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General discussionRelease: Defender of the Crown(363 posts)(363 posts)
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Posted September 09, 2014
To arms, my noble Saxon knights!

Defender of the Crown, a 1986 turn-based strategy classic, originally launched on the Commodore Amiga, is available in all it's pixelated glory on GOG.com, for $5.99!

We are happy to announce a new partnership with Cinemaware that will bring plenty of mouth-watering classics in their best available incarnations. Starting with Defender of the Crown, more classic titles from Cinemaware will release on GOG.com with both PC and emulated Commodore Amiga versions. Yes, the graphically superior, awesome, beautiful and shiny Amiga versions!

Today's release is a wonderful gem straight from the 80s. Back in the day, Defender of the Crown set a new standard for graphical presentation and innovative, fresh gameplay. As the leader of an initially sparse pack of Saxon knights, building up your army and influence as you proceed, you'll have to stick it to the Normans in an effort to gain control of the war-torn medieval England. Your strategic prowess as well as your sword fighting skills will be severely tested. This turn-based strategy classic will have you saving damsels in distress with your blade, jousting with fearsome knights, and besieging Norman castles - all the while reveling in the Amiga quality sound and beautiful graphics.

Defeat those pesky Normans and unite England in Defender of the Crown, for $5.99 on GOG.com.
Post edited September 09, 2014 by JudasIscariot
Posted September 09, 2014
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keeveek: I am surprised you're the first one to jump with defense and joy that GOG is becoming more and more like Steam.
I am here mainly for the DRM-free gaming, that's why. Classics (the good ones, not bad ones like Apogee shareware games or the Hugo Trilogy, I just couldn't care less) can be a nice bonus. Regional pricing was never a deal-breaker for me either, after all I have bought lots of regionally priced (esp. $=€) Steam, DotEmu and GamersGate games too.

The original reason I joined GOG was for DRM-free The Witcher 1-2.
Post edited September 09, 2014 by timppu
Posted September 09, 2014
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timppu: So what has GOG pretended to be? Did they say somewhere they'll do anything to get any old game to GOG?

I don't know, maybe there isn't that much money to be made with the classics alone anymore for one store, especially as they are appearing also on Origin, Steam etc.?
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keeveek: That's ok.

I remember TET saying not so long ago they will do (not anything, but whatever they can) to bring at least one classic game a week to GOG and that they would never abandon classic games.

If GOG doesn't give a damn, that's ok too.

I am surprised you're the first one to jump with defense and joy that GOG is becoming more and more like Steam.
And we have been bringing a classic every week, sometimes more than one, if possible :)
Posted September 09, 2014
Ah, wait a sec. It looks like it comes with the DOS version as well? Excellent! Then I don't even need to do anything. It should just go right into DOSBox and run.
Posted September 09, 2014
the idea of the emulated Amiga version for defender f the crown is great (especially becuse at that time pc for gaming were not even in vga)

but it would be a good idea to extend such bonus/behavior to other games:

to have played to both amiga 1200 and PC VGA version of Lords of the Realm 2, i clearly remember that the amiga version had nicer musics and visuals.

For another favorite childhood game of mine, ultima 6, the aga graphics were not putting vga to shame, though the square pixel aspect against the rectangular pixel vga aspect made it nicer too, and the musics were smoother too.

i wish gog could put back those emulated amiga versions
Posted September 09, 2014
Amiga version?! Bought!
Time to get "reacquainted" with the princess.
Posted September 09, 2014
high rated
Initial impressions:

Amiga emulation
- Slow and choppy, especially sound-wise.
- There does not appear to be any way to change any settings.
- Mouse sensitivity is uncomfortably high.

Soundtrack
- The soundtrack is from the Amiga version.
- It was converted to MP3 by a deaf monkey with no sense of rythm. It plays much too slowly.

DOS version
- Runs windowed initially, but can be made fullscreen with alt+enter.
- The sound is painful to listen to (but that is probably 100% accurate).

Overall
- Two versions of a true classic made awful by incompetent developers.
- Seems like a quick cash-grab, not a labour of love.
- Would not recommend.
Posted September 09, 2014
Well, as an owner of the Cloanto emulator ("Amiga Forever") I would love to see the package with the original Amiga floppy disk(s) as an disk image. I know that the disk images can be downloaded for free on several places but it would complete the package somehow :)
(and I love to emulate the whole thing - including the sounds of the floppy drive(s) :D )
Post edited September 09, 2014 by andhar
Posted September 09, 2014
Fantastic news, this was one of my favourite games from the C64 days!
Posted September 09, 2014
This one was one of my favourite games on my Commodore 64, so this is a clear instabuy!

Kudos to GOG for adding the superior Amiga version as well and to Cinemaware for joining GOG and for not doing regional pricing.
Posted September 09, 2014
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xwormwood: The Atari ST Version was the best version, while the DOS was the worst one, even the C64 version was better than the DOS version.
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Erich_Zann: I don't think I ever got this on Atari, what exactly makes the ST version the best ? I'd like to know if it's worth tracking down a copy for my ST too.

On a totally unrelated note, this release reminded me that I want D/Generation on GOG, whatever the version. One of my childhood treasures. Now.
Amiga came first, with good graphics and music, but probably a bit to soon to improve the gameplay.

ST, C64 and DOS offer more choice (like different kind of amunition when using the catapult during the siege etc. ST is the best version because it offers the "improved" game engine AND the graphics of the Amiga. Can'r remember the sound, but if i remember correctly, than it was as good as the Amiga sound.
C64 was great too, but offered only 8-bit graphics, while the DOS version offered crappy sound and graphics.

That is why the ST version is the best one. I never played the CDTV or CD32 versions of the game, i guess that they are the best ones. Having said that, i would like to add that there was a new release around the year 2000, which was quite good too. Slightly improved version.
Posted September 09, 2014
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JudasIscariot: We do care about them but

a) We don't have the time or the resources to make our own emulation software a la RockLobster.
Neither you had time or resources to emulate DOS games, that is why open source emulators are for and that is what WinUAE is.

b) If you're wondering why we haven't, for example, we haven't gone into making Amiga games compatible in general, then it's most likely because of licensing issues that outweigh any benefit we'd get from that kind of venture.
I do understand that licensing the original kickstart might be too much trouble for too little profit. But guess what? I made a quick test on the latest winuae using the aros rom (free fully reverse engineered open source) and defender of the crown runs! Yea, it has some graphic glitches and the sound is a bit sluggish on my old amd, but as with all emulators it is a work in progress, so it will get better (whether you lend a coding hand or not).

So please stop with the "there is nothing we can do" speech since as the aros rom continues to improve you will start to sound less honest.
Post edited September 09, 2014 by mangamuscle
Posted September 09, 2014
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keeveek: That's ok.

I remember TET saying not so long ago they will do (not anything, but whatever they can) to bring at least one classic game a week to GOG and that they would never abandon classic games.

If GOG doesn't give a damn, that's ok too.

I am surprised you're the first one to jump with defense and joy that GOG is becoming more and more like Steam.
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JudasIscariot: And we have been bringing a classic every week, sometimes more than one, if possible :)
Games like Hogs of War (only 150 persons voted for the release of this game, at least according to the GOG wishlist) or the Hugo games will probably never create any excitement at all. Pure age doesn't mean that a game is a classic game nor that it is a good old game.

That is what he meant.
Post edited September 09, 2014 by xwormwood
Posted September 09, 2014
Can anyone corroborate Wishbone's impressions? I haven't played any games through RockLobster, and it's troubling to hear Cinemaware might have botched their first impression.
Posted September 09, 2014
Instabought! - I loved DotC on my C64.

And very nice to get both - DOS and Amiga version.
Posted September 09, 2014
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Wishbone: Initial impressions:

Amiga emulation
- Slow and choppy, especially sound-wise.
- There does not appear to be any way to change any settings.
- Mouse sensitivity is uncomfortably high.

Soundtrack
- The soundtrack is from the Amiga version.
- It was converted to MP3 by a deaf monkey with no sense of rythm. It plays much too slowly.

DOS version
- Runs windowed initially, but can be made fullscreen with alt+enter.
- The sound is painful to listen to (but that is probably 100% accurate).

Overall
- Two versions of a true classic made awful by incompetent developers.
- Seems like a quick cash-grab, not a labour of love.
- Would not recommend.
That is what i was afraid of.

I'm glad if someone tries to bring back the old Amiga classics, emulator or new releases (like Wings).
Knowing now that GOG is not involved in the emulation software, all we can hope for is that either Cinemaware keeps to work on their emulations software, or someone else offers a better solution.
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Community
General discussionRelease: Defender of the Crown(363 posts)(363 posts)
(363 posts)