Defender of the Crown

[ByCrom]

Hello! I’m wrapping up a long-term project where I went through and played every version of Defender of the Crown that was released between 1986 to 1989, including the 1987 CGA DOS version. It’s come to my attention that there was a Tandy 1000 version that not only used EGA graphics but had improved sound as well. Can anyone tell me more about this? Release date, where you can find it, etc. I’d love to get my hands on it because it very well might be the best port to come out of that era. Heck, I loved the CGA DOS version, PC speaker and all, and the Tandy version would have been an improvement in every way.

 

Thank you!!

[Trebor]

On 10/23/2022 at 10:18 PM, ByCrom said:

Hello! I’m wrapping up a long-term project where I went through and played every version of Defender of the Crown that was released between 1986 to 1989, including the 1987 CGA DOS version. It’s come to my attention that there was a Tandy 1000 version that not only used EGA graphics but had improved sound as well. Can anyone tell me more about this? Release date, where you can find it, etc. I’d love to get my hands on it because it very well might be the best port to come out of that era. Heck, I loved the CGA DOS version, PC speaker and all, and the Tandy version would have been an improvement in every way.

 

Thank you!!

 

DEFENDER.IMG

An Autoboot 720kb floppy image of 'Defender of the Crown' by Cinemaware from 1988 for 'IBM PC/TANDY 1000/and True Compatibles'.  It was also provided on two 360kb 5.25" diskettes within the same boxed package.  Contains both the CGA 4-color version and the Tandy 16-color/3-voice sound version.  Many other images/dumps/files of 'Defender of the Crown' have properly working CGA or/and EGA versions of the game, but the Tandy version is corrupt.  Clean disk image dumps will contain the Tandy version intact. The Tandy version is the best version available for DOS, because although graphically it appears the same as the EGA version, it also provides Tandy 3-voice sound. Commonly found CGA or/and EGA versions only provide PC Speaker sound.

 

To summarize, there are three distinct versions available for DOS that were widely available:

 

DOS CGA = 4 color graphics with PC speaker sound.

DOS EGA = 16 color graphics with PC speaker sound.

DOS TANDY = 16 color graphics with 3 voice sound.

 

There is an extremely rare European PC CD-ROM release that features the same EGA graphics with audio from a CD.   The full retail box set includes the same aforementioned floppies, along with a CD-ROM.   Actual game code and graphics install to the hard drive from the floppy disc(s).  The audio for the game was programmed to run only with specific Hitachi CD-ROM drives.  It sends play and status commands using Hitachi's proprietary CD command set.  A patch was released though to translate Hitachi drive commands to MSCDEX.  It's a tad bit awkward having relatively advance CD quality audio paired with the original EGA graphics, but it does exists nonetheless.  Some of the sound effects are still PC Speaker, but the vast majority of the audio, including newly added narration, stems from the CD.

Spoiler

Notes: The file DEFENDER.IMG runs perfectly under DOSBox (Tested under version 0.72 and several earlier versions) as a mounted disk image.  An example of the command(s) to run under DOSBOX is:

 

mount c d:\box\dcrown
c:
boot defender.img

 

In the above example DOSBox is assigned a drive letter [c] to the folder in which the image is located [d:\box\dcrown].  DOSBox then change to the drive letter in which the images is mounted [c:].  Finally, DOSBox boots the image [boot defender.img].

Other Notes: Under DOSBox ensure that the you are running under Tandy mode, and decrease the number of cycles if 'Defender of the Crown' runs too fast.  In 0.72 and many earlier versions of DOSBox these lines include searching under the *.conf file for...

 

machine=tandy

 

...under the [dosbox] section of the *.conf file. As well as...

 

cycles=500

 

...under the [cpu] section of the *.conf file.  YMMV, and possibly need to tweak cycles with another value between 250-750.

 

In some versions of DOSBox (Such as 0.72), you should also ensure that...

 

tandy=auto

 

...under the [speaker] section of the *.conf file.

 

Enjoy!  One of my favorite C64 and DOS games of all time. 

 

From the ports I played back in the day, Amiga had the best graphics, DOS had the best gameplay, and C64 was the best balanced between graphics and gameplay.  Year later, having experienced and played the DOS/Tandy 1000 version, it is my favorite port of the game.  16-color graphics, 3-voice sound, and most importantly, the best gameplay balance to me.

 

[ByCrom]

Oh my gosh, you’re a champ! I’ve played both the CGA and EGA versions but I couldn’t find the Tandy version anywhere.

 

I don’t suppose you somehow have a clean dump of the Amstrad version, too? The only one I can find on the internet is the nearly unplayable three-disk cracked version. (If I understand the situation properly, that is, which is that the original came on two disks.) The preservationist in me is dying on the inside.

[Trebor]

28 minutes ago, ByCrom said:

I don’t suppose you somehow have a clean dump of the Amstrad version, too?

Amstrad CPC.

[ByCrom]

Hey, sorry for being thick, but I'm having a hard time reading the files. Is there something more I need to do? I tried the Tandy .img file with both DosBox and PCem and they're not recognizing it as a legitimate image. And I tried the Amstrad files with Retro Virtual Machine and it wouldn't recognize the .dsk files. I hate to be a pest when you've been so helpful but I seem to be missing something key.

 

(I'm super pumped about a working Amstrad copy! The cracked version was AWFUL.)

 

(Also, I love your Avatar!)