Recently we covered the sale of Cinemaware, the owners of the Defender of the Crown games, to Starbreeze.  Well, in the comments of that article we were alerted to a legal port of Defender of the Crown to the Mattel Intellivision.  Once I heard this, I knew I had to bring forward an article covering it- help bring more attention to legal development of licensed titles like this by independent publishers.  This is what retro gaming should be about- legal ports that no one has to hide in the shadows to discuss.

Before I get too far into this, I do want to mention that the Mattel Intellivision version is very much a work in progress.  The current projected release is still on track for 2016 – so less than six months left to make good on that statement.  Judging by their progress so far, they are farther along than most projects we cover here on Retro Gaming Magazine.

The latest update by Elektronite was earlier today (June 4^th, 2016) where they show a work in progress version of the battle screen.  There is a lot of information being delivered in that one screen shot, and it is not even the final version.

Elektronite have been updating their Facebook fans with box shots, cartridge mockups and screens for a bit now.  The box art is using the original game box artwork, reworked to fit the Elektronite Mattel Intellivision box design.

This is a great showing of dedication and something they can be very public about since they are doing it legally.  I cannot stress that enough, this is a legal, licensed, port of Defender of the Crown to the Mattel Intellivision.  Elektronite deserves some major props for their work here.

A nice tidbit of information about Defender of the Crown- it was originally released in 1986.  30 years later we are still seeing legal ports to new platforms.  How awesome is that?

Source: Elektronite Facebook

Carl Williams

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