Music #21

Archon

1982

(or is it 1983?)

This is the very first game EA ever made (they ‘published’ it). The title theme, you heard above, was bought and used for it alone. I don’t think anyone knows who wrote the theme to Archon.

What is Archon? It is NOT battle chess. If I see one more ‘game journalist’ refer to Archon as ‘battle chess’, I’m going to scream. The only thing similar to chess is that the board is a grid and there are two rows on both sides.

Archon was great but the AI wasn’t. The yellow player is the computer opponent.

Archon is about capturing the nodes that appear as the blinking dots in strategic parts of the level. Your wizard can summon and heal units. The wizard can even make time reverse. The reason why the color screen changes has to do with the fluctuating nodes.

Archon was a big hit. I recall the Archon tournaments. Fantastic game.

A fantastic sequel was made in Adept. Now, the game depended more on the four elements. All the units start off screen. And the board resembles anything but a chess board. This is why Archon fans get angry when some child journalist refers Archon to ‘battle chess’.

Adept really ought to be remade. It is one of those rare examples where the sequel transcended its predecessor in all ways.

The original Archon was remade as Archon Ultra for DOS. However, the gameplay was much slower unfortunately.

A spiritual sequel was made with the Unholy War for the PlayStation. The game is considered somewhat rare now. I don’t have it, and even I want to buy it. Great gameplay. (though the video above only shows the melee aspects, not the strategic modes).