If you're an early adopter of the game, you're likely to hear the title Defender of the Crown. It was launched in 1986 by Cinemaware, a game company, on the personal computer of Commodore Amiga, and was the first game to be released after the company was founded. Before the advent of this game, computer games were limited by the specifications of the computer hardware at that time, and the graphics performance of the games was mostly poor. However, the emergence of this game adopts a movie-like performance to bring the screen performance of computer games to a new era, and its super high picture quality level is completely worthy of the AAA masterpiece of the year.
The Royalist version of the Commodore Amiga was so well received that Cinemaware ported the game to the Commodore 64, Atari ST, PC, and Apple's Macintosh computers in 1987. These versions of the port to various platforms also received quite good responses, so the subsequent porting to more different platforms continued to be seen, even on the European and American versions of the Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly known as the Nintendo Red and White Machine.
At that time, the hardware specifications of the PC, graphics and music sound effects were somewhat worse than those of the Commodore Amiga computer, so the version ported to the PC could not fully show the effect on the original Commodore Amiga. But even so, the graphics of this PC version of the game far exceed the games launched by other game companies in the same era. How much is the difference between the PC version and the original Commodore Amiga version, and the number of colors that can be displayed at the same time is very different. The best graphics card for PCs at that time was the EGA, which could display up to 16 colors simultaneously on a color screen. If it is a secondary CGA graphics card, there are only 4 colors left. Not to mention that most PC users at the time were still using green or brown monochromatic displays. So in such a situation, the PC version of the screen performance is naturally far less than the original version, and the Commodore Amiga was priced at $1295 at the time, so at that time, domestic players who could play the original high-quality picture could only say that it was not rich or expensive.
The game set in Royalist Is set in medieval England, where England was at war after the death of the king at the time. The player plays the role of a Saxon lord who, in addition to facing competition from other lords, is also invaded by foreign enemies, the Normans. Pacifying the entire continent of England, finding the crown that belongs to the king, and becoming the king of England is the ultimate goal of this game.
The game starts with four different characters to choose from. The characters differ in the three abilities of Leadership, Jousting, and Swordplay. Since this ability of swordsmanship in the game has a greater impact on the game, most raiders will recommend that the player choose Geoffrey Longsword, who has the strongest swordsmanship ability, when starting to play. When the player has selected the character to play, they will enter the game and will see the map of England. The core gameplay of the game is a strategy game, which is then paired with several different mini-games. The strategic component of this "Royalist Knight" is actually not very high, and the resources in the game are also very simple, only simple money. And the source of money is also very simple, that is, according to the value of each occupied land.
From the current point of view, it will feel that such a design is a bit too simple. But consider that this is more than thirty years ago, when this kind of game was rarely seen on computers, so it is not surprising that designers will adopt a relatively simple design. Also because the only resource money in the game comes from territory, occupying more territory as soon as possible in the early stage of the game, occupying territory that can produce more money per turn, becomes the only option for game victory. According to the designers later mentioned in an interview with the media, the strategy part of the game is actually a reference to the paper game "RISK" (Chinese translated as Warring States, which is a fairly classic and very famous paper game). The gameplay of RISK is more streamlined than that of Royalist Knight. Therefore, the "Royalist Knight" inspired by it naturally maintains the same style in terms of strategy.
There are not many internal affairs in this game, and the main thing players do after getting money is to use it to build an army. The in-game units are soldiers, knights, and catapults that can be purchased. Knights are good in field battles, but it is up to soldiers to attack the city or defend the castle, and catapults can weaken the enemy's strength before attacking the city. And when you capture a new territory, building a new castle can give you basic protection.
Whenever the player captures a new territory, in addition to building castles to provide the basic protection of the territory, the most important thing is to leave a defensive force to ensure that the territory will not be taken away by others. Therefore, as the number of territories the player has, the demand for troops will also increase. Hard-fought territories provide money in the next round, so if you can occupy them continuously, you can get money continuously. At the beginning of the game, other forces on the map will also expand into the territory around them, and when they come into contact with the territory of other forces, there may be a possibility of war.
Each turn, the player can choose one of these commands to purchase troops, launch a horseback duel, mobilize troops to attack, or launch a night raid on other castles. As I mentioned earlier, in this game "There is turf and there is wealth", it takes a lot of money to build a force, and the source of money is the territory. Therefore, how to quickly occupy the territory of relatively high value in the early stage is very important. And when troops are small, it would be a good idea to seek the assistance of Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest.
After entering the war situation, you can see that other Saxon forces or Normans are entering the battle with you, and you can decide what kind of combat to take next based on the state of the strength of both sides that the game tells you. In combat, if the military strength of the two sides is almost the same, then the leadership of the role will play a great role. Depending on the type of combat you choose, different types of troops will have different effects. If it is found that the enemy's military strength is far greater than our side, and the odds of victory are not great, choosing to retreat to maintain strength is also a method.
As I mentioned earlier, this Royalist Knight combines several mini-games in addition to strategy games. These parts, such as horseback duels, sieges using catapults, and battles with enemies or night raids on other castles, are all made into action games. And the player's performance in the action game will affect the outcome of these events. Why I said earlier that it is recommended for first-time players to choose Geoffrey Longsword is naturally because swordplay affects combat and night raids.
The game "Royalist Knight" will become a hit in that era, and it is precisely because this game surpasses most games in some of these small games. Although this game is a strategy game, some of these mini-games are not inferior to other action games in terms of visual performance, and even have more gorgeous graphics and musical sounds than action games. I believe that most players in that era will be deeply impressed when they first see the horseback riding duel screen in the game.
There is also an interesting design in the game, that is, to save the princess. As the game progresses, sometimes the system will pop up messages telling you that the princess has been captured by the Normans and then ask if you would like to save the princess. If you choose to, you'll enter the night raid, and after facing a more intense enemy and successfully defeating the enemy soldiers you encounter, you'll see the captured princess inside the castle. Interestingly, the game seems to draw several princesses with different looks, so when playing this game, players are curious about which one they will save. At that time, I also thought wildly, I don't know if there will be a princess who looks very sorry, if I really meet this ugly princess, will everyone regret saving the princess. After saving the princess, there will be a romantic picture, and the princess will decide to become your wife in order to thank you for saving.
In 1986, although there were other strategy games on the computer, most of the game graphics still behaved like paper games, without too flashy graphics. The game Royalist is a game that succeeds in using a movie-like approach to create a completely different look from other games. Today's strategists who come into contact with the game may feel that the depth of the game is not deep enough and the strategy is not too high.
However, in that era, the performance of this game was already very impressive, and the company Cinemaware immediately gained a foothold, and then launched many games, becoming a well-known game company in that era. Unfortunately, this glory did not last long, and with cinemaware declaring bankruptcy in 1991, the company and its works gradually disappeared from the market. Although other companies have taken over and Royalist Knight has been remade, it has never been able to regain its glory.