Archon - The Light and the Dark

1984. On one side of the board stand the forces of light, on the other, the forces of darkness. And then the pieces stop behaving like pieces and start beating each other in real time. The first time I saw this, I was ten years old and didn't understand what was happening — but I couldn't stop watching.

Archon by Free Fall Associates is at its core a turn-based strategy game that looks like chess. Light and dark sides occupy squares on a grid, take turns moving pieces, and try to control key power positions or wipe out the enemy army. Each piece has its own role, movement, and strength. You know the drill up to this point. But when two pieces land on the same square, the game switches to an arcade-style duel in an open arena — and that's where it's decided who survives.

That duel is exactly what sets Archon apart from everything else that existed in 1984. Each piece fights differently — a knight differently than a dragon, a sorcerer differently than a golem. The terrain in the arena changes, and light pieces fight better on light squares, dark pieces on dark ones. The turn-based part makes you think ahead, the arcade part demands reflexes. Both at once was quite a dose back then. On a PC without gamepads and with just a keyboard, it was sometimes more of an exercise in frustration than fun, but that didn't stop anyone.

Archon has aged surprisingly well in the essentials — the core idea is still clever and works. What creaks, though, is the keyboard controls and the slightly creaky combat physics, which feel clunky by today's standards. But the game's influence was clear: the combination of turn-based strategy with direct action became the template for a whole bunch of later projects. Following that line from Archon to various hybrid strategies is actually a pretty fun intellectual walk through gaming history.

Today, Archon will appeal to anyone who wants to see where the idea of "chess, but more interesting" came from. It's not an experience for dozens of hours, and nostalgia value obviously works better for those who remember how this game took your breath away back then. But even without that nostalgia, you can see the spark of an idea that was genuinely fresh in 1984. Playing it in a browser takes fifteen minutes, and you'll understand why people still talk about it.