Later it was ported to the CDTV, CD-i and Atari Jaguar and conversions were made for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Amstrad CPC, Apple IIGS and Intellivision.

The player assumes the role of a Saxon (Wilfred of Ivanhoe, Cedric of Rotherwood, Geoffrey Longsword, or Wolfric the Wild) and tries to fight off the Norman hordes and wrestle for control of England.

The game's strategy boils down to a war of attrition as the player tries to amass larger armies than their opponents and manages to attack their territories at the right time.

Some additional features completed but never seen in the shipped game include flaming fireballs (launched via the catapult), more locations (more varied castles to attack), and more in-depth strategy.

Randy McDonald was in charge of art direction, design, and production for Cinemaware's first four games, and he explains in an interview that "Peter Greene or I would do a sketch of generally what we wanted for each cover.

We hired models and brought them into Peter's large photo studio, where we set them up in the costumes I had rented, posed as closely as possible to the way we wanted them to be illustrated.

[citation needed] The versions of Defender of the Crown, notably for DOS and the NES, resulted in an enormous loss in graphic and audio quality due to those systems' inferior abilities compared to the Amiga.

[8] The first public demonstration of Defender of the Crown occurred at the Los Angeles Commodore Show in September 1986, before its November release, and attracted a huge crowd.

The magazine praised the "breathtaking" animation and "impressive" color, but hoped that future Cinemaware games would improve on the "adequate" gameplay, which was "the weak link".

[20] CU Amiga stated that "there are not many areas in which Defender of the Crown could be improved ... the graphics are sophisticated with lush colours and visual effects.

"[21] Amiga Format were less kind to the CD rerelease of the game, stating that it "hasn't stood the test of time simply because the gameplay is somewhat weak.

[citation needed] In February 2007, a second remake to the game called Defender of the Crown: Heroes Live Forever was released by eGames,[27] who had acquired Cinemaware in 2005.

Heroes Live Forever features many of the elements of the original game, including jousting and archery tournaments, raiding castles, rescuing princesses, and laying siege to enemy fortresses via catapult.

The Danish band PRESS PLAY ON TAPE remixed the theme music of the game on their 2003 album Run/Stop Restore, replacing the instrumental tune with proper medieval-sounding lyrics.