Interviews

Bob Jacob — Founder, Cinemaware

Matt Chat 41: The History of Cinemaware

Matt Chat (YouTube) — December 2009

“We wanted to make games that felt like movies. Not games that looked like movies - games that felt like them. The storytelling, the pacing, the visual quality. We wanted to bring Hollywood production values to the home computer.”

Watch on YouTube

Approximately 60 minutes. Covers the founding of Cinemaware (1985), the development and premature release of Defender of the Crown, the studio's relationship with Mindscape, the TV Sports series, the bankruptcy (1991), and Jacob's reflections on what the studio achieved. Essential primary source.

Bob Jacob — Founder, Cinemaware

The Making of Defender of the Crown

Game Developer (formerly Gamasutra)

“Jim Sachs's artwork was unlike anything that had been produced on a home computer. When we showed the game at trade shows, people literally did not believe it was running on an Amiga. They thought we were showing pre-rendered slides.”

Read at Game Developer

A written account by Bob Jacob of the development of Defender of the Crown - the artistic vision, the publisher relationship, the decision to ship the game unfinished, and the aftermath. The definitive written primary source.

Jim Sachs — Lead Artist, Defender of the Crown

The Retro Hour EP31 - Cinemaware and Amiga Art

The Retro Hour Podcast — circa 2017

“The Amiga's HAM mode was extraordinary for the time. 4096 colours on screen simultaneously - no other home computer could do that. I had to develop my own tools to paint in HAM mode, but once I understood what was possible, I knew I could create something genuinely different.”

The Retro Hour - theretrogamingpodcast.com

Jim Sachs discusses his pixel-painting technique, the development of Defender of the Crown's artwork, the HAM display mode, and his approach to creating images of near-photographic quality on consumer hardware. Available at The Retro Hour's website and podcast feeds.

Jim Sachs — Lead Artist, Defender of the Crown

Online Discussions - Amiga Community Forums

English Amiga Board (EAB) and related forums

“I painted everything pixel by pixel. The knights, the castles, the landscapes. There was no shortcut - I had to understand exactly how the Copper chip modified the colour palette line by line to make the HAM gradients work correctly.”

English Amiga Board - eab.abime.net

Jim Sachs has participated in discussions on the English Amiga Board and other community forums, providing technical detail about his Amiga painting technique that is not available elsewhere. Search EAB for threads mentioning "Jim Sachs" or "Defender of the Crown" artwork.