Vectrex Academy 2026

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Peer Johannsen

Vectrex Academy 2026 Project

Game Title

A space themed game where the player has to keep the solar system free of aliens

The Scenario for the game will be that you have to defend your own solar System.
This Solar System will be attacked by Aliens, which want to own your planets. The Player will sit in his Spaceship and has to hop from one Planet to the next and shoot the Planets free of Aliens. The difficulty is that you are able to only go one orbit up or down at the time. It is impossible to move freely in the Space between the Orbits, but you are able to move back and forth such that you don’t collide with the Planets.
The Spaceship has a Cannon on Board which you can turn in the Direction you want and shoot at Aliens. The Aliens will come from every side of the Screen and will sit upon the Planets. You have then go around and free the hole system. If you don’t succeed and every Planet is completely in the hand of the Aliens, you have lost the game. Also, it is impossible to shoot from the one side of the Solar system to the other, because of the reach of the cannon. As the game moves on more and more Aliens will come and make the game harder to play.

Button 4 - Shoot
Button 3 - Pause
Button 2 - Orbit down
Button 1 - Orbit up
In Level 0, you will be fighting against 2 aliens, in each subsequent level you will be threatened by one more alien.
If all aliens have settled on a planet, you have lost. If you shoot all aliens down, you have won.
If you hit an alien midair you score 2 points. If you hit em on a planet you will get only 1, so try to hit them mid air.

New alpha candidate, version 0.2, available for testing: solar_defender_alpha_0_2.bin
New ooverlay file: solar_defender.png
Game manual: not yet available

Link to Dr. Snuggles' online emulator to directly test the game in your browser: Solar_Defender_0_2