Wizard's Crown

Wizard's Crown
Developer(s)	Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Publisher(s)	Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Designer(s)	Paul Murray, Keith Brors
Platform(s)	Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, IBM PC, Apple II, Commodore 64
Release	1985
Genre(s)	Role-playing video game
Mode(s)	Single player

Wizard's Crown is a 1985 top-down role-playing video game published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). It was released for the Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, IBM PC, Apple II and Commodore 64. Its sequel, The Eternal Dagger, was released in 1987.

Wizard's Crown is a detailed game for its age. While the graphics are typical for games of the era, the extensive combat, injury, character advancement, and magical equipment systems rival those of games made ten years later. The object of the game is to rescue a magical crown from Tarmon, a wizard who sealed himself and the crown in his laboratory 500 years previous.

The video game design and programming was done by Paul Murray and Keith Brors, game development by Chuck Kroegel and Jeff Johnson, and the rulebook created by Leona Billings.

Wizard's Crown was the first RPG designed in-house by the wargame company, and features a detailed tactical combat system—much more so than rival games Ultima and The Bard's Tale—which influenced SSI's design of the subsequent, highly successful AD&D Gold Box series. For instance, shields block attacks only from the front and left (shielded) side, and not from the rear and right (unshielded side). Spears can attack two squares away, Flails ignore the defender's shields, and Axes have a chance of breaking shields.

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