jrodrig@MITRE-GATEWAY.ARPA (08/03/84)
From: jose rodriguez <jrodrig@MITRE-GATEWAY.ARPA> Well I got Archon for the C64. And it is pretty good. I am not sure how close you can compare it with chess -- particularly when the victory for a square in the board depends on the result of an arcade-style fight. In the other hand these "fights" are quite good. Each fighting piece has different modes of attack and movement and each side has different pieces from the other side. In the C64 they used the sprites in the high resolution mode making the pieces look quite nice! As they move they change from one position to another and the steps (or wings beating) can be heard. All in all it is a very good game. Also the "king" piece in each side (a wizard for the light side and a witch for the dark) can cast different spells: bring up an elemental, teleport a piece, heal a piece, freeze a piece, etc. One thing the number of squares is odd - I think seven; there is no equivalent of a queen. Another difference from chess: the pieces closest to the "king" are different. Two negative points: 1) Playing against the computer is almost impossible! Sometimes it seems that the game favors the machine. This is extremely noticeable when you want to shoot something and you can't! I think there is something funny with their joystick reading routines which the machine has no problem with. But in the two player mode the game is superb. 2) You will have to put up with Electronic Software Arts attitude -- " we are so great, this is nothing less than art....". Granted this is an unimportant point but be prepared to be given meager documentation and be told that is the way it should be! (Big difference from Epix or Infocom games). Also the game is copy protected (but I haven't tried to break it so with the copiers in the market it probably can be backed up). If you don't care been the customer of a pack of obnoxious people, I would recomend the game -- at least, the C64 version is impressive. Jose jrodrig@mitre-gw
jrodrig@MITRE-GATEWAY.ARPA (08/07/84)
From: jose rodriguez <jrodrig@MITRE-GATEWAY.ARPA> Re: Archon II, Chuck out another $40? not me. Jose jrodrig@mitre-gw
bfisher.es@XEROX.ARPA (08/09/84)
Message me if you want a copy of the documentation for postage. bill