Uploaded April 2022 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
Defender of the Crown by Cinemaware, played from Tape
I actually wanted this when I was young, and saw it advertised on tape - so I wasn't shocked by its existence, but thinking about it now, I'm honestly kind of surprised they made it.
And, for the most part, they actually pulled it off - this wasn't as good of an experience as on disk, obviously, but I didn't feel horrible playing it! There were, mind you, definitely parts of the game I avoided to save loads (jousting!), but otherwise.... yeah, this is actually fine.
The weirdly clever part of this, is it comes on two tapes spanning four sides, and so essentially they simulated random access by having each of the large parts on a different tape and had the user just swap them out when needed - you'll see throughout this playthrough "Insert tape X side Y and hit play", and that's what is going on there.
It's funny, people talk about this as one of the most brutal multiloads ever, but honestly? It was less painful than turbocharge, which everyone loves. And it's a game that is an interesting enough experience that, honestly, I do find it worthwhile in this medium. Of course you wouldn't choose this version today, you'd grab one of the packed single side disk versions, or the cartridge version, but if you were in 1988 and this was your option? A worthy one!
Defender of the Crown by Cinemaware, played from Tape
I actually wanted this when I was young, and saw it advertised on tape - so I wasn't shocked by its existence, but thinking about it now, I'm honestly kind of surprised they made it.
And, for the most part, they actually pulled it off - this wasn't as good of an experience as on disk, obviously, but I didn't feel horrible playing it! There were, mind you, definitely parts of the game I avoided to save loads (jousting!), but otherwise.... yeah, this is actually fine.
The weirdly clever part of this, is it comes on two tapes spanning four sides, and so essentially they simulated random access by having each of the large parts on a different tape and had the user just swap them out when needed - you'll see throughout this playthrough "Insert tape X side Y and hit play", and that's what is going on there.
It's funny, people talk about this as one of the most brutal multiloads ever, but honestly? It was less painful than turbocharge, which everyone loves. And it's a game that is an interesting enough experience that, honestly, I do find it worthwhile in this medium. Of course you wouldn't choose this version today, you'd grab one of the packed single side disk versions, or the cartridge version, but if you were in 1988 and this was your option? A worthy one!
