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, PC-88 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. Image File history File links Archon_box. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video games. ... Free Fall Associates was a computer game developer of the 1980s and early 1990s. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... EA redirects here. ... Ariolasoft was a German software developer, publisher, and distributor. ... A game designer is a person who designs games. ... Jon Freeman was an influential computer game industry figure of the 1980s and early 1990s. ... Anne Westfall is an influentional game programmer of the 1980s. ... Paul Reiche III (born February 17, 1961) is a computer game designer. ... A game engine is the core software component of a computer or video game or other interactive application with real-time graphics. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Video games are generally categorized into genres. ... Screenshot of Kung Fu Master (1984, Irem). ... Chess, one of the most well-known and played strategy games ever. ... In computer games and video games, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. ... Multiplayer is a mode of play for computer and video games in which multiple people can play the same game at the same time. ... Atari built a series of 8-bit home computers based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU, starting in 1979. ... The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ... The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... The original Amiga 1000 (1985) with various peripherals The Amiga is a family of home/personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation as an advanced home entertainment and productivity machine. ... IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... The Macintosh 128K, the first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac The Macintosh, or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple. ... Nes is: A municipality in the county of Akershus in Norway, see Nes, Akershus. ... The Amstrad CPC was a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad during the 1980s and early 1990s. ... The ZX Spectrum is a home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. ... The NEC PC8801 system was introduced by NEC Corporation in 1981. ... A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible (floppy) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. ... Typical 60-minute Compact Cassette. ... Joystick elements: 1. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Free Fall Associates was a computer game developer of the 1980s and early 1990s. ... EA redirects here. ... An Atari 800XL, one of the most popular machines in the series. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In computer science, porting is the adaptation of a piece of software so that it will function in a different computing environment to that for which it was originally written. ... The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ... The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... The Amstrad CPC was a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad during the 1980s and early 1990s. ... The ZX Spectrum is a home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. ... The original Amiga 1000 (1985) with various peripherals The Amiga is a family of home/personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation as an advanced home entertainment and productivity machine. ... IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... The NEC PC8801 system was introduced by NEC Corporation in 1981. ... Nes is: A municipality in the county of Akershus in Norway, see Nes, Akershus. ... A game designer is a person who designs games. ... Paul Reiche III (born February 17, 1961) is a computer game designer. ... Jon Freeman was an influential computer game industry figure of the 1980s and early 1990s. ... Game programming, a subset of game development, is the programming of computer, console or arcade games. ... Anne Westfall is an influentional game programmer of the 1980s. ...

Description

Archon is visually very similar to chess, but with a number of significant changes. Chess is a recreational and competitive game for two players. ...

While the board is similar to a chessboard and the various pieces are similarly designed to have various offsetting abilities, 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 (arcade-style, with the players running the pieces) to determine who takes the square.

Combat

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.

Screenshot of Archon on the Commodore 64

Different pieces have different abilities in the combat phase. These include movement, lifespan, and weapon damage & attributes. The weapons vary by range, speed, "reload time" 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. screenshot C64 Archon, made myself. ... screenshot C64 Archon, made myself. ... The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... Initial placement of the pawns. ... The silver Anglia knight, commissioned as a trophy in 1850, intended to represent the Black Prince. ... A goblin is an evil or merely mischievous creature of folklore, often described as a grotesquely disfigured or elf-like phantom. ... For other uses, see Dragon (disambiguation). ... For instances of Golem in popular culture, see Golem in popular culture. ...

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. The phoenix from the Aberdeen Bestiary. ...

Power points and cycling

Each character's strength is also affected by the color of the square on which the combat occurs and by a light-and-dark cycle on the 'neutral' squares, indicated by the changing color 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.

Spellcasting

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.

Endgame

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.

Layout and pieces

Each piece has movment restrictions. "Flying" pieces can "jump" other pieces on the board, including opposing pieces. "Ground" pieces cannot jump. The wizard and sorceress pieces have movement described as "teleport," but are unrestricted like a flying piece.

The purple squares fade from light to dark throughout the game. As they become light, the light side becomes more powerful and vice-versa. Pieces abilities are listed below.

Light

• Valkyrie -- flying, projectile weapon
• Golem -- slow, ground, projectile weapon
• Unicorn -- ground, projectile weapon
• Djini -- flying, projectile weapon
• Wizard -- teleport, spell caster, projectile weapon
• Phoenix -- flying, radial weapon that also allows projectile weapons to pass though harmlessly, but stops the phoenix's movement
• Archer -- ground, projectile weapon
• Knight -- ground, melee weapon

Dark The Valkyries Vigil, by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Robert Hughes. ... For instances of Golem in popular culture, see Golem in popular culture. ... The Unicorn (from Latin unus one and cornu horn) is a legendary creature whose power is exceeded only by its mystery. ... GEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business - GEIS (now GXS) that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. ... The Wizard is a magician character class in many role-playing games. ... The phoenix from the Aberdeen Bestiary. ... An archer is someone who practices archery. ... The silver Anglia knight, commissioned as a trophy in 1850, intended to represent the Black Prince. ...

• Banshee -- flying, radial weapon of similar range of the pheonix's, but allows the banshee to move, and can not be used in defense. The area immediately surrounding the banshee is not effected by the weapon.
• Troll -- slow, ground, projectile weapon
• Basilisk -- ground, projectile weapon
• Shapeshifter -- flying, takes the form and abilities of whatever piece it is in combat with
• Sorceress -- teleport, spell caster
• Dragon -- flying, projectile weapon
• Manticore -- ground, projectile weapon
• Goblin -- ground, melee weapon

Look up banshee in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Trolls with an abducted princess (John Bauer, 1915). ... Woodblock print of a basilisk from Ulisse Aldrovandi, Monstrorum historia, 1642 Cityseal of Zwolle from 1295 with Saint-Michael killing a basilisk In European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk (from the Greek βασιλίσκος basiliskos, a little king, in Latin Regulus) is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and... Shapeshifter was a program wich would allow you to edit and make your own themes for the mac computers but this is now out of date ... A sorcerer (from Old French sorcier; fem. ... For other uses, see Dragon (disambiguation). ... Manticore illustration from The History of Four-footed Beasts (1607) by Edward Topsell For other uses, see Manticore (disambiguation). ... A goblin is an evil or merely mischievous creature of folklore, often described as a grotesquely disfigured or elf-like phantom. ...

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 game also featured an end-game option called the "Armageddon spell" where one player or the other could call for a final battle to determine the outcome of the game. The Amiga version featured full stereo sound, unusual for games of the day. 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The evangelist John of Patmos writes the Book of Revelation. ... The original Amiga 1000 (1985) with various peripherals The Amiga is a family of home/personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation as an advanced home entertainment and productivity machine. ... Label for 2. ...

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. Toys For Bob is a small video game developer founded in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... Online gaming redirects here. ... A modem (from modulate and demodulate) is a device that modulates an analogue carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. ... The Unholy War is a PlayStation game developed by Toys For Bob for Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive in 1998. ... The Sony PlayStation ) is a video game console of the 32/64-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid-1990s. ... Logo Crystal Dynamics is an American video game developer based in the San Francisco Bay area. ... Eidos Interactive is a publisher of video and computer games based in the United Kingdom. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ...

An unofficial sequel, Archon III: Exciter was produced by unknown Archon fans for the Commodore 64 in 1985. Archon III was a poorly written fan version of Archon. ... The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... 1985 1985 in games 1984 in video gaming 1986 in video gaming Notable events of 1985 in video gaming. ...

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. Palm OS is a compact operating system developed and licensed by PalmSource, Inc. ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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]} There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ...

In February 2007, it was announced that Myriad Interactive had purchased the licensing rights from Free Fall Games with an intent to bring the spirit of the original back with the the technology of today.

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.

Legacy

Paul Reiche and Fred Ford went on to create the Star Control series of computer games. The melee component of the first Star Control game is very similar in that each player has a group of spaceships with different abilities which they send into 1-on-1 combat. Paul and Fred went on to found Toys for Bob, and create many other games together. Fred Ford is a computer game programmer. ... The Star Control series is a trilogy of computer games with a cult following. ... Toys For Bob is a small video game developer founded in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. ...

Silicon Knights's game Dark Legions (1994) is basically an updated version of Archon with some additions like allowing the player to purchase their 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. Silicon Knights is a Canadian video game developer. ... Dark Legions is an adventure role-playing game for the PC. Published by: Strategic Simulations, Inc. ... Battle Chess is a computer game version of chess released for the 3DO, PC, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, Amiga, Amiga CDTV, CD32, Atari ST, Apple Macintosh, Acorn Archimedes and Nintendo Entertainment System in which the chess pieces came to life and battled one another when capturing. ... The Unholy War is a PlayStation game developed by Toys For Bob for Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive in 1998. ... The Sony PlayStation ) is a video game console of the 32/64-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid-1990s. ... Wrath Unleashed is a strategy game for the Playstation 2 and the XBox. ... The PlayStation 2 , abbreviated PS2) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... The Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. ...

The game Mortal Kombat: Deception includes a Chess Kombat mode which is very similar to Archon, including most or all of the wizard spells. Mortal Kombat: Deception is the latest game in the controversial and bloody Mortal Kombat video game series by Midway. ...

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

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. This article is about the photographic technique. ... Chewbacca (or Chewie) (c. ... C-3PO (also spelled See-Threepio, called 3PO for short) is a character from the fictional Star Wars universe. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... This movie poster for Star Wars depicts many of the films important elements, such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, X-Wing and Y-Wing fighters Star Wars, retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981 (see note at Title,) is the original (and in chronological...

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] Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951)[1] is an American author, working in numerous genres. ... Compute! was a classic computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... M.U.L.E. is a seminal multiplayer video game written in 1983 by Dan Bunten of Ozark Softscape. ...

References

1. ^ "Home Computer Games Grow Up" by Orson Scott Card from Classic Computer Magazine Archive

Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951)[1] is an American author, working in numerous genres. ...

External links

• Archon at MobyGames
• The Archon series at MobyGames
• Archon at World of Spectrum
• Screenshots from the Commodore 64 version of the game
• Archon@Everything2.com
• Secrets of Archon - Details on Atari 800 Archon game mechanics

MobyGames is a website devoted to cataloging computer and video games, both past and present. ... MobyGames is a website devoted to cataloging computer and video games, both past and present. ... World of Spectrum is a website devoted to cataloging and archiving material for the ZX Spectrum home computer pupular in the 1980s. ...

Fan made games

• Open source implementation of the game
• A fast-paced Quake 3 modification based on Archon