Full Game of Arcade Rampart, Joystick Version, Medium Difficulty

It's been a few years since I uploaded full single-player games of the trackball version, so here's the joystick version. Rampart is extremely difficult even on the easier difficulties. Sometimes you end up in a situation where there's nothing you can do to prevent a Lander from getting to shore, and then it's easy to get overwhelmed by Grunts. Only once have I ever been able to finish it except on my last Continue. This game took five credits, which is often the maximum. (There is a case where the game will allow you one extra Continue.) It's much easier to rebuild in the Joystick version, since a joystick really excels in the precise block placement that's required, but it also makes it hard to rapidly zip across the screen to shoot an approaching Lander, or capture an out-of-the-way Castle. I find I usually pass the early levels more easily than the Trackball version, only to get caught on the last level, where ships approach from four directions at once, and it takes significant time to move between them. I really need to write up all that I've learned about arcade Rampart over the years., there's a tremendous amount of nuance there. While it's really REALLY hard (and I don't play all too well here, I think), the difficulty is what makes it interesting. For all I know, I'm the only person ever to have finished arcade Rampart--I'm sure I'm not, but it requires such insight into the game's workings that it's hard to imagine anyone except the truly obsessed finishing it, and in any case I've never seen anyone else finish the arcade version. And by the way, many ports differ from it in substantial ways, and when they do, they always make it easier. If John Salwitz or Dave Ralson, the creators of Rampart, even see this, please, please get in touch with me. I have so many questions about it, like, who are Deborah Short and the Wall Boys mentioned in the credits? If you're as obsessed about retro, niche and indie games as I am, then you might like our daily gaming blog Set Side B, at setsideb.com.