Daily iPhone App: Defender of the Crown
You probably already know what this game is like, especially if you're one of the many, many people who played earlier versions of it on the Amiga and all of its various ports. Defender of the Crown is a classic medieval empire-building game, presented on iOS as an official Amiga emulation, which means it has all of the old sounds, slowdowns and everything else, good and bad, you remember about the original title.
Honestly, playing it now, there is more good than bad here. The most unfortunate thing is that the app makes strange use of the touchscreen as basically a mousepad, as you can drag a cursor around (even if you're right on top of the selection), then tap to click. But once you figure that out, the controls work out. Unfortunately, you'll have to remember how the game plays more than anything else, as there is no in-game manual, even on the App Store.* But much of it is self-explanatory, and even the parts that aren't (I had trouble remember exactly how sword-fighting went) are easy enough to experiment with and figure out.
This game is almost too faithful to the original. I wouldn't mind seeing an updated version with new graphics and smoother touchscreen gameplay, not to mention Game Center integration, hit the App Store at some point. But for now, this is what we've got -- a universal version available for US$2.99. If you like this retro hit, you'll get exactly what you're looking for.
*Update: There is actually an in-game manual -- it's under the blue arrow on the Amiga interface. So that will help if you're trying to figure out how to play.
