ANN: 10 minute flash trial of Defender of the Crown up on eGames.com

[Popcorn Boy]

Hey all,
We are still finalizing the game, fixing bugs and what not, but you can try out the online version of Defender of the Crown here:

Scroll down to the Defender of the Crown box, click, and play!



Enjoy!

[papillon]

While this sounds like a cool idea, having never played Defender of the Crown and having no idea HOW to play, after a few seconds of looking at the screen I figure "There is NO way I am going to work this out in a ten-minute trial" and exit.

Of course, it doesn't say ten minutes there anywhere, so maybe I'm only reacting that way because your post said it.

[Popcorn Boy]

There's a built-in tutorial and of course, we will have a downloadable trial that will be longer.

[lakibuk]

After 10 minutes of play the game quits. But you can start a new one again for 10 minutes. And probably another one after this one.
I'll continue later.
Quick note: In archery competition you wrote \"Fame\".
The ESC-char visible?

[Jack Norton]

Wow... having played the original for Commodore 64, I'm really curious to try this one!

[dougsha]

You left out the designer's name. The guy who put his blood, sweat, and tears into getting Defender out the door the first year of Cinemaware's existence. The guy who salvaged the SDI game and then went on to design Rocket Ranger.

His name is Kellyn Beeck.

And I'm his friend,

Doug Sharp, ChipWits, King of Chicago (Cinemaware's 2nd-best selling game in its first 2 years)

[GBGames]

Scroll down to the Defender of the Crown box, click, and play!

Er, I can't. I can view a video, which looks like it is a series of screenshots with no audio, and I can see the screenshots section below. Everything else is blank, and I don't see any way to actually play the game.

[whisperstorm]

Same for me. Is this some lame IE only thing? I'm using Firefox.

[electronicStar]

Nope doesn't work anymore but it definitely was working at the date of the original post.
My biggest disappointement was the intro screen that wasn't playing the DOTC original music that is engraved in my teenage years memory

TAM TAM TADAM dam TOM TOM TODOM dom TOM TOM TOM TAM TAM TADAM

[dougsha]

I hadn't been to the Cinemaware site for a while.

I see Cinemaware is now giving away free copies of my old game King of Chicago. Very generous of you. And you "forgot" to list me as the designer and programmer.

Nice way to treat the artists who built your company.

I know this has nothing to do with you Popcorn Boy, but you have to admit it sucketh maximally.

Doug Sharp, ChipWits, King of Chicago (50k sold in '87)

[Roman Budzowski]

Damm you, I wanted to do that game

Roman

[Popcorn Boy]

For those of you who had trouble earlier, could you check out the new downloadable trial (at your convenience, of course)

Defender of the Crown

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

[Popcorn Boy]

You left out the designer's name. The guy who put his blood, sweat, and tears into getting Defender out the door the first year of Cinemaware's existence. The guy who salvaged the SDI game and then went on to design Rocket Ranger.

His name is Kellyn Beeck.

And I'm his friend,

Doug Sharp, ChipWits, King of Chicago (Cinemaware's 2nd-best selling game in its first 2 years)

Doug, I can assure you no malice was intended in leaving Kellyn's name out. I will look into it and see what we can do.

[Popcorn Boy]

Nope doesn't work anymore but it definitely was working at the date of the original post.
My biggest disappointement was the intro screen that wasn't playing the DOTC original music that is engraved in my teenage years memory

TAM TAM TADAM dam TOM TOM TODOM dom TOM TOM TOM TAM TAM TADAM

Hmm, sorry about that. Will keep it in mind for down the road. If that was your biggest disappointment, did the rest of the game fare well?

[Popcorn Boy]

I hadn't been to the Cinemaware site for a while.

I see Cinemaware is now giving away free copies of my old game King of Chicago. Very generous of you. And you "forgot" to list me as the designer and programmer.

Nice way to treat the artists who built your company.

I know this has nothing to do with you Popcorn Boy, but you have to admit it sucketh maximally.

Doug Sharp, ChipWits, King of Chicago (50k sold in '87)

Doug, again, no malicious intent to not list you or anyone from the original team. Cinemaware has changed hands a couple of times since the 80s, so I am sure somethings, like this, have slipped through the cracks. I will check into it and let you know.

In terms of freely offering the original game online, I'm not sure what you would like to see instead. The game has been up there since before eGames acquired Cinemaware, and I know it has been up other places on various abandoware sites before that. I think the intent was to provide a service to fans of the old-school Cinemaware titles who are unable to find and play the games they loved back in the day.

[electronicStar]

Hmm, sorry about that. Will keep it in mind for down the road. If that was your biggest disappointment, did the rest of the game fare well?

Well I thought it lost a bit of the magic of the original game (which was relying a lot on dramatic graphics and musics). Now it looks more like a standard Wargame. The original old game wasn't very good to be honnest (I beat it toroughly on my second try) but it was more a matter of impressing the player and immersion in the atmosphere.
That said your game isn't bad, but by basing it on a very known name, you automatically take the risk of disappointing the fans(especially when it's an old game that evrybody is nostalgic about)
Sorry for to compare it again to the original, but the original had very simple game mechanics, you could tell in one look where you were standing in term of troops, ressources,etc...
This one's interface is more complex, IMO it's always better to look for the simplest interface possible.

[dougsha]

Doug, again, no malicious intent to not list you or anyone from the original team. Cinemaware has changed hands a couple of times since the 80s, so I am sure somethings, like this, have slipped through the cracks. I will check into it and let you know.

In terms of freely offering the original game online, I'm not sure what you would like to see instead. The game has been up there since before eGames acquired Cinemaware, and I know it has been up other places on various abandoware sites before that. I think the intent was to provide a service to fans of the old-school Cinemaware titles who are unable to find and play the games they loved back in the day.

Thanks for checking into it, PB. I did say I know it's not anything to do with you.

I would much rather help you and Cinemaware spread the word about the old classics than get all pouty and legalistic. Anyone at Cinemaware can contact me through my blog to talk.

And since your company is interested in doing an update of King of Chicago - I'd be happy to consult on it. I've still got the source code and 8 hours of scripted scenes. Replicating the game without understanding my interactive narrative system Dramaton would be pointless: GDC talk "Story vs. Game: The Battle of Interactive Fiction" and Working notes for my talk at the Spring ‘95 American Assoc. of AI Symposium on Interactive Story Systems. )

Might want to give a shoutout to Kellyn in your credits to Defender, too.

We are tremendously proud of the games we did for Cinemaware and would love to be boosters of your company and its games.

Doug Sharp, ChipWits