In another nod to the fact that humans are fallible creatures, the article linked below fails to mention that Archon was available for the Atari 800 computers too, not just Apple and Commodore ones. I know because my brothers and I played Archon quite a bit on our Atari 800XL computer. And Archon II for that matter, though that game wasn’t as good, so we didn’t play it as much. (Actually, this article implies that Archon was available for the Atari first.)

Also, the article states that Archon was a precursor to BattleChess, which I would really agree with. BattleChess plays exactly like chess, with the bonus that you get to see cool little animated battles. In Archon, however, you actually control the characters in the battle and the outcome is not predetermined. There are also a couple other differentiating factors that make this game totally unlike chess.

At any rate, Archon’s coming back! Myriad Interactive announced a licensing deal with Archon’s creator Free Fall Games to bring Archon to current-day platforms. Hopefully that’ll include the PS3.

And hopefully the game does better than the ill-fated Archon Revolution product (whose URL is now useless).

You can read more about Archon’s history in this article about EA and Mr. Hawkins.

Archon Developing Return Strategy