Credits: Developed by Master Designer Software / Cinemaware. Original design by Kellyn Beeck; Mical Game System by Robert J. Mical; artwork by James D. Sachs; music by Jim Cuomo; orchestration by Bill Williams; Atari ST version released in 1987, published in Europe by Mirrorsoft.
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| The title screen uses colour cycling to great effect, it looks great. |
One of the most beautiful ST games of all time, Defender of the Crown being part of the Summer Pack was a great bonus. Having come from the Spectrum +2, the graphics were a revelation (that's not to criticise the dear old Speccy of course which was a great machine in its own right, but just as an illustration... imagine going from the brilliant Taipan on the Speccy to the image on the right (okay it's a still image so not exactly a fair comparison, but... when I first saw that image as a kid, my jaw dropped...)
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| From colour clash to this absolutely beautiful screen - young me was gobsmacked. |
Er... but I digress. So you start by choosing your character - each one has different ability levels in Leadership, Swordplay, Jousting. The noble dudes you can play are Wilfred of Ivanhoe, Cedric of Rotherwood, Geoffrey Longsword and Wilfric the Wild. You choose which character to play depending on your gameplay style - there are a number of different strategies. For instance, if you're good at jousting (I wasn't great at it), you could win land or fame; you could raid other castles for gold (or possibly even a wife, and with it an alliance with another Saxon Lord).
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| Who to choose, who to choose... |
The main screen presented your options and a map of England. You could initiate various options, such as going on one of the aforementioned raids or holding a tournament, buy troops or move them. Of course, depending on where you moved your troops to, you could face opposition - either in the form or a local militia, or from the armies of whichever Lord currently owned that land. Winning a battle (or moving your army to an undefended region) would add that county to your kingdom, and importantly, this would increase your revenue per turn.
One thing I remember from the game is that it seemed basically impossible to win unless you started at a particular position (each game started you randomly in one of a small number of locations). The reason for this is that one of the counties could be obtained almost immediately and that gave you 7 gold pieces per turn, whereas others only gave you 2 or 3. I always found that control of that specific county at the beginning of the game was essential if you wanted any chance at all of winning - although that could just be me (interested in your thoughts!). You also had to hope the Norman Lords below you argued amongst themselves a bit whilst you had the chance to consolidate your position - again, that's how it seemed to me, I could be wrong.
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| FWIW, this is the starting position where I think you have a chance - just east of Wales. |
Of course, what everyone remembers most about the game is its incredible graphics. I don't remember seeing anything quite like it again for years, and the striking beauty of the scenes is still remarkable today. What I feel sometimes gets overlooked is the quality of the music - the mediaeval tones and depth achieved with the humble YM2149 chip were quite something. I am now going to offer something of a hot take: having heard the Amiga music for this game (admittedly only on YouTube videos, so the quality may lack fidelity), I actually prefer the ST music - not something I can say about many games! The sound effects are crisp and effective too.
Has anyone who claims computer games aren't art seen this? I mean... have they?!
In terms of gameplay, it as a little bit of a mixed bag; the strategy elements were good with the aforementioned caveat that your starting position appeared to be key to your chances of victory; the raiding sections were nice enough but the guy on the stairs could be a real pain to get past; jousting was fun but pretty tough (I do remember eventually learning the technique to win it most of the time though); besieging castles and firing the catapult was always fun and visually impressive. It is via the variety of gameplay elements, however, that the game truly enters legendary status - it felt like so much more than a strategy game. Each sequence of the game was memorable in its own right, and in keeping with the Cinemaware brand, it all felt rather like you were part of an epic movie - far more so than any other game I'd played at the time - whilst the focus remained tightly on the gameplay loops, not a never-ending series of cutscenes. (There are a couple of cool cutscenes too, of course...)
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| Steady.... steady... steady... now aim and click! |
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| Shadows that even "The Adventures of Robin Hood" would have been proud of... |
Overall, Defender of the Crown is rightly regarded as a classic, and definitely a game that showed off the early graphical abilities of the 16-bit machines. Having it as one of the first ST games I ever played was a real bonus - but in a sense, made other games feel somewhat disappointing from an artistic point of view!
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| A tournament begins, bringing joy - but also fear that you'll embarrass yourself in the jousting. Again... |
Since I had difficulty getting this to run in the emulator for some reason... I am greatly indebted to Marko from AtariMania for allowing me to use their screenshots. Check out the AtariMania page for Defender of the Crown!
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| Only 16 colours on screen at once, but when you see screens like this, it makes you wonder... do you actually NEED any more?! |
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