Defender of the Crown was one of the first games that I played on my IBM PC. I did not meet the hardware requirements to play the game, because I had a monochrome monitor with a Hercules Video Adapter, and the game required a CGA monitor, but I was able to run a program called SimCGA to trick my computer into thinking that I had support for a color monitor. I think the game actually looked better in the monochrome version, because I recall the CGA version being an unsightly combination of brown, red, orange and green.
Defender of the Crown was one of the first games to integrate action into an otherwise strategic forum. Battles were decided based upon strength in numbers, but eye hand coordination played a factor as well. Laying siege to an opponent’s castle started off by launching boulders to break down the castle walls so your troops could storm them. Eye hand coordination was necessary in deciding how far back to pull the catapults before releasing them for launch.
Additionally, once the walls had been breached, you had the option to deploy biological agents of war to weaken the number of defenders. Once the walls had been destroyed, and the opponents had been reduced to a sizeable number, you could confront them in battle. Battle
was decided by soldiers and knights fighting. If you were attacking a force that had knights, it was necessary for you to have knights as well, otherwise the mounted knights would make short work of your foot soldiers. One knight was worth approximately three soldiers.
In addition to the military battles, there were other things to do like, participating in jousting tournament, raiding opponent’s castles, and rescuing damsels in distress. Jousting was kind of like gambling, and you could elect to wager lands or to joust for fun. Jousting was also action oriented, and the winner was determined based upon whoever pointed their lance closest to the center of their opponent’s shield. The screen would rumble and shake, which made it difficult to keep one’s lance focused and targeted, but thankfully one was spared the pain of actually riding on the horse.
I think the best part of the game was rescuing the damsel in distress. Once you rescued her, you got to look at her picture for the rest of the game. Also there was more than one girl in the game to rescue, and you got to see what she looked like beforehand, so you could decide if you wanted to rescue her or not.
Both raiding the castle and rescuing the damsel in distress involved swordplay, much in the style of Errol Flynn in Robin Hood. You could attack, parry, or retreat with your sword. It took me a little while to get used to fighting, but once you got the hang of, it wasn’t too difficult.
What I found most personally rewarding about this game was that with a little practice and effort, it was winnable within the duration of a few hours. Unlike some of the other games of its era, which became impassable without the aid of hints or suggestions or cheats, I was able to win Defender of the Crown without cheating. I think the game might seem a little simplistic compared to today’s games, but it was innovative in its hybridization of action and strategy.
