Battle Chess 4000 by Interplay from 1992 continues the famous concept of chess as spectacle: the pieces on the board come alive, and every capture plays out as an animated skit. Where the original Battle Chess leaned on medieval scenery, this instalment, as its title and styling make clear, moves the match into a spacefaring future.

The trick of the whole series was that a full-strength chess engine ran beneath the comedy. One player could face the computer or two humans could face each other, as the card confirms, and the animations could be switched off whenever a player wanted pure concentration.

The year 1992 belonged to the rise of VGA graphics and sound cards on the PC, and titles like this served as showcases for the new hardware. Skits with robots and laser duels were exactly the kind of content owners of fresh machines demonstrated to visitors.

Interplay ranked among the boldest American publishers of the day and was unafraid of experiments; turning the world's most serious board game into a comedy show was an idea that caught on well enough to spawn a whole mini-series. The science-fiction entry is its most eccentric offspring. The contrast still works today: you can play a match in full seriousness, or simply for the pleasure of watching what the rook does to the knight.

On OldGame.cz the game is represented by a card with its release year, publisher and gallery; you cannot start a match in the browser from it.