Defender of the Crown

August 14, 2008

Do you remember this one?

Defender of the Crown on Atari ST

Yes, it's the old classic Defender of the Crown, here shown in the Atari ST version. This is a game I enjoyed a lot back in the days, and I think it was mostly due to the combination of tw concepts: simplicity and variety. Defender of the Crown is not a complicated game. At the core, it's a conquest game, where you capture territories by defeating opponents.

Defender of the Crown on Atari ST

The actual battle is very simple, with only a handful of options, and if that was all there was, the game most likely wouldn't have been as captivating as it was.

Defender of the Crown on Atari ST

You could also attack the opponents castles, and in the process use catapults to break down his walls. I think this is a good example of something which used to be more common back in the 80s and early 90s; having several different game elemnts with totally different mechanics. I think it has both good and bad points to it. On one hand, it can give a lot of nice variation in gameplay, but on the other hand, it can mean that the different parts of the game don't blend in a natural way, which can distract from the experience. I think that keeping each element simple is key to success when using mixed elements like this.

Defender of the Crown on Atari ST

As well as attacking your opponents directly, you could choose to raid his castle which presented you with yet another type of game screen, where you had to fight your way into the castle by fencing the guards.

Defender of the Crown on Atari ST

There was also the Tournament - you could hold your own or be invited to others, and this used yet another mechanic (for the jousting) where you in a first person view tried to knock your opponent off the horse...

I kind of miss these types of games, where you had several different types of games in one, but each of them very simple and straightforward. I guess the closest we get to this these days are mini-games or party games such as Mario Party, and though those are also very enjoyable, they don't give the same coherent single-player experience as the older games...

I found this a while back where you can actually play the game in your web-browser! Great stuff! :-)

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Comments

Saint Wulf

2008-08-27 13:23:05

I also thought this was a great game for its time... so much so, that I still play it from time to time on an old PC. I would love to get hold of the source codes and perhaps get the rights to re-vamp it. I think I could make a great sequel for this game without loosing that classic “old school” playability. I think people have lost the art of making really addictive games, they rely too much on graphics and SFX and loose sight of the game play.

Mattias

2008-08-27 14:39:09

Yeah, I totally agree, one of the reasons I left the games industry was the increasing focus on art and technology rather than gameplay.

I think it's a great idea to make a similar type of game, but it is probably better to not make it identical, and not call it Defender of the Crown, but rather focusing on keeping the same mechanics and improving on them.

That way, you wouldn't need permission, as you're not infringing any copyrights...

Saint Wulf

2008-08-27 14:41:47

I just had a look at that link that allows you to play Defender of the Crown in your web-browser. I must commend them on keeping the original look to the game screens and adding a few extras… But once again, this is another perfect case in point where people have concentrated too much on looks and not enough on playability. After playing the game three times, I was so frustrated I was ready to pull out my own teeth with a rusty pair of pliers. For example: The first game I transferred 10 foot soldiers to my “away team” and attempted to take an unclaimed territory, only to find that my men where all killed off fighting their own shadows or tripping over rocks and bashing their heads open or something to that effect so I lost them all. The second game I managed to raid a few places with a bit of luck and built up a more substantial army with 63 Foot Soldiers and 7 Knights (I played Geoffrey Longsword – supposed to have a “STRONG” swordplay ability) I took my little gang and tried to defend my garrison against 41 Foot Soldiers and 2 Knights and lost miserably. Script must look something like this: Player 1 troops = Village Idiots + Useless Armor Player 1 knights = Drunken Homeless people on Horseback + Useless Armor Player 1 catapult = Used Wooden Troll Spoon + Ball of mud Such a pity :’(

Mattias

2008-08-27 15:17:35

Well, I haven't played the web version much, but it doesn't surprise me that they have failed to keep the gameplay as nice as the original...

My guess is that they've thrown the old art on a couple of Shockwave programmers, who then made something that looks like Defender of the Crown, but without spending time on tweaking and balancing...

Indeed a pity...

Verious

2008-09-14 08:14:35

I used to play this game for hours when I was a kid.

Magnus

2009-09-30 02:38:25

Oh I just loved this game. Not very complicated but with an atmosphere that is rare in the games of today. I had it on my Atari 1024 and my friend had it on his Amiga 500. I remember that there was some slight differences between the two versions, giving my friend the upper-hand when playing at his place and me the upper-hand when playing at my place. Those days there was often just a handful of people involved in the game-making process, many times just a single person (Jeff Minter and David Braben for example), compared to the huge almost industrial-like game projects of today involving hundreds of people. I think that's is the main reason you wont find that kind of engaging atmosphere where graphics, sound, music, story and gameplay harmonize perfectly in games of today. The projects are too big, too many different people involved and an urge to get the game on the market as fast as possible to make money.

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