Best of Commodore 64: Archon

Even though the Commodore 64 itself is obsolete, many of its games are still playable. Archon is one such game. So get an emulator or retro Commodore 64 and load up Archon by Free Fall.

The first thing you’ll notice is it looks like chess. There’s a light side and dark side with characters lined up on either side. The goal is to eliminate all your opponents pieces, or take’s 5 specific squares on the board. While it has some similarities to chess, it’s mostly a fighting game.

There is some strategy involved, however, winning the game comes down to winning individual battles. Strategy means nothing if you lose a crucial fight. Fights happen when two pieces occupy the same square. The game ends when no more characters are left on one side, or one side occupies all 5 power squares.

The game starts by choosing whether you want to play a player vs player or player vs computer. Then you choose whether you want to play as the dark side or light side. Also, which side starts with the advantage.

The light side has extra health on light squares, and the same applies to the dark side on dark squares. It’s to your advantage to have as many fights as possible on squares of your color.

Many squares are fixed as black and white. However, there are several squares that shift back and forth from dark to light after each turn. At the start you choose whether you want to have the first move or have the tide shift in your favor.

As for choosing a side, the Wizard leads the light side and the Sorceress leads the dark side. Each side is balanced with two basic types of fighters: melee or shooters. A few characters have special abilities, but all still fall into those two categories.

While the characters themselves look different, most have basically the same attack and speed, even the Wizard and Sorceress. There are unique characters such as the Shapeshifter and Phoenix. The Sorceress and Wizard also have the same arsenal of spells.

After choosing a side and getting started, you pick a piece to control. You can move or cast a spell if you choose the leader. Whenever two pieces land on the same space there’s a battle.

Once two pieces land on the same square, a battle begins. The color of the square determines which side has the advantage (increased health). The two pieces are then moved to another screen to start fighting.

Each player starts on opposite ends of the screen. Two shooters or two melee fighters vs each other are preferable. Melee fighters have good speed but are at a disadvantage vs shooting characters.

The battle screen has obstacles that periodically move. Players can use these obstacles for cover but they can abruptly disappear. Players attack each other until one loses all their health. Then the winner is taken back to the board and gets to keep the square.

Each player takes a turn moving pieces or casting spells. Special characters have special abilities. The Shapeshifter assumes the form of whatever character it is fighting. Obviously if you’re the dark side attacking a fast shooter is preferable for the Shapeshifter. Conversely, attacking the Shapeshifter with a melee fighter is preferable to the light side.

The Phoenix is a melee unit but it also has temporary invincibility. Whenever it attacks it turns into a big fireball. During this attack, anything within range is damaged but any attack toward the Phoenix is harmless. The Banshee on the dark side has a similar melee attack field, but the Banshee can be damaged during its attack.

The Wizard and Sorceress are powerful shooters during battles. They also cast spells but not during battle. Spells are:

• Teleport – move one of your pieces to another square
• Exchange – swap any two pieces
• Heal – heals any piece on the board
• Imprison – renders a piece immobile until one full color shift occurs
• Shift Time – reverses the shift of time (light/dark)
• Summon Elemental – summons one elemental to attack piece of your choosing. Elemental can be Earth, Wind, Fire, or Water
• Revive – revives one piece from any of yours previously eliminated

Casting a spell takes a turn. Any fight as the result of Teleport or Summon elemental still takes place during your turn. Yet, any other spell ends your turn.

Archon might be from the 1980’s, but it still is a lot of fun to play today!

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