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Archon (computer game)

Archon was a video game developed by FreeFall Associates and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was originally developed for Atari 8-bit computers in 1983, but was later ported to several other systems of the day.

The game is very similar to chess, but with a number of significant changes.

While the pieces on the board have similar relative abilities to the different pieces in chess, when one piece attempts to take another, the removal of the targetted piece is not automatic. Instead, the two pieces are placed into a full-screen 'combat arena' and must battle to determine who takes the square.

Different pieces have different abilities in the combat phase, and it's far more difficult for a pawn to defeat a higher level piece. This adds a level of complexity into the game, since you cannot always predict if taking a square will be successful. But generally the stronger the attacking piece, the greater the chance of success.

The game is won when either one side destroys all the opposing pieces, or one of the sides is able to occupy all of the five 'power points' on the board.

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