Party like it’s 1984: Myriad acquires Archon license
Children of the 80’s will soon have one more reason to rejoice as one of the most popular games of those years will soon be getting a second chance at life. As announced by Myriad Interactive, they have recently acquired the license to the looks-like-chess-but-not-quite-chess classic title, Archon. (No. This has nothing to do with those glowy, naked folks in Starcraft.)
Originally developed by Free Fall Associates in 1984, Archon was the product of their early partnership with the then-new publisher, Electronic Arts. As it turned out, Archon proved to be such a hit when it was first released on the Commodore 64 and the Atari home system, that it spawned the sequel Archon II: Adept in the same year. In 1985, an unofficial, fanmade sequel started circulating and was known as Archon III: Exciter, but an official sequel didn’t come until 1994 under the title Archon Ultra. Unfortunately, this last title didn’t achieve the level of success that its predecessors did.
Archon was inspired by the holographic chess games that can be seen in Star Wars movies, and was successful mainly because of its innovative gameplay. It looks like chess, but that’s where the similarities end. The board is divided between the Light and the Dark sides, and the likes of Valkyries, Unicorns, and Archers populate the Light Side, while pieces such as Trolls, Dragons, and Manticores man the Dark Side.
With such a large gap in time between the last Archon game and the upcoming one which Myriad is bound to produce via Mercury Games, we can’t help but wonder which platform they’ll be resurrecting this game on, and how they’ll be transforming the 8-bit wonder into a next-gen hit.
Children of the 80’s will soon have one more reason to rejoice as one of the most popular games of those years will soon be getting a second chance at life. As announced by Myriad Interactive, they have recently acquired the license to the looks-like-chess-but-not-quite-chess classic title, Archon. (No. This has nothing to do with those glowy, naked folks in Starcraft.)
Originally developed by Free Fall Associates in 1984, Archon was the product of their early partnership with the then-new publisher, Electronic Arts. As it turned out, Archon proved to be such a hit when it was first released on the Commodore 64 and the Atari home system, that it spawned the sequel Archon II: Adept in the same year. In 1985, an unofficial, fanmade sequel started circulating and was known as Archon III: Exciter, but an official sequel didn’t come until 1994 under the title Archon Ultra. Unfortunately, this last title didn’t achieve the level of success that its predecessors did.
Archon was inspired by the holographic chess games that can be seen in Star Wars movies, and was successful mainly because of its innovative gameplay. It looks like chess, but that’s where the similarities end. The board is divided between the Light and the Dark sides, and the likes of Valkyries, Unicorns, and Archers populate the Light Side, while pieces such as Trolls, Dragons, and Manticores man the Dark Side.
With such a large gap in time between the last Archon game and the upcoming one which Myriad is bound to produce via Mercury Games, we can’t help but wonder which platform they’ll be resurrecting this game on, and how they’ll be transforming the 8-bit wonder into a next-gen hit.
About The Author
