It is very appropriate that the new programmers of this game refer to it as the original game “digitally remastered”. This is a term commonly used for today’s re-releases of films onto the big screen or onto DVD that have had an analog or video transfer modified to current standards. Considering that this computer game (all computer games) are digital by nature, the reason I still find this appropriate is because “Defender of the Crown” may have been the first game to truly feel like a motion picture while you played it.

At a time when the market consisted primarily of PCs with very poor graphics, and Apples with a very limited variety for its game’s interfaces, two new machines rose up that were cheaper and far superior for games than anything anyone had seen before. The Atari ST and the Amiga were leaps and bounds above what came before it, even more so than the newest console systems seem to today’s audience. These machines based on the 68000 Motorola chips were so powerful that it took many independent software companies to fully exploit just what they could do.

One of these companies was Cinemaware, who in the late 80’s had an early idea that quality games should share many features as great movies do. “Defender of the Crown” was Cinemaware’s first game, and they made another half dozen similar games, including a space game, a feudal Japanese game, an homage to B movies with giants insects, and the most unusual (but also getting a remake) would be their Three Stooges game.

I think the original “Defender of the Crown” may have been what I refer to as the first ‘demo game’. This means to me that I could show this to people who normally never played or watched video games and truly impress them. Before the Atari ST, the only game that even remotely fit this description was Lucasart’s first game, “Rescue on Fractilus” for the Atari 800. To a large degree the still graphics in the Cinemaware games were more impressive than many of the coin-op games at the time.

The game is actually fairly simple, and with much poorer graphics would never reach the audience it did, nor would it be remade 15 years later. With the feel of a good swashbuckling movie, this game takes place in the Hollywood version of Medieval England. It is at a time when the King has just died, and a half dozen of the feudal lords are fighting to claim all the lands for themselves. There are actually 4 or 5 smaller games that are played, with a larger strategy game wrapped around it. Included within the larger game are a jousting, sword fighting, and even a simple catapult simulation.

There is some strategy to the game. Like a lot of the 4x (expand, explore, encounter & exploit) you have to make some decisions based upon short and long term goals. The more land you take over the higher your income. However, some turns you may need to purchase more soldiers rather than just expand as fast as you can spreading yourself to thin. When purchasing armies, Knights rule the field, but cost considerably more than your soldiers. Catapults cost even more, but only they can actually knock down your opponent’s walls.

When you start the game, you choose one of the available lords to play. Some are initially better at sword play, some at jousting, some are better leaders, and etc.. None are better or worse at everything, so most people choose the character that fits their style of gameplay the best. The game’s documentation speaks in terms of Norman versus Saxon rules, but I find little use for paying attention to this since it feels like every lord is out for himself.

When choosing which territories to invade, some may be worth more income per turn, yet could be harder to take costing you an extra turn to build back up your army, and these are more likely to later fall under attack from greedy opponents. And then again there is always the geographical position of the land that may be so important that you want to build a castle to help defend it against further aggression.

Some of the strategies don’t seem to work as well to me. When attacking on the field there are different levels of attack which can make your smaller force possibly overpower a stronger one. One attack tells you that you have a better chance to overwhelm your stronger opponents yet take a risk of higher casualties to yourself. This seems obvious to me since you are taking on stronger opponents. Another choice is to use your leadership skills to give yourself an advantage. A nice choice, but who wouldn’t use this given the chance? It almost seems like it should be automatic since the odds are so much better if your leader has the ability to make use of it.

When attacking a castle you only get so many boulder throws and you decide whether to throw rocks to break down the walls or Greek fire or disease to cause disease lowering the number of castle defenders. Cleverly the boulders have different weights making it challenging to pick just the right height to be aiming for.

Before attacking, you are allowed to call upon the aid of Robin Hood, but only three times in the entire game. He adds a percentage to your men, so the longer you hold out before using him, the greater the advantage could be. You can also call upon him before raiding an enemy castle.

The jousting section is probably where the game gained the most notoriety. It has a very cinematic look with horn blowers signaling the start of the match, leading to you on horseback bowing to the royalty watching the match, and then the various camera angles before the jousting game begins. The jousting game itself involves a view through your eyes of charging at your opponent trying to steady your lance onto the center of your opponents shield or his helmet. You can see your opponents lance, but I’ve never been able to dodge or deflect it in any way.

The next most popular section is the ‘raiding’ of an enemy castle. Here you have a very simple fighting game type interface where you sword fight your way through a few screens of the keep trying to gain entry into the castle to gain gold, or for an even greater cinematic moment, to rescue a damsel in distress.

One of the only real changes to the game is the addition of some extra challenges for various rewards. These include things like conquering a certain territory, earn an amount of money, or defeat an enemy by a certain time period. You don’t have to accept any of them.

This new digitally remastered version contains the original documentation scanned into HTML as well as newer better documentation. Reading the original documentation I was reminded of the fact that even the people who read it thoroughly still didn’t really know how to play the game, and what they were supposed to be doing. I remember discussing with friends the various strategies and wondering if we are supposed to press the button ever during the jousting or not, and whether or not there is an advantage to stepping back during swordplay. The new instructions are much better but there are still some things you discover how to do only while playing the game.

Note: I do want to point out that although I was a huge supporter of the Atari ST, and by default was an enemy of the Commodore Amiga, the Amiga version was slightly better. They added minor animations to some of the still animations perhaps because their disks were double sided, or simply because it was released second. This digital remastering seems to be of the Atari version, because I distinctly remembered where some of the Amiga improvements were, and they oddly aren’t in this edition.

This game probably won’t win over any new converts and replace Warcraft 3 for strategy lovers, but it will entertain those who remembered just what an incredible leap in technology this game represented 15 years ago.



Recommended: Yes

Version Played: Released
Operating System: Windows
CPU: Intel Pentium III
CPU Speed (MHz): 501-600
RAM (MB): 256
Best Played With/Intended For: Single Player
Graphics Card Family: nVidia geForce 256