playable

Defender disassembly (Nick Bensema & Manuel Polik (milnak))covers 58 games

DisassemblyDASM (6502), Distella-derived listings8 starspushed 2026-04-26no license

Collection of Atari VCS (2600) dissembly. Some in complete state, some in early stages.

Commented disassembly by Nick Bensema & Manuel Polik (milnak) (milnak collection separates ROM-matching listings from a 'Not Matched' folder)

What you need

You need your own copy of the game: these projects ship code only.

Agent environments

MAMEToolkit (M-J-Murray/MAMEToolkit) can wrap any MAME game
ALE (Farama-Foundation/Arcade-Learning-Environment)

More on Arcade

GameMethodYearStarsLast push

ARCStreet Fighter II: Champion EditionAgent environment19926.5k2025-04-13 ARCPac-ManSource releaseMatching decomp+519801.6k2026-10-10 ARCOut RunSource releaseReimplementation+219868802026-10-11 ARCSpace InvadersReimplementationDisassembly19787982026-05-28 ARCOmega RaceSource releaseAI-assisted decomp+119815142026-09-17 ARCWizard of WorSource releaseReimplementation+119805142026-09-20 ARCOutRunReimplementation19868802023-12-26 ARCStreet Fighter III: 3rd StrikeMatching decompSource port+119993482026-10-12

Found via historicalsource/defender, historicalsource/defender-1, computerarcheology.com/Arcade/Defender/, search?type=repositories&q=recomp+in%3Aname+crea, SubmitGame/awesome-decomp-games/blob/main/data/d

GitHub data checked 2026-10-13. Notes are summaries from the research pass; the project pages are the authority.