Defender 2 (NES) and Punch-Out!

[Graham Mitchell]

IIRC, Defender II was actually programmed by Nintendo around 1983 when Atari was in negotiations to have the Famicom released in the US under the Atari brand, as were Joust and Millipede. I don't remember exactly where I read this, but it would somewhat explain why some of the music from Defender II was reused in Punch-Out.

That would make so much sense. Just look at the title screens, and how the have the "Game A" and "Game B" selections just like Pinball, Donkey Kong, etc.

Too bad they weren't released 1st party. A black box cover-art for Joust or Millipede would have been really cool.