Defender of the Crown

The Good
As the story goes this Amiga classic stunned people not only for its gameplay but its amazing graphics, it is the game that introduced us to Cinemaware (I'm not sure why this is credited to Mindscape when Cinemaware has its name plastered all over the box). Most people experienced it on the IBM in the CGA version, a rare EGA conversion exists but I have not played it. While the conversion lacks the sounds and sites of the original Amiga, the game did not lose one bit of the fun factor. If anything its gameplay is better than the Amiga!

The basic story is the Saxon and Norman lords are trying to unite England under their rule. Battles take place over provinces which provide different amounts of gold per turn. Gold can be used to buy infantry, knights, catapults or castles. Each turn you can move your army around the map and invade enemy provinces. You can also raid castles for gold or hold jousting tournaments, which are arcade sequences in the main straregy game. You played the Saxon side as one of three lords, you could pick your character from 4 lords with different strengths and weaknesses but I always picked Geoffry Longsword. I havn't played the game in 10 years and I still remember that name!

Its hard for me to describe what made this game such a joy. It had simple gameplay, a great game atmosphere and just seemed to be out at the right time for me. I was learning medival European history in school when I was playing this game. It was just tons of fun to be raiding castles, rescuing fair ladies and visiting Robin Hood for help in your quest for the crown.

The Bad
Well the CGA graphics are orange based which is rather bland. They are pretty acceptable but I wish I could have played the EGA version. Also because the jousting is in tweaked CGA the graphics might crash when you play. In the day my EGA card could be set to CGA mode to avoid this.

Its not multiplayer! The game would have been amazing if you could battle another person.

Learning how to use the catapult was challenging as without good catapult skills you could never take a castle.

The Bottom Line
Really one hell of a fun game. One of the best to come out of the 80s, strategy players and fans of the historical era should play this at least once!