Archon (computer game)

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Archon

Developer(s)	Free Fall Associates
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts & Ariolasoft (Europe)
Designer(s)	Jon Freeman, Anne Westfall, Paul Reiche III
Engine	Custom
Release date(s)	1983
Genre(s)	Fighting, Strategy
Mode(s)	Single player or Two player
Rating(s)	N/A
Platform(s)	Atari 8-bit, Apple II, Commodore 64, Amiga, IBM PC, Macintosh, NES, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
Media	floppy disk, cartridge, audio tape
Input	Joystick

Archon is a computer game developed by Free Fall Associates and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was originally developed for Atari 8-bit computers in 1983, but was later ported to several other systems of the day, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, IBM PC, Apple Macintosh, and NES. It was designed by Paul Reiche III and Jon Freeman and programmed by Freeman's wife, Anne Westfall. Reiche also produced the artwork for the game.

1 Description
2 Pieces
3 Sequels
4 Trivia
5 Legacy
6 See also
7 External links
- 7.1 Fan made games

[edit] Description

Archon is visually very similar to chess, but with a number of significant changes.

While the pieces on the board have similar relative abilities to the different pieces in chess, when one piece attempts to take another, the removal of the targeted piece is not automatic. Instead, the two pieces are placed into a full-screen 'combat arena' and must battle to determine who takes the square.

Generally (but not always) in combat, a stronger piece will succeed over a weaker piece in either defending or capturing a square. It is also possible for the fight to result in a double-kill, in which both pieces are eliminated. This uncertainty adds a level of complexity into the game, since it is not always possible to predict if taking a square will be successful.

Each character's strength is also affected by the colour of the square on which the combat occurs and by a light-and-dark cycle on the 'neutral' squares, indicated by the changing colour of the board. The 'light' side is stronger on the white squares and during the light cycle, and the 'dark' side is stronger on the dark squares and during the dark cycle.

Screenshot of Archon on the Commodore 64

Different pieces have different abilities in the combat phase. These include movement, life, and weapon effectiveness. The weapons vary by reach and the amount of damage inflicted on an opponent. For example, the pawn (represented by knights on the 'light' side and goblins on the 'dark' side) moves quickly, but has very little strength; its weapon, a sword or club, has limited reach and power. A dragon is considerably faster and can fire a powerful projectile blast, while a golem moves slowly and fires a slow but powerful boulder.

Some pieces have special abilities. The Phoenix can turn into a ball of fire, both damaging the enemy and shielding itself from enemy attacks. The shapeshifter assumes the shape and abilities of whatever piece it is up against.

Each side also has a spellcaster piece (the Sorceress for the dark side, the Wizard for the light side) which can cast seven different spells; each spell may be used only once per game by each spellcaster. The spells are:

Teleport - teleports one of your pieces to any square.
Heal - fully heals one piece.
Shift Time - reverses the light/dark cycle.
Exchange - swaps the board locations of any two pieces.
Summon Elemental - summons one of four elementals randomly to a chosen square to battle an enemy piece -- the elemental disappears after the battle.
Revive - returns one of your defeated pieces to the board.
Imprison - prevents the target piece from moving until the light/dark cycle returns to its color.

The spells may not be cast on pieces currently sitting on one of the five 'power points', which are located at the center of the board and the center of each of the four sides.

The game is usually won when either one side destroys all the opposing pieces or one of the sides is able to occupy all of the five power points. More rarely, a side may also win by Imprisoning its opponent's last remaining piece. And if each side has but a single piece, and the two pieces destroy each other in a double-kill, then the game ends in a tie.

[edit] Pieces

Each piece had movment restrictions. "Flying" pieces could "jump" other pieces on the board, including opposing pieces. "Ground" pieces could not jump. The wizard and sorceress pieces had movement described as "teleport," but behaved identical flying.

These pieces are listed starting at the upper left square and procceeding down the board.

Light

Valkyrie -- flying, projectile weapon
Golem -- slow, ground, projectile weapon
Unicorn -- fast, ground, projectile weapon
Djini -- fast, flying, projectile weapon
Wizard -- teleport, spell caster, projectile weapon
Pheonix -- medium speed, flying (move 5), radial weapon that also allowed projectile weapons to pass though harmlessly, but stopped the phoenix's movement
Unicorn
Golem
Valkyrie
Archer -- ground (move 3), projectile weapon
Knight -- ground (move 3), melee weapon
Knight
Knight
Knight
Knight
Knight
Knight
Archer

Dark

Manticore -- ground (move 3), projectile weapon
Goblin -- ground (move 3), melee weapon
Goblin
Goblin
Goblin
Goblin
Goblin
Goblin
Manticore
Banshee -- medium, flying, radial weapon of similar range of the pheonix's, but allowed the banshee to move, and could not be used in defense. The area immediately surrounding the banshee was not effected by the weapon.
Troll -- slow, ground, projectile weapon
Basilisk -- fast, ground, projectile weapon
Shapeshifter -- flying (move 5), took the form and abilities of whatever piece it was in combat with
Sorceress -- teleport, spell caster
Dragon -- flying (move 4), projectile weapon
Basilisk
Troll
Banshee

[edit] Sequels

FreeFall Associates developed a sequel to the game called Archon II: Adept in 1984 (it appeared on different systems on different dates). Not very similar to the original, it had improved graphics, different creatures and required different strategy to win. The players in this version represented either Order or Chaos and possessed 4 adepts that could cast powerful spells. The Amiga version featured full stereo sound, unusual for games of the day.

Toys for Bob developed a game in 1994 called Archon Ultra. It was a full remake of the original game with updated graphics and sound. It also featured a multiplayer mode via modem. However, it performed very poorly in the marketplace. The Unholy War is a PlayStation game also developed by Toys For Bob for Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive in 1998. It was designed by Paul Reiche III and featured a similar style of strategy and combat as Archon.

An unofficial sequel, Archon III: Exciter was produced by unknown Archon fans for the Commodore 64 in 1985.

The game was rewritten for Palm OS in 2000 and was close to the original. The creator, Carsten Magerkurth, of EmperoR Studios contacted the members of former FreeFall Associates and, with their input, developed a new version in 2003 (v1.21) with colors and sounds even closer to the original.

Another rewrite of the game, entitled Archon: Evolution, was developed by Curve Software. The game reached public beta status before disappearing from the Internet without a trace. The game used code from the original 8-bit version and supposedly had the support of John Freeman.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Trivia

When using the spell "Summon Elemental", if the player does not like the elemental summoned, he can advance it onto a power point and then recast the spell until he receives an elemental that he likes. This trick does not work on the C64 version, however, instead the game simply asks the player to choose a different target.

[edit] Legacy

Silicon Knights's game Dark Legions (1994) is basically an updated version of Archon with some additions like allowing the player to purchase his army before committing to the game. Archon may have served as the inspiration for Battle Chess, a computer game of chess where the pieces battle for their spaces. It also inspired some more recent games, including The Unholy War for the PlayStation and Wrath Unleashed for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

The game Mortal Kombat: Deception includes a Chess Kombat mode which is very similar to Archon, including most or all of the wizard spells.

Inside Electronic Arts, Archon is used as the internal name for the Quality Assurance team.

Archon in turn may have been inspired by the holographic chess-like game played by Chewbacca and C3P0 in the 1977 movie Star Wars. That game was played on a rounded table (the Archon playfield is square) but the main idea from the game featured in the movie is represented in the computer game.

Science-fiction author Orson Scott Card reviewed Archon for COMPUTE! Magazine in November 1983. Card gave Archon (as well as two other EA games, M.U.L.E. and Worms) a complimentary review, writing: "They are original; they do what they set out to do very, very well; they allow the player to take part in the creativity; they do things that only computers can do." [1]