"To play and understand DEFENDER is a revelation."
Welcome to the world of 80s video games! We're not talking home console systems, mind you. The Video Master's Guide to DEFENDER - not Defender, mind you, but DEFENDER - is dedicated to the full-sized coin operated cabinet arcade game. In fact, The Video Master's Guide to DEFENDER was published in April 1982, months before the first ported version of DEFENDER was released for the Atari 2600.
I wasn't able to find out much of anything about author Nick Broomis, but having read through this master's guide, I can only come to the conclusion that Broomis was a young and passionate video gamer at the time this was written. His opening descriptions of playing DEFENDER alone make this an unavoidable conclusion:
"As you play, your senses will be whirled into a steaming cauldron where you do not think but simply react; you are plugged into a computer high that lifts your feet off the pavement."
Not only that, but...
"When you insert a "DEFENDER Quarter" into your favorite machine, you will be taken for a ride that will thrill you. Adrenaline will surge through your veins like an electric current. Your body will sweat, and your fingers will shake."
Much of this slim volume is filled with technical description of the game's subjects and how-to survival guides for each level accompanied by plenty of hand-drawn illustrations (no screen shots available, most likely due to this being an "unofficial" guide not associated with game designer Williams Electronics), but occasionally Broomis takes time to advice on how to handle DEFENDER psychologically:
"Mental toughness is needed. You must psych yourself up and approach the controls with the confidence of a pro athlete."
Broomis even goes Zen on the reader at one point, encouraging enthusiastic DEFENDER players to "be the machine."
I won't spoil the ending by revealing Broomis' Final Summation, but be assured, if you're planning on mastering the classic 80s arcade game DEFENDER, you will want Broomis as your trainer.
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