DEFENDER OF THE CROWN: THE MAGICAL GAME THAT FORCED US TO BUY THE AMIGA 500!

I remember it well: it was a hot summer day back in 1987, I was 14 years old, with zero desire to study and a strong and BEAUTIFUL addiction to video games. 🙂

I was returning home on my bike, I stopped at my local newsagent and asked him if the new issue of “ Zzap! “, which at the time was the magazine/bible of us Commodorian video gamers (and not only).

Yes the new issue was out, wow!!! I start leafing through it frantically and suddenly I'm petrified in front of the review of this unknown game: “Defender Of The Crown” by Cinemaware (first software house to offer video games inspired by cinema).

I look at the images of the game and instinctively I stammer something like: "But... but... but... what the fuck MEGA CRAZY GRAPHICS is this???"

Amazement, wonder, stun, disbelief.

At the time, I hadn't even seen such graphic magnificence in an arcade (except for laser games).

“So this MEGA COOL is for the Commodore 64???”, for a moment I hoped so with all my heart but then I realized that the entry was in a section dedicated to 16 bits. In short, this game and these AMAZING graphics were running on a new computer from Commodore called the Amiga 500 .

A single thought haunted me the following days: “I MUST play it at all costs!”

Well, as luck would have it, a neighbor bought the Amiga 500 for his 12 year old son at the end of the summer, with whom I OBVIOUSLY became friends.

…I already had the diabolical plan in my head: “I'll somehow get a copy of Defender and then with an excuse I'll play it at his place.”

And I really did it, scrounging his Amiga relentlessly every single day for several weeks.

His parents rightly began to tolerate me less and less, but they were nice people and never got mad at me.

Once I even entered the house with the mother coming out half naked from the bathroom in front of me, a truly embarrassing situation but my obsession with this game was so powerful that I didn't have the slightest scruple and I didn't even apologize.

My parents hated video games because they saw them as my downfall : "Go ahead and play instead of studying, then let's see what the hell you'll do in life without even a piece of paper!"

Despite this, in the end my parents gave in: their enormous embarrassment, caused by the fact that every single day I scrounged the Amiga from the neighbors, forced them to buy me a fantastic Amiga 500 to avoid being seen as a family of beggars.

It didn't seem real to me and I continued to play and replay Defender Of The Crown, even though I had already finished it who knows how many times.

The euphoria of owning that fantastic computer, from which such a graphic marvel came out, was an incredible and beautiful feeling that seemed to never end. Wow!

Besides the graphics, what was the rest like? Well, the second thing that impressed me was the sound. The legendary music of the intro, when the wall appears with the sparkling Defender Of The Crown writing, was pure sonic orgasm.

The melody was truly beautiful and you instantly understood that behind it there was very powerful hardware, capable of creating a sound of significantly higher quality than the rest we were used to.

But the actual gameplay? It was essentially a strategic game set in the Middle Ages , in which you had to conquer the various regions to unite the Kingdom.

To be honest, nothing so terribly innovative. Furthermore, the game didn't offer who knows what variety of situations and was also rather easy to finish.

But for me, as well as for many other teenagers, what bewitched us were the MAGICAL EMOTIONS we felt when faced with graphic and sound wonders such as:

• The legendary sieges with the catapult that was supposed to demolish the castle wall (and then start an exhilarating fight).
• The duels in the castles with the sword and with the shadows projected on the stone walls by the light of the torches (35 years ago this thing was heart-stopping!).
• But the craziest and most exciting stuff of all were the “risque” scenes after you saved the damsel in distress.

I know very well that I might seem like a maniac but I'm sure that if YOU too have played it at the time, then you can understand me brother. 🙂

This magical game had the power to make us dream, get excited and last but not least forget the problems at school and the rest of the world (the others, yes in short those who DIDN'T play Defender Of The Crown).

After Defender came many other beautiful games for the Amiga 500, but without a doubt it was THIS VIDEOGAME to make us drool at Commodore's new technological marvel.

We wanted the Amiga at all costs and many parents finally gave in and bought it for us, rather than endlessly put up with the ASFIXING insistence of us kids in those legendary '80s.

Little boys with eyes that shone with burning passion in the face of what was pure MAGIC, yes it was really magic for us and not a simple video game like many others.

If you also bought Zzap! in those great years, if you too had a rush of PURE ENERGY playing this Cinemaware masterpiece, then BROTHER you know that I am not crazy and that I am telling the pure truth.

This energy has never died and we at Retrogame Station have the SACRED MISSION to keep it alive for those who want to continue to get excited and dream, for those like us who are Defenders Of The Faith. 🙂

Age doesn't matter.