Yep, same, except I played it on PC. It wasn't all that great yet I kept coming back to it.

You can play it in a browser nowadays
https://www.retrogames.cz/play_1554-DOS.php?language=EN
(Well not really "This page is slowing down Firefox..." not working)

It was.  In fact it kind of spoiled me.  Not only were the technological leaps amazing at the time, but the improvements in game design were massive.  We went from Pitfall to Super Mario Bros in 3 years.  Keep in mind that SMB has power ups, pipes, hidden vines, warp zones, swimming, etc... while Pitfall was really just running in a straight line in the jungle.  It wasn't just tech, the design behind SMB was massively ahead of Pitfall.  Fast forward today, and Super Mario Wonder still has the same base design as SMB 1, just with a few improvements here and there.  

Too me, gaming has been advancing at a snail's pace after the 80's, and that pace just gets slower with every decade.  I want more games that feel like going from Skyward Sword to Breath of the Wild, because in the 80's lots of games were doing this sort of thing and in a short period of time too.

Yeah, looking back, Defender of the Crown was thin in gameplay, but it was something new and different than usual games of the period (being also first Cinemaware game - they went on to make some really great games after it). Two years later, Jean of Arc: Siege and Sword released (not Cienmaware game), which I enjoyed also quite a bit, and always considered it spiritual successor to Defender of the Crown.

Well, we are at a different place now. A lot of gameplay ideas have been laid out. Still, I think the industry is too complacent and risk averse. They could indeed try out new concepts - even at the price of being initially not very successful. Although Splatoon (which albeit being a shooter like a lot others was very much trying new stuff) is indeed also successful from the beginning.

In the indie area we see the experimenting needed though. Let me see, rogue is a game from 1980, which gameplay is copied a lot. But there was a lot of deviation in gameplay over the years. Diablo which was clearly made as a rogue clone first changed simply from turn-based to action. But in more modern times we have the introduction of improving stats between runs. Which seems now a defining feature of what people call roguelike , even though the original rogue didn't have that. Another interesting case is Dwarf Fortress. It inspired a million colony sims by now, but here we see a lot of experimenting with the gameplay formula. Minecraft took parts of the experience and moved it to first person (and full 3D representation). Rimworld concentrated on the player with narrators. The gameplay really switches up by turning it into runs (like a roguelike) with Against the Storm. And a recent game I play a lot takes Dwarf Fortress, goes a bit into the run direction, although you can tend to a base long. But it adds elements from god games like Populous and from Tower Defense into the formula, which makes for a really different gameplay experience. It is Rise to Ruins. We have more games trying deduction in different ways, notably here is Obra Dinn. We have games that use gather resources and crafting to set up a shop with it like Dave the Diver. All these ideas and variations of gameplay ideas help bring the needed innovation.

So yeah, we probably don't see the big jumps in game design anymore, as a lot of ground is already covered, but still there is room to experiment, yet the AAA space is too risk averse to explore it. A good thing to experiment with seems to be to mix up gameplay. Adding run based gameplay (aka rogue elements) to another game formula seems to be popular. Another good thing to try is turn-based vs. real-time. In strategy and RPGs both are explored, but in other games? How would a turn-based Jump&Run or shooter work for instance? Or a racer? Could be interesting to explore that.

There was nothing on the level of The Legend of Zelda when it released and, unlike other classics such as Metroid, its game design is still perfect to this day. Everything about this game was magical: The included maps, the full-color booklet, the gold cartridge... even the title screen. And then there's the inclusion of an entire second quest with a few gameplay tweaks to round out what is possibly my single favorite game of all time, all things considered.

My vote went to Dragon Quest. The original Legend of Zelda and the original Metroid games were important in the field of open world design, Dragon Quest is by far my most played game from this year. While RPGs existed before Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest is the earliest game that really resembles a modern RPG, as primitive as it is.And whether you’re one of these people who likes to use a “JRPG” distinction or not, Dragon Quest heavily influenced all RPGs, and probably a great many games beyond the genre. As I mentioned in earlier threads, Wizardry was also remade in the image of Dragon Quest, and that is likely the version you played - a Japanese remake of Wizardry, as those were localized and published on platforms after the initial launch of the game (on platforms like Apple 2).

The first five Dragon Quest games are brilliant and, IMO, must play games for the most serious RPG fans, as no five games demonstrate the evolution of the genre from its infancy in the mid-1980s, to a mainstream genre by the early 1990s. Final Fantasy 4, Secret of Manan, FF6, Chrono Trigger, and FF7 represent the spearhead of the next phase and growth of the genre following those early Dragon Quest games. By the time of FF7, RPGs were probably the most renowned genre, and one of the most successful.

This was the culmination of software availability that made me a dedicated true gamer. Games seemed scarce until this year came. Suddenly there was too many to play. I loved Rampage for the friends multiplayer factor. Zelda had the medieval exploration that I craved. Arkanoid was the physics sim I needed. Metroid gave the platforming, open world, level up powers, and mysterious intrigue that blew my nes cart.

All hail the Metroid

The only DQ games I've played are 1,2, 8 and 11.  I played 1 and 2 shortly after they released in North America, but then I didn't fool with the DQ series again until the PS2 era.  I intend to play DQ 3-6, but I am waiting for that HD remake of 3 to get started.  I kind of thought it would have been released by now.

I have to go with Dragon Quest it is the first JRPG that I played and beat and go me into the genre. Its a bit too short and too easy but still holds up well overall.

@HoloDust: You can try this one instead: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Defender_of_the_Crown_1987

in fact, archive.org got tons of DOS games archived and playable on their site: https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games