Defender of the Crown

Discuss Review + Want + Have Contribute

Description

Defender of the Crown puts the player in the role of one of four Saxon knights in medieval England, in a time where the land is in turmoil as the King is dead and his crown was stolen. The Saxons and the Normans blame each other and fight for control of England.

After a short introduction by Robin of Locksley himself, the game starts with a single castle and 10 soldiers at your command. From there, you have to build your army, take control of additional territories and fight and defeat the three Norman lords - and sometimes your Saxon friends as well.

In addition to the basic 'build your army and conquer your opponents' the game offers several events and options that can be used to fine tune your play style: You may engage in a jousting contest where you have to knock your opponent off his horse, gaining either fame or land, or you can go raid a castle for loot or the hand of a princess, joining your houses and territories.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "DOTC" -- Abbreviated title
• "Defender of the Crown: Obrońca Korony" -- Polish title
• "Conquering England" -- Informal name, popular in Israel

Part of the Following Groups

• Cinemaware-style games
• Defender of the Crown series
• Fictional character: Robin Hood

User Reviews

A little known CLASSIC game at the dawn of Modern GRAPHICS & Adult-themed gaming!	Commodore 64	XplOrOrOr (16)
The classic of classics.	Amiga	Tomer Gabel (4634)
The atmosphere is so strong that you completely ignore any gameplay issues.	PC Booter	Trixter (9116)
Probably inferior to the later PC version, despite superior graphics and sound	Amiga	Andrew Fisher (707)
Not as good as the Amiga version, but great fun nonetheless	DOS	Colin Rowsell (45)
Wow.	DOS	woods01 (163)
Good semi-historical, semi-educational leadership game	DOS	Andrew Fisher (707)
This is one of the greatest of the classics.	Commodore 64	Tarzan Dan (29)
My favorite game ever.	PC Booter	Tomer Gabel (4634)

Critic Reviews

Computer and Video Games (CVG)	Commodore 64	Oct, 1987	9 out of 10	90
App Spy	iPhone	2011	4 out of 5	80
Nintendo Power Magazine	NES	Jul, 1989	4 out of 5	80
IGN	Game Boy Advance	Oct 30, 2002	8 out of 10	80
The Games Machine (UK)	Atari ST	Feb, 1988	79 out of 100	79
Gaming Target	Game Boy Advance	Dec 04, 2002	7.7 out of 10	77
Retro Archives	Atari ST	Nov 02, 2017	13 out of 20	65
Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library	NES	2016		50
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	DOS	Oct, 1990		50
High Score	CD-i	Jul, 1994	2 out of 5	40

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
PC CDROM version got released in the 90s	1	abstauber Oct 11, 2018
Screenshots at the wrong entry?	8	ZeTomes (36439) Jul 19, 2017
Links	3	Cavalary (11224) Sep 20, 2014
Interview with Bob Jacob	1	St. Martyne (3649) Dec 13, 2009

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Defender of the Crown appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

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.

Unpublished CD audio version

In 1988 Rick Levine programmed a CD quality audio version of Defender of the Crown. The Defender of the Crown code still resided on and ran from the PC, but hooks were placed in the code to play the CD quality audio off the CD -- on a Hitachi CD-ROM player. David Riordan had the CD quality audio created. That special CD-ROM version was demonstrated at a conference (might have been the Game Developers Conference that year), but it was never released to the public.

Awards

• ACE
  • October 1988 (issue #13) - Included in the Top-100 list of 1987/1988 (editorial staff selection)
• Commodore Format
  • February 1991 (Issue 5) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Great)
  • November 1994 (Issue 50) – #17 The All-Time Top 50 C64 Games
• Computer and Video Games
  • May 1988 (Issue #79) - Golden Joystick 1988 Award: Runner up in category Strategy Game of the Year
• 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
• ST Fomat
  • May 1990 (Issue #10) - Included in the list "ST Format's 30 Kick-Ass Classics"

Information also contributed by PCGamer77, Ricky Derocher; Terrence Bosky and Tomer Gabel

Related Web Sites

• AtariMania (Mindscape, USA, Atari ST) (For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material.)
• AtariMania (Mirror Image, UK and USA, Atari ST) (For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material.)
• AtariMania (Mirrorsoft, distributed by EDOS, UK, Atari ST) (For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material.)
• AtariMania (Mirrorsoft, French release, Atari ST) (For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material.)
• AtariMania (Mirrorsoft, UK, Atari ST) (For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material.)
• Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Mirrorsoft, Amiga) (For Commodore Amiga: exhibit reference ID CH30735; additional material.)
• Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Mirrorsoft, Atari ST) (For Atari ST: exhibit reference ID CH18475; additional material.)
• Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Mirrorsoft, C64) (For Commodore 64: exhibit reference ID CH1979; additional material.)
• Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Palcom, NES) (For Nintendo NES: exhibit reference ID CH39363; additional material.)
• Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Philips, CD-I) (For Philips CD-I: exhibit reference ID CH20953; additional material.)
• Cinemaware - Defender of the Crown (Official site to download the freeware versions for Amiga, Amstrad, C64, Atari ST, Apple IIgs, PC (CGA & EGA), NES, CD32/CDTV and more...)
• Commodore 64 Boxed Sets (for C64: software sets (box; manual; miscellaneous; screenshots))
• CPC-Power (in French) (for Amstrad CPC: downloadable releases; artwork; additional material)
• CPCRrulez (in French) (For Amstrad CPC: game database entry; advertisement; game packaging; downloadable releases; additional material.)
• DOSBox, an x86 emulator with DOS (CGA) (For CGA: statistics page of compatibility with original DOS version.)
• DOSBox, an x86 emulator with DOS (EGA) (For EGA: statistics page of compatibility with original DOS version.)
• Game Base 64 (for C64: Downloadable links, Database, Music, Emulation, Frontends, Reviews and Articles)
• Hall of Light (for Amiga: database; manuals; artwork; screenshots; additional material)
• Internet Archive (DOS) (for DOS: downloadable release; online emulation of game; additional material)
• Lemon 64 (for C64: games, reviews and music)
• Lemon Amiga (for Amiga: game reviews; music; manuals; additional material)
• Metacritic (GBA) (For Game Boy Advance: reviews; ratings; critics; trailers; additional material.)
• Metacritic (iOS) (For iOS combined platforms: reviews; ratings; critics; trailers; additional material.)
• Replacementdocs (Amiga, Manual) (Documentation for Amiga.)
• Replacementdocs (Amiga, Quick Reference Card) (Documentation for Amiga.)
• Replacementdocs (NES, Manual) (Documentation for NES - Famicom.)
• Useless Inc. (Homepage of Tomer Gabel; host of the Defnder of the Crown music project (MP3s of the original Amiga version), Star Control II and more stuff. )
• Virtual Apple 2 - Online disk archive (for Apple IIgs: online emulation of game (for Windows and Mac); downloadable releases; additional material)
• Wikipedia (combined platform entry)