Trivia
Cancelled sequel
In 1993,
Jim Sachs, who worked on the graphics for
Defender of the Crown, designed a sequel,
Defender of the Crown 2. It never really caught on though, mainly because it was only released for Commodore's ill-fated CDTV system.
CGA version
The CGA version "tweaks" the screen during the joust; the furious riding on your horse makes the screen "shake". This locks up the game on VGA cards, but if you can avoid this if you play it under a pseudo-emulator like Windows or OS/2 (or just don't joust during the game).
EGA version
There was bootable version released that supported EGA/Tandy graphics and Tandy 3-voice sound, which greatly enhanced the PC version of the game. Unfortunately, this version is extremely rare and most people only have the CGA/PC Speaker version.
Freeware release
A full version of this game is available online at Cinemaware.com (the full link is in the links section). The game plays in any browser.
Version differences
- The C64 version of the game has three Saxon ladies that can be kidnapped, and the NES version only has one lady while every other version has four.
- The Commodore 64 version of Defender of the Crown was also released on tape in Europe, as disk drives were expensive in Europe at the time and most people still used tape drives. The tape version is trimmed down to fit on the smaller storage of tape, and is missing several pictures found on the disk version. Some of the missing pictures are Robin Hood at the start of the game, and the closeup views of the Saxon damsels after you rescued them.
Awards
- Computer Gaming World
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #92 in the “150 Best Games of All Time" list
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #2 Most Rewarding Ending of All Time
- Gamespy
- March 2000 - Introduced into the Hall of Fame
Information also contributed by
PCGamer77,
Ricky Derocher;
Terrence Bosky and
Tomer Gabel
