The Making Of: Archon

Retro Gamer talks to the creator of Archon - one of the earliest genre mash-ups

Archon’s mix of arcade combat and chesslike strategy ensured it stood out when released in 1983, and the game is well remembered today, still feeling unique and fresh after almost 25 years. “Before Archon, there were two basic styles of computer game: slow, deliberate, turn-based, cerebral games (chess, adventure games, or military strategy games); and ‘mindless’, fast-action, ‘twitch’ games, which were typically clones of coin-op arcade games,” begins Jon Freeman, explaining the thinking behind Archon’s multi-genre approach. “This seemed to us a false dichotomy. Why not mix the two elements, reward quick thinking, and balance strategy with action? This seems obvious now, but lots of people at the time weren’t at all sure it made sense.”

Convinced a combination of game styles was the way forward, Jon Freeman, Anne Westfall and Paul Reiche started developing the game, spurred on by having signed the first two contracts with fledgling software company Electronic Arts. “We wanted a game that required – and rewarded – thinking, but that wasn’t as ponderous as chess,” recalls Jon. “Adding arcade action – something you couldn’t do with an ordinary board game – would keep the game moving and unpredictable.”

Although keen to exploit the possibilities videogames afforded over board games, the board itself came first. “Its design was the intersection of an intended visceral reaction and sheer technical practicality,” explains Jon. “We wanted something fairly similar to a chessboard, but different, so people would have two immediate, contradictory reactions: ‘It’s a chessboard’ and ‘It’s not a chessboard’ – that is, ‘I get it’ and ‘It’s different’. Both of those feelings were important.”

The chess-like set-up gave players a frame of reference, but the rules, pieces, ever-changing board and combat elements were all new. The board became a nine-by-nine grid, governed by the limitations of the Atari 400/800’s builtin tiles and sprites – during development, ten squares per edge had crowded the screen, while eight or fewer merely provided a de facto chessboard or limited potential for tactics. The nine-by-nine board also created vertical and horizontal central lines that defined the game’s important squares: the power-points. Rather than capturing the opponent’s king, the aim in Archon became to control the five power-points. (Alternatively, obliterating the opposition leads to victory for those players preferring violence over strategy!).

“Variable squares – impractical and unheard of on cardboard, but simple for a computer – served as another means of differentiating Archon from conventional board games and keeping the game fluid,” adds Jon. Working out the colours took a few iterations, and the final design was a mix of aesthetics and tactical balance. “The starting points were instantly obvious – clearly, the dark side’s home square had to be black, and the light side’s had to be white,” says Jon. “Equally obviously, to get the kind of dynamic game we wanted, the three power-points across the centre of the board had to be variable squares.” And so, as the game was played, about half the board would cycle from light to dark. This wasn’t a mere aesthetic consideration – Jon and co made it so that during combat, light pieces were stronger when on lighter squares and dark pieces benefited from being on darker squares.

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