Defender of the Crown
1986 retro games Amiga gamesCommodore 64 gamesPC gamesAtari ST gamesApple gamesAmstrad gamesZX Spectrum gamesIntellivision games
In 1149 England was a mess - the king was dead and the local lords were competing to become his successor. And then the real mess has started. No, not the Brexit, a slightly bigger mess. Although...
During the Middle Ages, England was still a bit of a mess - being a king meant having to deal with all the local lords, who were loyal only to themselves and if the current king was not fortunate enough to keep them in check, a civil war was always on the table. And here is the moment you, the player, come into the picture as one of those lords, who will choose the new king through tough negotiations and ironclad arguments. Or, just primitive power.
Defender of the Crown was the first game developed and published by Cinemaware, a company known for their high quality games, especially the graphic side. And Defender of the Crown is one of the reasons why they gained such a reputation. In 1986 the computer game graphics were often a bit of a challenge for the players to realize what they actually look at. But not here - every single screen of the game looked like a high quality image taken straight from an old movie or book. And that was not the only great thing about this game.
Defender of the Crown was a well-developed strategy game, in which all four of the Saxon lords try to outsmart the others and take over their territories. The easiest way (or rather the quickest) was through a battle over a castle, but that would require a large army and a bit of luck. The alternatives were a bit more tricky - laying siege to the castle, loot the areas or... through jousting. Of course, the other lords were not the only threat, because the Norman would gladly take over England, just for the fun of it.
This game has set a completely new standard for the graphics in video games - while their competition was still dealing with more basic challenges, Defender of the Crown offered (in comparison) a high quality pixel art graphics, where you did not have to guess what is in front of you. And they kept that high level of graphics in their future titles, such as TV Sports and Wings.
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