Archon II: Adept

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This is the Commodore 64 version of Archon II: Adept.

Archon II: Adept is the sequel to the computer game Archon available for numerous platforms in 1984 developed by Jon Freeman, Paul Reiche III and Anne Westfall and distributed by Electronic Arts (and Ariolasoft in Europe). It was not based around a chess motif, as the original was, but maintained the concept of "good vs. evil," one on one combat, magic and power points.

1 Gameplay
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Much like its predecessor, Adept is a struggle between two opposing sides that takes place on a game board, complete with playing pieces, but when two pieces of opposing sides end up on the same square they enter a battle screen for a fast-paced duel to the death.

The main playing area is a rectangle with four roughly concentric bands, each corresponding to the four elements of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. Each player starts with controlling four wizards called "Adepts" that can cast spells or move about the playing field. One player is "Order," and the other "Chaos." At the four corners of the playing field are the familiar power points, though they move to a different element each turn. There are two additional power points along the vertical center of the field, in non-elemental areas called "voids." Players take turns which involve either moving a summoned monster (see below), moving an adept (which could result in attacking another adept or monster, or just simply changing location), or using an adept to cast a spell.

[edit] Monsters

There are two types of monsters, summonable by an Adept: elementals and demons. Monsters can be summoned by an adept and must be placed in the element occupied by the summoning adept. A monster can move freely within an element (though it may not pass a foe) or move to a different element.

[edit] Elementals

The selection of available elementals depends on the summoning side.

	Order	Chaos
Earth	Giant - hurls rocks at opponent	Behemoth - punches opponents
Water	Kraken - missile attack	Siren - "sings" to drain opponents life, but is immobile during attack
Air	Thunderbird - shoots very fast "thunderbolts"	Ifrit - very fast missile attack
Fire	Salamander - spits fire	Firebird - similar to Archon's Phoenix

[edit] Demons

The same demon selection is available to both Order and Chaos.

Juggernaut - Uses itself as a missile to attack opponent.
Wraith - Invisible except when attacking, and any hits to the opponent add life to the wraith.
Gorgon - Reduces the speed of the opponent, cumulatively. Once it cannot move, it dies.
Chimera - Each attack cycles through three weapons: a melee-like stinger, poison gas, and a missile attack fireball.

[edit] Wizards/Adepts

Both Order and Chaos Adepts are very fast for both moving and attacking. An adept has the ability to cast a ball of fire/magic at the opponent. While the projectile does almost the maximum damage to the opponent and the adept's magic rechages quickly, an added feature was the Player had the ability to control the direction of the ball while in flight by holding down the fire button (unfortunately, this also stops the player from moving a la the sirens attack). A skilled player could slow the balls speed, let go of the fire button to move their player to dodge an incoming attack and then re-engage the magic ball and send it toward their attacker!

[edit] Battles

Battles take place as they did in Archon, but the element on which a one occurs affects the playfield:

Earth - Rocky barriers that cannot be shot nor moved through.
Air - Tornado looking objects deflect player movement and shots in random directions.
Water - Patches of water slow down shots and movement.
Fire - Patches of fire cause damage to non-fire monsters.
Void - No barriers or special features.

[edit] Spells

Spellcasting costs magic points in varying amounts, depending on the spell (e.g., summoning a demon requires more magic than summoning an elemental).

Summon - Summons a demon or elemental.
Heal - Heals a portion of a given monster or adept's damage.
Weaken - Weakens a monster (not usable on adepts).
Imprison - Prevents a monster from moving (not usable on adepts).
Release - Releases a monster from imprisonment.
Banish - Completely removes a monster from the board (not usable on adepts).
Apocalypse - Begins a battle that decides the outcome of the game. The battle is waged between two adepts and the number of summoned monsters, remaining magic and remaining adepts on a side determines that side's performance.

[edit] Winning

The game is won by one of three ways:

Occupying all six power points.
Winning the Apocalypse.
Having the opponent run out of magic or otherwise being unable to take a turn (for example, by running out of pieces).