Protector - Atari Jaguar

Protector for the Atari Jaguar is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Danish programmer Jørgen Bech at Bethesda Softworks — with Christopher Weaver and Todd Howard listed as producers — and published by Songbird Productions, one of the most celebrated homebrewed and late-era releases for the Jaguar. The game puts players in the cockpit of the Starblade above the surface of the planetoid Haven-7 during a full-scale alien invasion, tasked with shooting down enemy ships before they can abduct the human inhabitants below. Any human captured by an alien ship transforms into a mutant enemy that pursues the player relentlessly, adding escalating pressure on top of the standard wave-based combat.

The gameplay takes direct inspiration from Defender and Dropzone, with horizontal free-scrolling across the terrain and a dual-directional field of play that extends in both directions. Players can take several hits before dying, making the combat more aggressive and less punishing than the coin-operated coin-op originals. Fifteen stages are stored with EEPROM save data after every five completed levels. Two-player simultaneous support is included.

Protector was originally developed for Atari's internal release but was cancelled when the Jaguar declined commercially and Atari refused to publish it due to their own competing Defender 2000. Carl Forhan of Songbird Productions revived the project by licensing it directly from Bethesda and published it on November 27, 1999, making it one of the last significant commercial Jaguar releases. The game sold 100 copies in its first year. The Special Edition followed in 2002 with new graphics, new enemies, revised gameplay, and bug fixes.

Language: English
Rating: N/A
Platform: Atari Jaguar
Genre: Horizontal Shoot-'em-Up
Players: 1-2 players
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Publisher: Songbird Productions
Release Year: 1999 (November 27, 1999)

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