Datastorm

The Defender gameplay was the basis for this shoot ’em up, with a
horizontally-scrolling landscape which eventually loops back on itself. Your
basic task is to pick up each of the 8 pods in turn, and carry them through a
portal elsewhere in the level, before going back for another one.

There are power-ups available, representing an auto-fire (Surely one of the
earliest software implementations of this), extra simultaneous lasers,
missiles to home in on the Landers as they attack, a level-skip, and a Super
Shield.

As standard in Defender games, Lander craft are also there to pick up the
pods, and these must be stopped before reaching the top of the screen, as both
the Lander and Pod become fearsome enemies if they do. If you shoot the
Lander, the pod drops back to the ground, for you to retrieve. Unusually, you
don’t have to wait for the Lander to attack before picking up a pod.

You must shoot all enemies to progress to the next level, at which point you
get a bonus for the number of remaining pods. Every four levels the pods are
replenished, which means that losing them on the first of each set of 4 levels
(1,5,9,13 etc.) reduces your next four bonuses. If you don’t save at least one
pod on each level, your will have to face tougher enemies, and without your
shield being replenished.