It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionRelease: Defender of the Crown(358 posts)(358 posts)
(358 posts)
Pages:
1
5
10
15
17
18
19
20
21
24
This is my favourite topic
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 10, 2014
avatar
Cinemaware: These images are from the GOG-Version! The Package includes the Amiga- and DOS-Version. And this Screenshots are from the emulated Amiga-Version. I think he did not recognize this fact.
avatar
PirateNeilsouth: Hi Cinemaware why did you not provide the more superior CDTV/CD32 version?
We are working on making this version available in the future! Stay tuned!
Posted September 10, 2014
avatar
damien: does this mean more Amiga titles in the future? Or is this a one time Cinemaware deal?
avatar
JudasIscariot: Just for Cinemaware, guys :)
This is good, because Cinemaware made a bunch of interesting games, that I'd love to play, and sad at the same time, because there are a lot more great Amiga titles out there. If you ever happen to get your hands on Ambermoon, you'd have a game that I would instantly buy.
Posted September 10, 2014
avatar
PirateNeilsouth: Hi Cinemaware why did you not provide the more superior CDTV/CD32 version?
avatar
Cinemaware: We are working on making this version available in the future! Stay tuned!
YES! :D
Posted September 10, 2014
Any chance the Three Stooges will be coming to gog?
Post edited September 10, 2014 by jcoa
Posted September 10, 2014
avatar
jcoa: Any chance the Three Stooges will be coming to gog?
This is in our plans - stay tuned!
Posted September 10, 2014
Will any of the Amiga only Cinemaware games that never had a DOS version made be released on GOG? Biggest example: Antheads: ICFTD 2. Possibly included with ICFTD 1, since it was an expansion pack?
Post edited September 10, 2014 by yyahoo
Posted September 10, 2014
avatar
yyahoo: Will any of the Amiga only Cinemaware games that never had a DOS version made be released on GOG? Biggest example: Antheads: ICFTD 2. Possibly included with ICFTD 1, since it was an expansion pack?
YES!
Posted September 10, 2014
avatar
yyahoo: Will any of the Amiga only Cinemaware games that never had a DOS version made be released on GOG? Biggest example: Antheads: ICFTD 2. Possibly included with ICFTD 1, since it was an expansion pack?
avatar
Cinemaware: YES!
Is there a Linux version of Cinemaware emulator?
Posted September 10, 2014
avatar
Cinemaware: YES!
avatar
shmerl: Is there a Linux version of Cinemaware emulator?
No...
Posted September 10, 2014
avatar
fortune_p_dawg: I was a sad 8-year-old. LOL!
Hah, that was similar to my experience. I was only exposed to the NES version of this game. Being a kid, I didn't get what the game was actually about. All I saw was knights jousting and had to rent it.
Posted September 10, 2014
avatar
shmerl: Is there a Linux version of Cinemaware emulator?
avatar
Cinemaware: No...
Too bad, because there are open Amiga emulators which are cross platform, like uae / fs-uae for example.

http://fs-uae.net
http://winuae.net

Is Cinemaware very different from them?

It even shows that fs-uae can run Defender of the Crown: http://fs-uae.net/i/fs-uae/front5.png
Somewhat surprising that GOG use open emulator for DOS, but went with the closed one for Amiga OS.
Post edited September 10, 2014 by shmerl
Posted September 10, 2014
avatar
Cinemaware: No...
avatar
shmerl: Too bad, because there are open Amiga emulators which are cross platform, like uae / fs-uae for example.

http://fs-uae.net
http://winuae.net

Is Cinemaware very different from them?

It even shows that fs-uae can run Defenders of the Crown: http://fs-uae.net/i/fs-uae/front5.png
Somewhat surprising that GOG use open emulator for DOS, but went with the closed one for Amiga OS.
While I personally agree they should have used something more open, if for nothing else then to have a much larger workforce working on it. I wonder if the legal issues alluded to earlier are a large part of the reason.

All that being said, I hope if they keep with their own engine for whatever reason, they take into consideration Linux.
Posted September 10, 2014
avatar
samlii: I wonder if the legal issues alluded to earlier are a large part of the reason.
How did Cinemaware emulator manage to bypass those issues then? If they pay a license to whoever owns those ROMs (Hyperion Entertainment?), GOG could do something similar but using the open emulator for instance.

UPDATE: I found this: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64006

So obviously Cinemaware are paying to Hyperion or got some kind of partnership. But then I guess GOG pays them for the emulator itself? In such case they could use the open one since it's cross platform and pay to Hyperion the same way, but at least then they won't exclude all non Windows users. Cinemaware would get paid for games themselves anyway, so everyone will be happy.

And making original games embedded into an executable isn't really nice too, it's close to being DRM using some obfuscation to prevent using them with other emulators. It's not unlike LucasArts - Disney releasing a crippled version of Loom on Steam which didn't work in ScummVM.
Post edited September 10, 2014 by shmerl
Posted September 11, 2014
avatar
Wishbone: Well, I see no reason to rant and rave like they said something nasty about my mother.
Yeah, we have enough of that already.
avatar
Wishbone: Oh, I agree. I think it's fantastic that they are here and are talking to us. But then I also think it's in their own best interest to do so.
And can be of benefit to the other parties involved too. ;)
Post edited September 11, 2014 by JohnnyDollar
Posted September 11, 2014
avatar
samlii: I wonder if the legal issues alluded to earlier are a large part of the reason.
avatar
shmerl: UPDATE: I found this: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64006

So obviously Cinemaware are paying to Hyperion or got some kind of partnership. But then I guess GOG pays them for the emulator itself? In such case they could use the open one since it's cross platform and pay to Hyperion the same way, but at least then they won't exclude all non Windows users. Cinemaware would get paid for games themselves anyway, so everyone will be happy.
The thing is that as I wrote earlier, it is Amiga Inc. (which is basically a carcass) the real owner of the intellectual property known as kickstart roms and amiga os (3.9 and earlier). Hyperion went to court and won the right to use them "ro help amiga os 4 further development". The thing is that emulating cinemaware games has NOTHING to do with amiga os 4, so they are hiding the kickstart inside the executable to prevent any lawsuits from Amiga Inc.

BTW, I can bet 20 to 1 that cinemaware didn't created lobster from scratch, the 68000 emulator alone is hundreds of man hours and doing the amiga chipset is tad more complicated (after years of development winuae is still ironing some bugs) so they are probably just recompiling winuae and hiding all the configuration from the user. if they had used fs-uae they could offer a linux version. But they will never accept they are using open source code because they would have to share the source and depending on the license, you might not be able to include in the executable anything that is not open source (like the kickstart roms).

This is in a nutshell the reason GOG has steered away from releasing amiga games. But as I have said earlier, a free kickstart rom (the aros kickstart) is being developed and could be used in the near future to play games. In the present there is already a quite polished open source rom for the atari st (EmuTOS) so it beats me why they haven't give it a try.
Pages:
1
5
10
15
17
18
19
20
21
24
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionRelease: Defender of the Crown(358 posts)(358 posts)
(358 posts)