Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess takes Interplay's idea and moves it onto a different board. The first Battle Chess animated European chess; this 1990 follow-up uses xiangqi, the Chinese game. The record covers the Commodore Amiga version, a top-down view and support for more than one player.

Xiangqi differs from western chess enough to count as a separate game rather than a reskin. Pieces sit on the intersections instead of inside the squares, a river crosses the middle of the board and blocks certain pieces, the general stays confined to his palace, and the cannon can only capture when exactly one piece stands between it and its target. Fluency in one game does not transfer to the other.

The entire Battle Chess concept is visual. A move is not an icon sliding across a grid but a short animated scene in which one piece disposes of another. On a 1990 Amiga that was a reasonable bet: the machine had a strong colour palette for its day and handled smooth animation, so the joke survived repetition better than it would have elsewhere.

According to the record you can face the computer or a second person at the same machine. Since xiangqi rules were unfamiliar to most European players in 1990, the program also worked as a teaching aid — it enforces legal moves, so a beginner learns by being refused.

The OldGame.cz page for this one lists the year, the studio behind it and images; it is filed as a title you read about rather than start here.