Protector (Atari Jaguar video game)

Protector is a scrolling shooter video game developed by Bethesda Softworks for the Atari Jaguar. The game was released in 1999, with the enhanced edition Protector: Special Edition released in 2002 and the Atari Jaguar CD expansion pack Protector: Resurgence released in 2014. Set in a future where an interstellar war broke out when alien forces arrived on Earth, the player controls the Starblade ship to defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting the inhabitants of Haven-7.

Protector was designed by Danish developer Jørgen Bech, who joined Bethesda and was initially tasked with porting a sports game to Jaguar. As Bech had no experience with 3D programming, the staff decided that he should work on an adaptation of Søren Grønbech's Datastorm, but planned not to do a direct conversion and wanted to make a game closer to Defender (1981). Bethesda found out about Defender 2000 and Atari did not want to publish it, while Christopher Weaver refused to publish it as a Bethesda release since the Jaguar platform was in decline and cancelled it.

Protector was published after the Jaguar was declared as an open platform by Hasbro Interactive under Songbird Productions. Songbird Productions was founded by Carl Forhan after licensing several unreleased games with former Atari developers to support Atari consoles including Jaguar. Protector and the special edition earned critical acclaim; Reviewers praised its graphics, sound, controls, and gameplay, but some were divided regarding the difficulty curve. The game proved popular and was estimated to have sold at least 100 copies in the first year, while the special edition had sold over 500 copies by 2002, making it Songbird Productions' best-selling Jaguar title. In the years following its release, gaming publications celebrated Protector: Special Edition as one of the best games for the Jaguar.

Gameplay
Protector is a scrolling shooter game similar to Defender (1981) and Defender 2000. The premise takes place in a future where an interstellar war broke out when alien forces arrived on Earth, however the inhabitants of a planetoid near Earth called Haven-7 were left on their own with the Starblade ship as their only defense. The player acts as the protector of Haven-7 in command of the ship and the main objective is to defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting humans.

The player controls the Starblade ship which flies from left to right with a radar at the top of the screen. The radar shows incoming enemies, hazards and humans across the playfield. Landers pick up humans and try to take them to the top of the screen to mutate. The player must shoot down the landers to rescue the human. The player's ship has a standard laser fire and smart bombs capable of obliterating enemies caught within its blast radius.

Defeating the enemies allows the player to progress to the next level. There are over 40 levels in total. On certain levels, the player must survive a meteor shower or fight against a boss. After each level, the player is presented with a shop where items and power-ups like extra lives, rapid fire, shields, and bombs, can be purchased with money dropped by certain enemies when defeated as red orbs. Some enemies also spawn power-ups in the form of green pods when defeated for rapid fire and upgrades such as a hyperspace jump, energy restoration, and "Protector", which nullifies the Landers' ability to pick up humans. The player can withstand three hits before losing a life, resulting in a penalty for reducing the ship's firepower to its original state. In addition, the game also has a multiplayer option which allows two players to play by alternating turns.

Production
Protector was developed by Bethesda Softworks, a Maryland-based game developer founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986, best known for The Elder Scrolls series. It was co-produced by Weaver and Todd Howard. The game was designed by Danish developer Jørgen Bech, who worked on several ZX Spectrum titles as well as Globulus for Amiga and Spider-Man for Master System at Innerprise Software. Bech left the video game industry due to his negative experience at Innerprise but decided to return as a game programmer after studying international marketing, landing a job at Bethesda thanks to his programming knowledge and an acquaintance who had a connection with the company.

In 1993, Bethesda's parent company Media Technology established a Danish division called Media Technology Scandinavia to expand its operations in Europe. Among its staff were Søren Grønbech and Torben Bakager, authors of Datastorm and Sword of Sodan respectively. The team were tasked with porting Datastorm to the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Bech provided a sound driver but was not fully involved in the project, which was finished but never released as the 16-bit market became unprofitable. Betheseda received free Atari Jaguar game development kits from Atari and Bech was initially tasked with converting NCAA Basketball: Road to the Final Four 2 to Jaguar, but he had no experience with 3D programming and the staff decided he should spent time becoming familiar with the hardware and work a port of Datastorm as a solo test project in 1994.

Development
Bech planned not making a direct conversion, as the Jaguar's capabilities exceed those of the Amiga and wanted to make a game closer to Defender (1981). All code was written in assembly to get the game running at 60 frames per second, while game logic was done by the Jaguar's Motorola 68000, as Bech could not fit it into the GPU's limited memory. Sprites were kept small in size to avoid memory issues with the Jaguar's object processor, while the number of active objects on-screen was maintained by lists indicating how many enemies appeared at once, but some enemies were made more aggressive. The graphics and backgrounds were taken from a CD containing royalty-free images, while the hyperspace jump effect was done with Alias PowerAnimator using an SGI workstation and pre-rendered sprites were done by Bech using 3D Studio. The player's ship and humanoid sprites from Datastorm remained in the game, while the title screen was a cropped scan of the box art for Datastorm.

The game, now titled Protector, was fully playable by March 1995 but Bethesda found out about Defender 2000 and Atari did not want to publish it under their label. Weaver also refused to publish it as a Bethesda title as the Jaguar platform was in decline. Bethesda canceled Protector and stopped all work on the Jaguar, prompting Bech's departure the following month. Atari proposed using the game's engine for a update of the Atari Lynx game Gates of Zendocon, one of several Epyx titles selected to be remade on Jaguar, but Weaver was not interested.

In 1998, Bech discussed about the game on Usenet where Carl Forhan noticed his posts. Forhan had started researching what it would take to create games in his spare time when Atari dropped support for the Jaguar. He began searching for companies that had worked on unreleased Jaguar games to see if they would be willing to license the games to him. Forham asked Bech to share the game's source code with him so he could publish it, however, Bech told Forham that he must seek Weaver's consent since Bethesda had the rights to the title. Forham initially obtained the rights to view the source code for educational use only, but eventually managed to secure a license to publish the game. In 1999, Forhan founded Songbird Productions after licensing several unreleased games with former Atari developers to support Atari consoles including Jaguar. That same year, Hasbro Interactive declared the Jaguar as an open platform, releasing the console's patents and rights into public domain after much lobbying from Atari fans, allowing software developers to make and release games for Jaguar without a licensing agreement. Forham proceeded to finalize the game for release by adding a reworked enemy AI, a power-up scheme, among other improvements.

Release
Protector was first showcased at the 1999 Classic Gaming Expo and was playable at JagFest '99, a show dedicated to the Atari Jaguar scene, planning for release in late 1999. The game was published by Songbird Productions on November 27, 1999, complete with packaging mimicking officially licensed Jaguar releases.

An enhanced edition called Protector: Special Edition was unveiled at JagFest 2K1. The special edition came about when Carl Forhan wanted to add more content and improvements to the game, while also embracing feedback from the Jaguar fan community. It was initially scheduled for April 10, 2002, but delays in cartridge production postponed the release date to April 30, 2002; however, copies were available to attendees at the PhillyClassic 3 show. The special edition offers more graphics, new enemies, revised gameplay features and bug fixes. Concealed within the game are JagFree CD and BJL, program loaders that allow users to play unencrypted Atari Jaguar CD games and load software onto the Jaguar via RAM respectively. Each copy came bundled with a demo of Native for Jaguar CD.

An Atari Jaguar CD expansion pack for Protector: Special Edition called Protector: Resurgence was first released as a limited edition at the 2014 Classic Gaming Expo in September, followed by a general release on October 23, 2014. It features new graphics, music, enemies, and gameplay mechanics when the special edition cartridge is attached.

Reception
Protector and the special edition received critical acclaim. GameFan's Eric Mylonas felt the game was a standard but solid Defender-style shooter in its own right. Video Games' Ralph Karels lauded its gameplay and smooth performance, but noted that the game's visuals may not impress. The Atari Times' Bruce Clarke found the game to be a very good Defender clone and praised its graphical quality, soundscapes, controls, intense gameplay and fluid frame rate, but criticized the unbalanced difficulty level. Author Andy Slaven highlighted the game's audiovisual presentation, controls, and old-school playability.

In the years after its release, gaming publications celebrated Protector: Special Edition as one of the best Atari Jaguar games. GamesTM considered it one of the most fun Jaguar titles, citing its audiovisual department, solid controls, gameplay and difficulty curve. Retro Gamer found the game better than Defender 2000 and praised it for having some of the best 2D graphics on the Jaguar, as well as its audio and frenetic action. Reviewing the special edition in 2009, neXGam commended its simple graphics, sound effects, intuitive controls, fast-paced gameplay, consistent frame rate and extra content. PCMag called it the definitive version of Protector, while Time Extension deemed it better than the original release due to its new features and content.

According to Carl Forhan, Protector proved popular and was estimated to have sold at least 100 copies in the first year, while the special edition had sold over 500 copies by 2002, making it Songbird Productions' best-selling Jaguar title.